Stolly's Running Adventures

[Stolly]

13th August 2008 - Austwick, Sulber Nick, Ingleborough and Gaping Gill Circuit - 11.5 miles and about 2400 ft of ascent

OS Explore Route

Inspired by Ady in Accy's social outing set for 23rd August (when I'm away) I thought I'd give what I'd guess to be Ady's route a bash this morning. I'm off work this week and had been hoping to do a few runs but on Monday and yesterday my 'knee of doom' didn't feel up to it, following two hard runs at the weekend. This morning though it didn't feel too bad and I whizzed over to Austwick for the run.

It sounds like Ady plans on starting up the lane (nearer to Ingleborough) but I parked up outside the Gamecock and set off from there and up Townhead Lane. Eventually this lane becomes a track that meanders up to Crammock Farm with then a sharpish little hill climb up onto the plateau that you follow all the way to Sulber Nick. Once on this plateau there's a terrific view of Pen y Ghent and Plover Hill to the right and Ingleborough and Simon Fell to the left. Once I hit the track up from Horton at Sulber, it the same old track (where I've left countless clumps of flesh and bone from stumbles and trips) all the way up Ingleborough.

Just above Sulber I was flagged down for directions by three (weird) walkers. One guy asked for directions to "the road". When I enquired what road, he pointed in the Horton direction and asked whether "the road" was down there, going onto explain that they had walked thus far out of Ingleton and were looking for a circular walk back. I explained that the road at Horton went to Settle but to go that way would be one mother of a walk or he could go up the same road the other way to Ribblehead and cut back on the Ingleton road from there, equally a shed load of miles. Failing that I said (pointing in the exact opposite direction) they could walk over Ingleborough and into Ingleton from there. In the same vein as an American tourist who once asked me for directions to the London Eye in London when we were virtually stood right under it, the weirdo walker then asked "where's Ingleborough" .

Moving swiftly on I then scooted up Ingleborough, reaching the trig after 1 hour and 13 minutes. Then it was down, over Little Ingleborough and on towards Gaping Gill where there must be a pot holers convention going on or something, as the gulley that leads into Gaping Gill was full of tents and campers. After Gaping Gill I then went over the top, rather than down through the mini rocky gorge where the running's more tricky, and at the track that leads to Ingleborough Cave crossed a style and went up to Long Lane. It was then nothing more that a "short hop" down Loooong Lane and an equally "short scoot" up Thwaites Lane before cutting the corner and dropping down into Austwick for the finish; 2 hours 12 start to finish, with weirdos, taken at a steady trot.

[Ady In Accy]

Sounds like you kept to the lane from Austwick but if you go over the stile on your right at Townhead farm you can keep to the fields until the ford between Wharfe and Crummack lane and then bear left and pick it up just for the last few hundred yards before hitting grass tracks again at Crummack.
Think all the tents at Gaping Gill will be the run up to the winch meet on bank holiday, there is usually a social trip/get together several days before, think it's craven pothole club.
Once saw someone throwing rocks into Gaping Gill and when I said not to as there could be someone down there they did not believe that anyone would be - I had been in the chamber the week before on a trip through from Bar pot! Last time I did this run I went past a couple between Ingleborough & Little Ingleborough and the girl was in a crop top, skirt and court shoes and it was misty, raining and bloody cold on the top - probably looking for the cafe
Hoping to get up there tommorow afternoon onto Thwaite Scars to get some pics of the erratics and scenary if visible.

To see how clear it is from your armchair try:

http://www.ingleboroughwebcam.co.uk/

[Stolly]

9th August 2008 - Pen y Ghent, Plover Hill and Foxup Moor from Horton - maybe 8.5 miles and circa 1800 ft of ascent

OS Explore Route

Yep I did the same run again to gauge just how well stolly's recovery is going. So I ran this in 1:48 two weeks ago, 1:44 last week and this morning I ran...........................

1:33

Mind you I'm still descending steep bits like a pussy footed mincer

I'm kind of getting into a Groundhog Day like rut with this run, waking up each run day and thinking "what run shall I do today then?" and immediately thinking "oh, I know, I'll do my Pen y Ghent~Plover Hill run". The thing is though, it's a nire on perfect run that has all the ingredients that I enjoy with more than anything plenty of bog and mud to contend with. Laterly, with racing pretty much off the agenda and me not having a lot of free time either, as Horton is just a 10 minute drive away it's a simple default really.

Last Monday (the bank holiday), having returned from a week in Greece, I felt fighting fit and ran this confidentally expecting to bust my recent, post injured knee, pb of 1 hour 33 and 52 seconds. Up until coming off Plover Hill I was ahead of schedule too but then found myself running pretty much all the way back into quite a strong head wind and only managed 1:34:07. To be fair conditions had worsened considerably (for the better ) with the bogs on the ridge between Pen y Ghent and Plover Hill excelling themselves.

So on Saturday, waking up with a magners and wine induced hangover, I decided to do this run again........... for a change. Again conditions were wetter and muddier than before but, more than anything, my hangover added a good 2.5 to the difficulty rating. On the positive side I found a brand new water proof Dales south and west explorer map on top of Plover but, on the negative, I ran a drastic 1:40!!!

Pen y Ghent looming in the mist on the way up:



Mud....... and loads of it:



And then, waking up yesterday and stuck for a run to do, I decided to................ run it again! This time I had no drink related monkey on my shoulder and had slept well too. All the same I suffered a bit on the climb up Pen y Ghent, probably carrying left overs from Saturday's run, and got to the top maybe 2 minutes behind the kind of time needed to beat my previous best. All the same things were looking up at the stile at the top of Plover with me having caught up a minute and, by Hull Pot, I was level pegging. I then put a suitable burst on running down the farm track to Horton and finished with a new Olympic and World Record time of 1:33:23.

I want a 1:30 though.............

[Stolly]

6th September 2008 - Cat Stones from Mewith Lane (somewhere in Bowland) - about 8.5 miles and maybe 1000 ft of ascent

This run was an utter disaster. I'd been planning on devising a run or two in Bowland and this was my first, nightmarish attempt. I knew that Settle Harriers have a training run that they call Cat Stones out of Clapham Station (although I've never done it or have any idea of their route) so I had a look at the map and figured out a solid horse shoe run by going up Cat Stones (well the hill I call Cat Stones anyway) from the lane to the north, following the ridge south, then east before coming back on the opposite side of the valley. This was my carfeully planned route: OS Explore carefully planned route which would have been a good 12 miles or so.

Things however did not go even closely to plan and, instead, I ended up giving myself the full Bear Grylls survival route intead which I can only hazard a guess at being something like this OS Explore badly run survival route - only 8.5 miles but full of life or death decisions, bad navigation, long short cuts and jungle hell!

On my Forest of Bowland explorer map there is a small dotted line indicating a path up to the trig point on the top of Burn Moor (which has a couple of features nearby called east and west Cat Stones) and I set off up a nice farm track fully intending to get on that path. I wasn't carrying my map or a compass of course but had chosen to "memorise" my planned route.... doh! At the farm I must have immediately gone wrong as the path (the only path I could see to be fair) soon started to head westerly, contouring the hill, rather than going up it. Mind you after half a mile or so I came across a track going up so decided to use that instead. This track wasn't at all muddy at this point and looked hardly, if ever used, which might have started ringing one or two warning bells in my mind but I was glad to be going up and how difficult could it be, regardless of which path I used?

Except that my path soon disappeared and I was running through tussocky grass that then turned into tussocky heather and bogs....... as far as the eye could see. My <cough> path going up:



Once deeper into the heather bogs I did find the occasional quad bike trails or heather fire breaks to run on but nothing seemed to go quite in the direction I wanted so, for much of the time, I was running off piste, pointing myself at the highest point I could see ahead. I eventually got to what I imagined was the highest point but couldn't actually see the trig until I looked over my shoulder to the right - the trig was 100 yards or so away with no noticeable path to or from it that I could see.

I was now faced with a choice of directions. A fire break went straight on ahead whilst another went to my left. It was pissing with rain and my visibilty was maybe 200 metres. I didn't have my compass. The straight ahead one seemed to start going down hill whilst that to the left didn't so I went left. Wrongo!

This firebreak was criss crossed with others going either left or right and, after 10 minutes or so, I realised that I was probably going east when I should still be following the ridge (rounded plateau rather than ridge I should say) south. So I then took the first firebreak to my right. I won't bore you with this too much but pretty soon the firebreaks, paths or whatever they were petered out or just went off in hap hazard directions such that I eventually came to the conclusion that I ought to just head east and get back down nearer civilisation rather than continue my futile search for a runnable route along the top. This in itself was not easy though. The ground was supremely wet and boggy, there weren't any paths and the ground was criss-crossed by narrow, treacherous looking sunken streams that I had to be careful not to fall into. Some of the bogs looked humungously deep too. The view from er... somewhere of a valley um... somewhere else:



After much fun and games I finally found a track going north and followed it. To my right was a wall with farm fields on the other side so I now felt closer to safety and started to enjoy the run more. My track of course then decided to get worse and worse, and pretty soon it itself was only a narrow boggy sheep trod. I came across a hunting lodge along here but, thankfully, there wasn't a local red neck in residence, chopping wood with a frigging great axe and cursing under his breath about axing to death fell runners that get lost.



After a while I was getting a tad jarred off with this track, continuing to follow the edge of the open access moorland, and took the opportunity once the path started to head east to carry on north, now crossing cow fields and stone walls. Had I know where I was or had a map with me, I would have been able to follow a footpath that disected my route here and headed swiftly back to my car. I didn't see a path though and chose not to head in that direction as in the next field there was just one large cow (or bull I wondered?) sat down 300 yards away just before a gate I'd need to use. Instead I chose to hop over a wall and into a deep, junglely wood. This will be easy I thought because the road can't be far from the other side of this little wood.

Unfortunately though there was a fast flowing beck, pretty much in flood, the other side of this wood. The wood itself was also very over grown, very muddy, full of flying insects, nettles and whatnot. Here though I remembered my Bear Grylls training and decided to follow the river to my right.



This direction choice was a crap one too but, after much hacking through fetid jungle and finally electing to wade through the river, I found myself near a farm. I gingerly walked through the farm yard, wary of dogs, before at long last being able to get back on the lane that led to my car.

1 hour 42 of timed running, bog trotting and jungle hacking together with at least 20 minutes of stopping and wonderining where the hell to go next. A crap run then but a great mini adventure.

[Manhar]

Stolly

Sounds like you had an epic & definitely my kind of run - things could be worse - you could be here with me in downtown Victoria, Canada jogging on the pancake flat coast trails

[Stolly]

Yet again I did my Pen y Ghent and Plover Hill (henceforth to be known as pygaph) run today with unbelievable amounts mud and water on the tops. My time was a slow 1:38 but I think that was just down to the stupidly slippery and boggy conditions. I don't think my Walshes have any grip to offer any more either



They've lasted incredibly well though with me wearing them on every off road run so far this year. I want to try and get them to last to Christmas if I can but somehow that seems unlikely .

I would recommend that anyone thinking of doing this route should do it while the goings good (or should I say not good) just to appreciate the brilliant conditions prevailing.

[Tussockface]

1) At least the laces in your Walshes look in reasonably good condition.

2) Nice tussocks on your Cat Stones route. I speak as one who appreciates these things...

[dominion]

Flippin' 'eck Stolly! No wonder you're getting injured if that's what you're wearing!

[wheezing donkey]

Stolly lad, for the trig on Burn Moor, park by the Great Stone of Fourstones and run up the road to turn L into Peter's Bottom Lane and up to the shooting lodge. Then there are some lovely 'mown trods' through the heather all the way to the trig. We usually return by following the fence N to 'Queen of the Fairies Chair' then follow the fence back to the road across Loftshaw Moss - the wettest, deepest bog in Bowland! In an exceptionally dry summer, you will get away with sinking only up to your knees, but can still hear running water that sounds to be 10 or 12 feet below you.
Another alternative from the trig is to follow the fence S to climb onto Great Harlow, through some of the finest knee / waist deep heather wading that Bowland has to offer. Then it's quad tracks along the fence by the Cold Stone to Bowland Knotts trig, Rock Cat Knot, N edge of Gisburn Forest, Resting Stones, Big Hill, Sandford Farm, Wham then field footpaths via Rome Farm, Field Gate Farm, Close House? Farm and Giggleswick School Chapel - almost to your front door.

[Stolly]

Another alternative from the trig is to follow the fence S to climb onto Great Harlow, through some of the finest knee / waist deep heather wading that Bowland has to offer. Then it's quad tracks along the fence by the Cold Stone to Bowland Knotts trig, Rock Cat Knot, N edge of Gisburn Forest, Resting Stones, Big Hill, Sandford Farm, Wham then field footpaths via Rome Farm, Field Gate Farm, Close House? Farm and Giggleswick School Chapel - almost to your front door.

Thanks WD. It was the "track" to Great Harlow that I missed but, as is usual for me, I better understand the lie of the land now having given myself a full meandering tour. I know exactly which way to go next time (well for Great Harlow anyway) but its reassuring that there continue to be paths of sorts further along. What I found that made things more tricky is that its just so round on the top of Burn Moor, not quite a plateau but just a very big curving horizon. I could have been 20 yards from a fire break or quad bike trail and not known it was there . Give me three or four jaunts up there and, by trial and error, I'll finally know the what and where of it all though.