Will do - pm me your email address would probably be bestQuote:
Originally Posted by wharfeego
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Will do - pm me your email address would probably be bestQuote:
Originally Posted by wharfeego
Give us a peep when you have finished with it/won the Silsden camera club prize with it. Looks like a field full of coconuts!!Quote:
Originally Posted by wharfeego
Silsden? that's down bluddy south lad! try 'ellifield!:DQuote:
Originally Posted by Ady In Accy
12. Helwith Bridge, Smearsett, Faizor, Wharfe, Studrigg Scar and Moughton
Date: 14/02/09
Distance: 8.25 miles
Ascent/descent: 1,200ft
Route map
Time: 1 hour 46
The first time (and last time) I did this run was in May last year on a Settle Harriers mid-week run. Its a fantastic route for sure but its where I knacked my knee such that I couldn't run at all for two months and could only run in pain as a fat cripple for two months after that! So with that in mind I was a bit wary to say the least. Starting off the route veres round the side of Smearsett Scar before dropping down into Faizor. I saw the first lambs of the season in this field with Faizor looming ahead:
http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/5224/p2140186wa6.jpg
After that it was up the other side and then through Faizor and Wharfe Woods before dropping down into Wharfe. In actual fact I made a couple of wrong turns in these woods making my actual run probably a mile longer than the 8.25 - my memory from last May was a bit crap to be honest. The teeming metropolis of Wharfe with the big blob of Moughton behind:
http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/3591/p2140189pv1.jpg
Then I headed up the track towards Studrigg Scar, a sort of mini-me Malham Cove. It was all limestone boulders with no water coming over the top of the waterfall (it probably does in wet weather) but underground there must have been a strong torrent of water as I could hear it quite loud and clear.
From here on I was in the trackless, rocky, pot-holed wastes and ridges of the south side of Moughton. Its real knee (and ankle) fcukeruperer country for sure.... as I know first hand. There is one trig point on top of one ridge but to be honest they could have placed it in all sorts of places. The trig seen here (to the right) with the tiny spec of a walker beside it and Ingleborough on the horizon behind:
http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/1885/p2140195ro6.jpg
Long Scar on Moughton - the pot hole I fell down last May is somewhere down there:
http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/8476/p2140197eg5.jpg
The run finishes with a fantastic descent down a long grassy bank between two quarry sites to Foredale before trotting back to Helwith Bridge. A fabulous run but Faizor/Wharfe Woods sure are easy to take the wrong turn in.
13. Pen y Ghent, 3 peaks route to Lodge Hall and the Ribblehead road, Park (frigging) Fell, Ingleborough and back to Horton
Date: 15/02/09
Distance: 17.5 miles
Ascent/descent: 3,500ft
Route map
Time: 3 hours 28
It had been my original intention to saunter around the 3 peaks route this morning but, what with spending most of last night at Airdale A&E (stitches needed for my daughter who gashed her knee) and all the ice and snow on the tops, I decided to turn it into a 2 and a bit peaks run with a hack up Park Fell after Pen y Ghent and then a ridge run through a shit load of massively drifted and now slightly thawing snow to Ingleborough before cutting back to Horton via Sulber Nick. There were almost white out conditions in the low cloud and snow coming off of Pen y Ghent:
http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/1710/p2150203jq5.jpg
After that it was all a blurred mixture of ice, snow drifts, mud and oodles of standing water pretty much all the way to where the 3 peaks route meets the Ribblehead road. This believe it or not is the iced up pot hole just before Hull Pot - looks kind of cold for a dip....
http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/7555/p2150204ae5.jpg
Kind of muddy (and grimacing from the odd fall) by the time I got to the road after about 1 hour and 44 minutes:
http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/8990/p2150206fx5.jpg
Then it was the steep climb up to the ice and snow wastes of Park Fell and the ridge line from there to Ingleborough. Least said about this the better - it was either a wall to my right with huge snow drifts to wade through or stagger around or a wall to my left with even bigger drifts. You can't get the true sense of scale from this picture but this snow drift was shoulder height!
http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/598/p2150209el4.jpg
All in all Park Fell was bloody hard going (and must rate as a darn good stand in for practising running up Bleaklow in the high peak marathon) but once I'd got to Ingleborough and was on the track back to Horton the run became really enjoyable with mud up to the gun'oles to wade and trash through. Brilliant.
This looks like the run I intended to do back in December Stolly but chickened out on the day and then various bugs kicked in and it got put off even longer:(Quote:
Originally Posted by Stolly
I was planning to do a 3 Peaks Recce this weekend and I may do this route then rather than the full route. It covers the two sections I am not familiar with and I have never gone up Park fell from the road only come down. I hope this recent warm weather has at least shrunk those drifts a bit though :)
14. Pendle - half tour route
Date: 21/02/09
Distance: 9.25 miles
Ascent/descent: 2,250 ft
Route map
Time: 1 hour 37
I was hoping for clear weather this morning but when I arrived in Barley at about 9 am the cloud was low over Pendle........ as usual! All the same it felt like shorts and helly weather and I didn't bother with a wind proof or gloves for the first time in what seems like ages. And about half way up the diagonal climb to the trig on Big End sure enought it was freezing cold, with a bitter wind and almost dark with the fog~low cloud. Doh!
All the same it was enjoyable running with not too much mud (for Pendle). At the turn at the wall beyond the trig, I set off on the short cut line rather than follow the wall and stream. This soon proved not such a good move, as I lost the trail in the poor visibility, and had to hack off back in the direction of the wall to avoid getting hopelessly lost.
The view up here was grand as usual for Pendle:
http://img410.imageshack.us/img410/1512/p2210211.jpg
In fact I can count on one finger of one hand when I've been up here and be able to actually see a view not obscured by cloud and/or wind driven rain. The normal variables are just the degree of cloud thickness, the speed of the howling gale, exactly how much driving rain and how minus the wind chill factor is! Today though no rain at all!!!
My navigation wasn't too bad apart from a little bit of too-ing and fro-ing near to the Nick of Pendle (checkpoint 2 in the race I think) and at about the hour and a bit mark I found myself at the bottom of the second climb to Spence Moor:
http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/5987/p2210215.jpg
The stains on my helly by the way are ingrained vaseline over my 'breasts' with the one above probably snot or dribble..... or both! Then it was a nice climb and run over the ridge to the top of Ogden Clough and the Geronimo descent. My view, nicely lined up with grass all the way down, just before I threw myself off the edge:
http://img510.imageshack.us/img510/6403/p2210217.jpg
After that descent the run in to the finish is a doddle; here's the view from the style coming off Pendle with pretty much the whole run in before me:
http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/2655/p2210222.jpg
Drop down, cross the fields to the left of the wood in the centre of the picture, over the hump and whiz down the other side to Barley village hall.
Lovely run out.
15. Settle, Stockdale Lane, down the side of Kirby Fell to Malham, Gordale Scar, Malham Cove, Langcliffe path back to Settle.
Date: 22/02/09
Distance: 17.25 miles
Ascent/descent: Circa 2,000 ft
Route map
Time: 2 hours 57
Although the weather wasn't exactly perfect this was a humdinger of a route with some Yorkshire Dales running at its absolute best. Nothing too high to climb either. I set off from home heading for Malham over the tops via Stockdale Lane and, like yesterday, once I got above about 1,200 feet I disappeared into the cloud with not alot to see. Coming down the other side though, down a super fast descent to Malam off of Kirby Fell, everything sprung into to view again:
http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/1323/p2220235.jpg
I whizzed down here and a couple of walkers at the bottom must have been seriously impressed as they said they 'thought I must of been on a bike, I was going so fast'. Hehe, tourists eh? Easily impressed.
After that I zipped through Malham, past the youth hostel and followed the path towards Gordale, passing Janet's Foss on the way. Bit too cold for a dip today though:
http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/3135/p2220236.jpg
Then it was up the Gordale Scar valley....
http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/3350/p2220237.jpg
.... up the waterfall before back tracking along the rim of Gordale Scar, dropping down on the Malham side and heading off for the Cove. After a while I finally emerged onto the Malham to Arncliffe (and Settle) lane at the Langcliffe gate. The path from here on was exposed to a nightmare, eye wateringly frigid wind from the northwest, with nowhere to hide for almost 4 miles. You never drop below something like 1400 feet here either with very open 'big country' all around - nothing much in the way to the north until you hit Pen y Ghent and west until Ingleborough.
http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/8506/p2220239.jpg
Finally just before hitting Langcliffe itself I branched left through the fields and dropped down into Settle.
Lovely jubbly.
16. Edale Skyline Race Route Recce
Date: 01/03/09
Distance: 19.5 miles
Ascent/descent: 3,700 ft
Route map
Time: 4 hours 46
Well a fantastic forum outing to Edale today with the added bonus of some (begrudgingly given up but much welcome) insider tips on the race route itself. Even though one or two runners did chicken out on the day (Baaarby and Derby T'up I'm looking at you) the turn out was still probably 20 strong... plus 3 dogs.
A fabulous route in what has to count as great weather for the Peak District at this time of year. Really boggy in the first 'corner' to and beyond Brown Knoll, much rocks and mud between there and Ringing Roger. From there on the ground improved alot but the climbs of Win Hill, Lose Hill and finally Mam Tor all added piece by piece to the hard slog and seeing Mam Nick car park on the final drop down from Mam Tor was a welcome sight.
Amongst the great forum turnout it was really nice to make a new friend as well. Yep, Dave was great company for me for much of the first half of the run. And yes he is 'barking' mad but I have to take friends as they come; beggars can't be choosers.
Dave leading the charge early into proceedings:
http://img102.imageshack.us/img102/3807/p3010242.jpg
Most of the team at Brown Knoll Trig - Dave up to his tummy in it far left:
http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/1166/p3010247.jpg
Lose Hill with the Edale Valley beyond (largely hidden) as seen from the top of Win Hill. For those that haven't been there, Win Hill is a bleeding long way off at a tangent from the Edale Valley itself:
http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/4495/p3010267.jpg
Looking towards Mam Tor from the top of Lose Hill:
http://img102.imageshack.us/img102/1691/p3010271.jpg
Sooooo.... what are we all recceing next?
17. High Peak Marathon
Date: 6th/7th March 2009
Distance: 43 miles and quite possibly then some
Ascent/descent: Maybe 5,800 ft
Our route as best as I can work out
Time: 13 hours 10 minutes
Never having run anything near 40 miles before, let alone 40 miles through thick peat bog, I arrived at Edale village hall on Friday night really looking forward to the 'test' but, as the same time, not really looking forward to it that much! Our team, the rabid dogs (a name given to it by a someone who dropped out months ago) was a motley collection of me, Dave (a chap who interviewed me for a job a couple of years ago but didn't give it me!) and two hardened Dark Peakers, Jim and Roy, both of whom came in as replacements not so long before.
Incidentally, as an interesting aside, along the way Jim told me where the colour scheme for the dark peak running vest came from (if colour scheme is the right word); he may have been kidding (but I don't think so) but he said that the brown came from the peat bogs (a big tick there), the mauve from all the heather and they yellow from the sunshine!!!! How er... sweet.
Anyway at 11:06 pm on the dot the rabid dogs were unleashed and off we trotted down the lane in the direction of Hollins Cross, our first of 18 check points to come. Then it was Lose Hill, down into Hope and up Win Hill, a fantastic descent in the dark through misty woods to Ladybower Resevoir and then following the road in a loop towards Stanage Edge.
It was sort of the plan that we would aim to run the HPM in 12 hours but I could tell from the start that this was probably not a goer as from an early stage we seemed to choose to walk quite easily runnable gradients. All the same it didn't worry me much as I was really doing it to 'do it' and was pretty happy to bumble along.
At Stanage Edge we went up into the clag and drizzle and, in line with the weather forecast, it was plain for the first time that a whole heap of night time, clagged out running on a largely trackless ridge lines lay before us. Then we dropped down to road at Moscar for our first tea and sandwich stop at maybe the 10 mile or so point.
From here we ran down the road to Cutthroat Bridge and then up onto the ridgeline aiming for Lost Ladd. We were now socked in in the low cloud, only just able to make out our only small cones of light and our immediate path before us. It was maybe 2 in the morning and we were destined to stay 'socked in' for the next 4 hours of running as we tried to track our way around the huge loop of peat bog (sorry ridge line) that lay before us. Much fun and games ensued but eventually, after a couple of navigational errors and at least one navigational miracle, we found ourselves wading knee deep through the bog in the early dawn light heading towards Swains Head.
At this point an (annoyingly) cheery IanDarkPeak and his team caught up with us which was handy. Ian could have been born in the mud of Bleaklow and his pathfinding came in very handy in getting to the Pennine Way. He found us the 'north west passage that avoids most of the maze of peat hillocks - if you want to find it, you first have to find Knob Rock (can't for the life of me see where the name comes from) seen here:
http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/7791/p3070280c.jpg
We now had found the Pennine Way and our route finding worries were over. Just maybe 15 miles of running over tough ground were left and oh.. the 'small' obstacle of Kinder Scout en route. We trotted down the Penninne Way to the second tea and sandwich stop at Snake Road Top:
http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/2103/p3070282.jpg
Kinder wasn't a difficult climb or anything as we were already high up anyway. But once up there its very much a rock and boulder fest so quite hard going. One bit of the Kinder plateau seen from er... another bit of it:
http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/5600/p3070285.jpg
After Kinder the Edale valley pops into view and the path towards Brown Knoll was now clear to see. In a reverse of last weeks Edale recce the path was now a doddle and we duly trundled round. Finally on the last little climb to Hollins Cross the end was in sight:
http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/1488/p3070288.jpg
And we now raced down the final descent, neck and neck with an all girl team, and arrived at the village hall for a very welcome coffee and bowl of stew.
Fantastic route and super challenging, God knows how many flat and dry miles of running that route is the equivalent of. 70 maybe? (Or 100? 300? 3000?)