The Leckhampton Loop

Friday night, I made the executive decision that we would all go for a hike on Saturday. Around here, we tend to spend too much time imagining things to do that would be really fun, and a lot less time actually doing them. So what if the weather is crap. I'm pretty sure summer has officially fizzled into fall. However, we're lucky we live somewhere very similar to home in the states where the scenery is beautiful even when it rains. Anyway, since I made the gigantic leap of actually making plans to do something, I made Jeff find us a hike to do. Luckily, he knows how to work the internets really well and landed on www.nationaltrail.co.uk. So cool! There are 15 National Trails, most of them are 100-200 miles long, the shortest being the Yorkshire Wolds Way at 79 miles and the longest the South West Coast Path at 630 (!!!) miles long. The paths are mainly for walkers, but parts are open to horses and bikes, as well. The website also has directions for short, circular routes that incorporate parts of the main trails. We settled on "The Leckhampton Loop" on the Cotswold Way, 102 miles of trail between Chipping Campden and Bath.

We stopped at Tesco to pick up some snackables and water for the dogs, before driving about an hour to postcode GL53 9NG. Not too long after that we were off and walking on the Cotswold Way.

Sascha went #2 after about 30 seconds of walking and I'll be damned if I'm going to carry her poo in a bag for 4.5 miles so we tied it to her harness. We find that really funny in this house. Plato's harness has gone missing so we used the gentle leader instead. Besides making him heel like an angel, it had the welcome side effect of making going on a walk in a new place way wayyyyyy less exciting. It also makes him rub his face on your leg every chance he gets which is endearing. He really hates it though so I think we're going to reserve it for special occasions. Especially exciting occasions when we want to temper his happiness with just a smidge of depression. You know.

We chuckled at the over-dressed British ramblers until it started to rain (HARD, in a "is it hailing???" sort of a way) and they whipped out an amazing array of rain gear. They definitely had the last laugh in this case and I think I've seen the light in regards to pants that zip off into shorts. And hiking shoes. Since I completely destroyed the one pair of sneakers I have for going to the gym (on the other hand, an excuse to not go to the gym!!).

The dry stone walls along the path were so pretty. I especially loved this one with a dog door.

At the high point of the loop we were treated to some beautiful views.

We made friends with a cow and it was SO CUTE and I want one.

Tired dogs = good day.