Читать книгу The Pennine Way - the Path, the People, the Journey онлайн

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Over the years, the rangers have quite frequently had to come to the aid of Pennine Way walkers in difficulties. Until he retired in 2002, Gordon Miller was a national park ranger for over three decades and for much of that time covered Kinder Scout and the start of the Pennine Way from his home at Edale. He and three other volunteer rangers walked the entire path in 1966, but after that most of his work was spent assisting fellow walkers, since he also helped out with the local mountain rescue team. After completing my Pennine Way walk, I met up with him in the Old Nags Head at Edale and he remembered a particular episode. ‘One day we had a call that a Pennine Way chap had fallen over some rocks and was hurt. We went up to find that his backpack was so huge and so heavy, piled high above his head with all kinds of stuff, that when he stopped to peer over some rocks he literally toppled over as his centre of gravity shifted and he lost control. He fell some way and was quite badly hurt, with broken bones, but we got him down OK. However, it took two of us to carry his pack down the hill because it was so heavy.’