Want to walk across a country? Try the English Coast to Coast trail

Open this photo in gallery: At 306 km, the English Coast to Coast trail is worth every one of the 14 days needed to complete the trek.Kathryn Gillett/The Globe and Mail The sky glowered over the brooding fells ahead of us, deep in Cumbria's Ennerdale Valley in the north of England. Sheltering from blustery rain, we huddled by the fire with fellow hikers at our hostel, Black Sail Hut. We'd just emerged, dripping and pungent, from a dark, mossy, tunnel-like path and ahead were the Lake District mountains, or fells. The ordnance survey map showed steeper and steeper topography, receding…