Monday, September 19, Hike Day Two

We had a substantial breakfast in the beautifully appointed breakfast room. Our innkeepers at the Hillcrest Farm House were late-sixties and early-seventies. They had raised their family of four kids in this farmhouse. It was spotless with thousands of dust collecting plates, lamps, knickknack and brickerbrack.  Cleaning and preparing meals seemed like a morning to night full time Job. 

Our different hiking speeds showed as we were spread across the road heading to the Kerry Way trail. We passed a school and several farmhouses before meeting up with the trail. A med student from Amsterdam hiked with Kathy for awhile . She filled us in on the blue and red paint that are streaked across the sheep. Blue is for males and red for females. The females that have blue on their backs have been mounted by males. 

The weather was great for hiking overcast and cool. We continued with a mix of grasses and rocks, mostly open space but stands of trees and some conifer forest. We climbed over stiles a number of times to negotiate fences. We marbled at the miles of stone fences. I recalled Robert Frost’s poem, Fences. 

We could see a saddle in the distance and soon began our ascent. We weaved around the mud and over rocks. The going was slow up hill and slower down. 

At 11 km of our 20 km day, we arrived at The Stepping Stone B&B and had coffee and scones with jam and cream. 

After our break, we headed up a steep hill to find another difficult rocky, soupy download hill. At the bottom we were treated to a wide gravel path and then a chip seal road into Glencar. Our four course dinner was excellent.