It’s not uncommon to see Jim Kinhan and Ginny Mierins strolling around the streets of Concord.
The retired couple enjoys a good walk, and really what else is there to do when you no longer have to work? There’s really only so much television to watch and crossword puzzles to start and never finish.
Sometimes it will be a quick 3-mile jaunt around the neighborhood, but it’s not unheard of for a 10-miler to take up most of their morning.
But this spring, the walks weren’t just for a way to keep active. Because if they were going to complete the almost 100 mile stretch of Hadrian’s Wall Path, from Newcastle to Bowness across the northern countryside of England, then Kinhan and Mierins needed to be prepared for the physical grind of walking day after day for a week straight. Especially since Kinhan is currently undergoing treatment for colon cancer.
“The doctors were fine with it,” Kinhan said, who had a chemotherapy treatment 10 days prior to the trip. “I’m not living with cancer, I’m walking with cancer.”
So when they booked the trip in February, there was very little that got in the way of their training. It didn’t matter if it was snowing, raining or some other variation of mixed precipitation was falling from the sky, Kinhan and Mierins were out pounding the pavement. They averaged about 3-miles an hour during their training and even managed to get in a 15-miler before taking off for England in mid-May.
“We figured if we trained with a 15-mile walk, we’d be ready for anything,” Kinhan said. “And our training really paid off.”
Most people pick warm and sunny vacation destinations for some much needed relaxation on a white sandy beach – but not these two crazy kids. When you think of England weather, it doesn’t exactly align with the above description, but they actually lucked out.
Over the course of their seven-day walk, it only rained once – and it came on the final day as they were entering the home stretch into Bowness. But Kinhan sure was happy, since he was finally able to wear that poncho he’d carried around all week. Outside of a couple above-average temperature days, the weather actually turned out great. Hey, at least it wasn’t 15 degrees and snowing, which could describe a large percentage of their training time.
“Ginny and I had always talked about doing some long walks because we’re walkers,” Kinhan said.
They had heard about the walk from Colin Callahan, a friend and head of the fine arts department at St. Paul’s School who completed the trail last summer. It was an adventure that seemed right up their alley, although it did end up being a little more challenging than they anticipated. Because in addition to the many miles of walking path, there were also cow pastures to navigate, walls to climb over and large crags to traverse – things they don’t often see during their walks around the Capital city.
“We probably did a couple hundred walls that you go up and over, up and over,” Kinhan said. “And probably 50 percent of the walk was through pastures.”
So on May 16, Kinhan and Mierins departed Newcastle with only a backpack of supplies, a map of the trail and a book detailing Hadrian’s Wall. That’s all they needed since the company they signed up with, Mickledore, took care of the rest. They were given an itinerary for the week, complete with bed and breakfast reservations for each night, a lunch for each day (mostly ham sandwiches) and an idea of how many miles needed to be covered in order to make it to the next stop.
“It was more challenging than we anticipated,” Mierins said. “Our vision of flat and there’s is much different. We decided it was all up.”
The trail is 84 miles long, but with having to walk to and from their lodging each night the total distance of their trip was set at 94 miles. In the end, Kinhan and Mierins figured it took about 100 miles to complete their journey after losing sight of the acorn markers on a few occasions.
“We couldn’t talk a whole lot because that’s when we’d miss the marker,” Mierins said. “We lost the acorn a few times.”
“As the English say, we had a few persions,” Kinhan added. “Some days a 14-mile walk became an 18-mile walk depending on how many persions we had.”
While there were walls just about everywhere they looked, it actually took a couple days before they saw any remnants of the original wall, constructed in 122 AD as a defensive fortification in Roman Britain. Good thing there were plenty of sheep and lamb to watch along the way – and a few other walking crazed people to talk to as well. They also really enjoyed what were called kissing gates, where they of course had to follow the rules with a little smooch at each one.
The shortest section of the trip was about 10 miles and the longest came in at 18. They averaged over nine hours of walking each day, but when the day was over there was some much needed indulgence. After settling into their room, Kinhan and Mierins would make their way to the local pub, sometimes walking a short distance to get there, and would order traditional English fare like fish and chips, and all sorts of meat pies for dinner and wash it down with a cold pint or two.
“We loved the pubs,” Kinhan said.
Along the way, there were historical sites, museums and forts. Kinhan even did some cup stacking to share with his after school club at Beaver Meadow Elementary. And it didn’t matter the distance they had covered the day before because they woke up each day with a spring in their step. Man, those two sure do enjoy being on their feet.
“Wherever we went we walked,” Mierins said. “We were in a vehicle for only about two and half miles.”
And you’d figure they might want to take a break from walking at least for a little while, but that’s far from the case. They’re right back in their routine of morning walks, and if you keep a look out you might just see them strolling along.
