I knew there was somet not quite right!Originally Posted by Stolly
Seriously though...heroic lad! 18 odd 'ours...wi' a dodgy ankle to boot (shakes 'ead in disbelief!). I was 'sweeper' at Pendle Cloughs...out ont'fell fo' just short o' 4 'ours...and that was enough to completely knacker me.
Well done.
Stolly, great report on the Fellsman.
Get that ankle sorted and look forward to hearing about your BG plans.
30. Ingleborough loop from Austwick
Date: 17th May 2009
Distance: 11.5 miles
Ascent/descent: 1,900 ft
Route map
Time: 2 hours 3 minutes!
I unashamedly stole this route from Ady from Accy and its a cracker. Starting from Town Head Lane in Austwick you soon branch off the lane, following the footpath firstly through somebody's front garden (!) before then hacking over the fields to eventually meet the farm track that takes you to Crummock farm. From there, in theory, it should be a gentle meander over the tops and through the limestone tank traps to Nick Pot on the main drag to Ingleborough up from Horton - for me yesterday though I went off prematurely (!) mistaking a sheep trod for my side turn and taking a far more roundabout and boggy line to Nick Pot.
Then it was straight up past Simon Fell onto the top of Ingleborough where, up until that point, a relatively unnoticed frigid gale force wind was blowing. I then had to run into the teeth of this gale coming off Ingleborough and along the top of Little Ingleborough before dropping down towards the more sheltered Gaping Gill. That said I must have looked hard as nails wearing just a tee shirt and shorts when I ran past a muffled up to the eyeballs, ready for Everest walker on the top of Little Ingleborough.
From Gaping Gill I bypassed the mini gorge and instead scooted over the top before dropping down into the bottom end of Trow Gill, clambered up the short but sharp hill to Long Lane, followed that (for ages - its long remember), then followed Thwaite Lane (should have been called 'nearly as long' lane) towards Austwick with a final whiz down through a field to finish. I was peed off with not breaking the 2 hour mark but I blame my 'short' cut for that!
Looking back through the fields in the direction of Austwick soon after starting off:
Ingleborough looking slightly ominous in the low cloud just prior to my wrong turn:
The view towards Gaping Gill - you can just make out some potholers tents - from the rock plastered edge of Little Ingleborough:
Dropping down into Trow Gill:
Last edited by Stolly; 18-05-2009 at 11:50 AM.
Last few times I have done this I have gone 'clockwise' and found it to be a nicer run. It's always a good test of fitness to try and maintain a running motion all the way up the steps to the ridge. Also the views coming down to Crummuck and back to Austwick are laid out before you accross to Pendle.
31. Settle, Rye Loaf Hill, Malham, Gordale and Malham Cove Loop
Date: 25th May 2009
Distance: 17.5 miles
Ascent/descent: 2,200 ft
Route map
Time: 3 hours 25 minutes
I snuck out of the house at 8 this morning and decided to go for a long run over to Malham and back from home. Lovely sunshine and it was warm sunshine too! I crossed the fields, climbed up to the Pennine Bridleway and then followed the top road to Scaleber Force:
From there I climbed up over open fell to the radar mast on Scosthrop High Moor before making my way to the trig on top of Rye Loaf Hill. The view from there looking into Stockdale valley:
I crossed over from there to the main Settle~Malham track before whizzing down in the direction of Malham itself. Malhamdale with cows, one of my better photos if I say so myself:
Then around the houses and into the woods below Janet's Foss, rampant with wild garlic:
Then on to Janet’s Foss…
Up Gordale Scar – the guys clambering up didn’t have a clue by the way and I beat all of them to the top of the first waterfall
Looking down onto Gordale campsite from the ridge…
And looking back at the track back to Malham from the top of Malham Cove
After Malham Cove it was a long thirsty run in following the top half of the Settle Loop back in the direction of Langcliffe before hacking through Attermire Scar and eventually dropping down into Settle itself. A beautiful run but it didn’t half get hot and my bottle of juice ran out, still an hour from home. Arrived home a bit of a sweaty train wreck to be honest but an absolute corker of a run all the same.
Last edited by Stolly; 26-05-2009 at 12:49 PM.
32. New Forest Run
Date: 28th May 2009
Distance: Maybe 7 or so miles
Ascent/descent: 150 ft
Route map
Time: 1 hour 3 minutes
I had a meeting arranged way down south on Thursday and decided to fit in a New Forest run while I was down there. I didn't have a lot of time nor a map so I just pulled into a car park, just off the Southampton Road in Lyndhurst, and hacked off on a loop, making the route up as I went along. The forest in the area I chose to run in was a mixture of open lawn like grassland, kept well shorn by all the New Forest ponies, foresty bits and open heathland with the odd stream and bog thrown in. It obviously wasn't particularly hilly but it was an utterly brilliant place to go running. I didn't have my camera though so couldn't take any pictures
As I was making this run up as I went along and I was running into wall to wall wilderness, I basically set the position of the sun to where I set off and hoped by keeping that in mind I would find my way back again. Then I just ran in a general easterly direction and looped back once I'd been going for 30 minutes. I doubt very much that a map would have been any good really anyway - vast areas had no paths whilst the heather plastered heath land is criss crossed by all sorts of paths, some which narrow and disappear and dump you knee deep in bogs and others that can be quite wide, well used and rutted. I've looked at my ancient New Forest map since returning and can't reconcile any paths shown on it to where I actually ran
As I turned and looped back for Lyndhurst again, even though the terrain is pretty flat, there was absolutely nothing on the horizon that would indicate that there was a town ahead. All I could see pretty much in every direction was open heathland with wooded stretches in between and of course New Forest ponies dotted about. It was fantastic really in that I pretty much had a 50 square mile stretch of the forest all to myself with little ol' me plumb in the middle of it. I did see the odd walker and did hack through a small camp site but other than that it was me, the ponies and one or two really annoying horse flieswith all the forest to ourselves.
Eventually a church spire did come into view but even then I couldn't remember seeing that before when I left Lyndhurst. Anyway it was Lyndhurst and I made it back okay. Brilliant run and such a fabulous area to go running in.
Came on here to ask what had happened to our fortnightly fix of photos and boggage reports but then saw your last post Stolly, which explains the situation. Hope you're OK
Poacher turned game-keeper
I'm okay and definitely continuing to have adventures. Just stopped reporting them, that's all. I got to the point where it was boring me, let alone you lot
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