Hadrians Wall Path - Random thoughts

Logistics, reflections, and random trail thoughts

As I went along the trail my mind would wander more than my legs and I thought I’d share some of those mental threads. There’s also a few bits and bobs about how we did the trail and what we learned along the way. 

Clothing

A couple of MVPs from the wardrobe that deserve a shout out. First off, they say it’s inevitable you will hit some rain on the trail and we opted for poncho style rain coats. The style we used have extra space so that you can throw them over your backpack, keeping both you and your stuff dry. The added benefit being that you had a bit of extra airflow around your legs. So even though the fabric doesn’t breath we never felt wet from sweat. 10/10. Would recommend. 

Poncho in action

For hiking we both really loved our long sleeve sun protection shirts. Fortunately the styles have evolved beyond “day-at-the-beach” chic and we felt comfortable wearing them as our smarting-casual clothing too. Another bonus was they advertised some sort of stink protection and I would say they lived up to that. Ours have a hood and when the sun shone or the wind whipped up it was nice to have the head and neck protected. Another solid 10/10.

Sun shirts in the sun

Last hero of the wardrobe was our wool socks. Laundry was scarce and the socks did double and triple duty. Wool socks are about as comfy as socks get, keep the stink down and dried pretty quickly after a sink wash  

Laundry

Based on my bike trip to New Zealand I had some expectation that some of our accommodations would have a washer and dryer. As it turns out that wasn’t the case. One place had laundry but no dryer and that was as good as it got. If that’s important then I’d recommend choosing accommodation that does have a laundry and even then, call ahead and confirm as the websites aren’t always up to date. 

Toilets

Obviously much of the trail is in remote areas and toilet facilities are basically non-existent. The English Heritage sites like Birdoswald and Vercovicium have washrooms and if you stop for a pint at a pub you’ll be in luck.  Otherwise, get comfortable peeing in the woods. The bigger challenge was in the urban parts; no washrooms to be seen between Heddon and Wallsend and not many woods. So if this is important maybe think about cafe and pub breaks for facilities. 

Water

We each carried between 1 and 2 litres of water and that did us for the day. There really weren’t many opportunities to fill up along the way. The exception was the self-serve honesty boxes which would sell you water or soft drinks.  For the most part the weather is mild but worth considering how much water you want to carry.

Food

I found a big breakfast at our accommodation kept me going throughout the day. We did carry snacks like fruit/nuts, jelly babies and chocolate bars and that was enough to lift any flagging spirits and prevent a major bonk. A consequence of this is we were pretty hungry when we ended the hike. All that meant is that we would have an earlyish dinner which was sort of a benefit as we were in bed pretty early. We didn’t really self-cater any meals and just relied on the local pubs. Our bunkhouses had kitchens so it would have been possible to do. However keep in mind there were rarely any stores nearby so you are probably carrying food from Carlisle or Newcastle for the whole journey. Another option is to get a taxi to the nearest big town but that seemed like too much bother for us. 

One of the many self serve honesty boxes. 

Apples

Put this in the “random” category but it was cool how many apple trees are along the trail. Obviously more helpful in the fall than in any other season but pretty cool to see. They are very tart apples so good if you want to make a pie along the trail.

How do you like them apples!?

Pack weight / stuff

We weren’t camping so we fortunately could forgo all the gear that goes along with that. Our packs were about 20lbs each (not including snacks and water) and while that’s not nothing, pack weight didn’t feel like a significant factor for us. We kept it pretty minimal in terms of clothing with basically hiking clothes and non-hiking clothes and a few layers for warmth. I only bought one pair of shoes and some sandals for the evening. Gloria had two pairs of shoes and both of us were happy with our choice. We did carry a portable usb battery pack which we never used but felt glad about having it nonetheless. If we had a do over there’s not much that we would change in terms of stuff.

One of our packs in use on the trail

 

Pacing

Our Hadrians Wall Path trek was pretty aggressive in terms of time and pacing. We averaged about 25km per day just on the wall, and there was often extra distance to get to accommodation or dinner. That’s a decent amount of distance every day without rest and I couldn’t imagine doing it faster. Some days were really tough and the cumulative elevation gain in the middle section along the ridge was sneaky-tiring.  I would probably not build in a rest day unless you had something you really wanted to see in depth and therefore spend the day exploring that area. We didn’t see any one place that we wanted to linger on so it was moot for us. However you could definitely choose shorter days and have less stress on the body. 

Sample Strava from day 6

Wayfinding

The path is pretty well marked from start to finish. We did download a map file from the official website and then imported that into Google Maps. I would highly recommend this as it helped us out a few times when we were not paying attention and missed a marker. Speaking of, the markers are a nice little acorn icon and it was a comforting little visual cue that we were on the right track. I did see folks with maps, one guy just using the official website and then one guy had a Garmin InReach that he had hooked to his jean belt loops and he was wearing that thing on the trail and in the pubs. So really the lesson is go with what you feel comfortable.

Acorn is your guide 

Internet

Quick note that we got travel SIM cards (Airalo has worked well for us) and that was totally worth it. The cost was minimal in the grand scheme of things and was a nice comfort. Only one of us had a phone number activated and that was also handy.

Direction of travel 

We did a bit of research prior to the trip and we heard that the prevailing wind runs from Carlisle (in the west) to Newcastle (in the east). Obviously this is a trend, not a rule so you could ask the question about how much this matters. For us, it was a huge bonus. Almost every day the wind was blowing hard, and from the west. That means we had the wind at our back pretty much the whole time and our thoughts and prayers were with the people we passed marching into the wind. This was especially true on the exposed sections in the middle of the trip (either side of Steel Rigg). Maybe we just got lucky? Sometimes a bit of research puts the luck at your back, pushing you along.

The people

It would be easy to say the real treasure are the friends we made along the way, and you wouldn’t be too far wrong. We found several kindred spirits with whom we crossed paths frequently. The Iowans Bryan and David we met on the first morning and ended up sharing an Uber to the starting point when our bus didn’t show. We then would see them along the trail or at our accommodations. Having a familiar face to share a tale over a beer as your tired legs recover is an underrated hygge moment. 

Recreating our Uber ride 

Then there was John and Deb from Indianapolis whom we first encountered at a random self serve snack shop on day 2. We shared the path a few times along the next few days, got to reminisce over breakfast another day and then ran into them again as we were on our way out of Newcastle and they were on their way to Wallsend. Both Gloria and I felt richer for having met these inspiring and kind people as they showed that age is not a barrier to doing challenging things. Just take your time, travel with good intent in your heart and you’ll do just fine.

John and Deb on the trail. All smiles