3rd October 2015, Tally-Ho! from Sparrowpit

Those fine fellows of the Cheshire Hare & Hounds Tally-Ho! decreed that today’s run would be from the Wanted Inn, Sparrowpit.

The pub has had a chequered history in recent years, it’s been closed a few times – that’s hardly unusual these days. Some years ago it was called the Devonshire Arms, this must have been confusing as there’s a Devonshire Arms just down the road in Peak Forest. The pub’s owners put the place up for sale but there were no takers – it became known locally as the ‘Unwanted Inn’. When it eventually sold it was renamed the ‘Wanted Inn’. Obviously.

Anyroadup, between 1pm and 2.30pm groups of runners of a variety of abilities (and disabilities) set off running from the pub following a sawdust trail left by Mssrs Potter & Stanton, trail-layers to the nobility. Or something like that.

The weather was really good for running, dry and chillier than of late, although plenty warm enough to be running in shorts. It was a bit misty which didn’t do a lot for the views, but what we had was good.

I ran with Whitworth, neither of had done much running of late so we were well matched. As ever we chatted loads and consequently lost trail a few times. No problems with the general quality of the trail, it was well laid and generally easy to follow….although there were a couple of occasions when I thought the trail-layers were running low on sawdust – a couple of times the trail became decidedly thin.

Whitworth of the poorly knee, and equally poorly heel

The anti-clockwise route headed south from the pub before turning east to Peak Forest, covering some of the ground used by the Club’s annual Steeplechase. The terrain was typically limestone: well drained and easy on the eye.

The word on the street is that quite a lot of the route will be used for next year’s Point-to-Point.

Wilson leading the Medium Pack   

From Peak Forest the route turned north, passing to the east of Eldon Hill and then on to Windy Knoll where Rushup Edge came into view – in spite of the murk and mist.

McHarry leading the Fast Pack

Because of the poor visibility the views into the Vale of Edale weren’t brilliant, although looking back towards the east was clearer:

Eastwood had caught us up earlier and we trotted along together for a couple of miles until around Lord’s Seat on Rushup Edge when he pulled away.

Whitworth chasing Eastwood along the ridge

Rushup Edge is used as a launch site for people intent on hurling themselves into oblivion

The stony track along the top played merry-hell with Whitworth’s poorly heel.

    At the Pennine Bridleway the trail turned south for the last mile or so back to Sparrowpit.

  Part of The Pennine Bridleway

The route suffered from an excess of stiles, some were seriously broken, like this one just to the north of Sparrowpit, others were really on passable by those with very long legs. Like Whitworth.

The Wanted Inn, Sparrowpit 

Thanks to Potter and Stanton for laying such a good trail, they should be allowed out more often. Even more thanks to Brian for agreeing to run round with me, providing excellent conversation….and, er, buying me a pint at the end :-)

Shame about the food at the pub: a single course consisting of a small portion of stew with hardly any vegetables but bulked out with bread and not very good dumplings. It really wasn’t up to much – not when the club was charged £10 a head. If the Club runs from there next year I’ll duck out of the ‘meal’.

Bathing & changing facilities at the pub were pretty dreadful too: the tin bath was outside the back of the pub. I’m just glad it wasn’t cold & rainy. On the plus side the sight of 15 – 18 hairy-arsed runners stripping off probably gave the local ladies something to laugh at.

The beer was good though.

Where we went:

9.4 miles with around 1400’ of ascent.

Viewranger stuff here – although it shows the route as just short of 9 miles it’s actually 9.4 miles. I think it’s down to the way Viewranger uses waypoints to calculate distance.

More photographs here.

Friday 2nd October 2015, Another Curry Walk

Manchester to Bury, and no curry

The Plan was hatched a couple of weeks ago: Rick and I fancied trying out Bury’s Katsouris eatery and it seemed a good idea to incorporate a little walk into the visit.

Considering that this was early October, the weather was just glorious. Although it was slightly chilly and a little murky first thing it soon warmed up. Walking in shorts proved to have been a good choice.

The Gang of Six convened at Manchester’s Castlefield Tram stop and wandered off through the back streets of Manchester and Salford in search of the River Irwell.

We left the tarmac of Salford’s Crescent to descent to the bank of the River Irwell:

Carrying Manchester’s drinking water all the way from Thirlmere without the aid of any pumping stations, gravity does all the work.

L > R: Sue, Martin, me, John, Rick, Rob 

A compulsory brief sit down was called for coffee and a piece (each!) of Martin’s (equally compulsory) rather wonderful chocolate fudge :-)

Then we carried on walking:

 Dismantled railway line that once ran from Clifton Junction to Bury

One of the Irwell Sculpture Trail’s sculptures. Actually the ONLY sculpture we saw.

Onto the towpath of the disused Manchester, Bolton & Bury Canal

A couple or three miles before Bury I spotted a fast walker coming up behind, it was Phil who Rick & I know from Lymm Folk Club. Phil had intended to meet us at the start of the walk but missed us by minutes. He set off, without a map and with only a vague idea of our route – and he caught us up.

What was even more surprising was that he knew t’other John. They used to run together – which is how I first met John. A small world!

Leaving the canal, we then once again followed the River Irwell – although only for a short distance. Half a mile later we arrived at our destination, Katsouris….and lunch. Most of the meals were good, Rick and I got the short straw: a tiny meal that took ages to prepare. Having checked out Trip Advisor it seems our experience was very common. That’s such a shame, the Katsouris in Manchester is really excellent.

(Late) Lunch at Katsouris, Bury

Martin, Sue and John went off home after eating. Rick, Rob, Phil and I wandered the back streets of Bury, guided by Phil, to the Trackside Bar at the Bury station of the East Lancashire Railway. It’s essential that walkers maintain a good level of hydration, so we rehydrated enthusiastically. It was good.

The Beer Menu of The Trackside Bar

Phil and Rob showing off their Tinner’s Rabbits

After a couple of beers each it was time to go home – although not for Phil, he was staying in Bury for a concert. And more beer.

We had a brilliant day out, the route was so much better than I had expected. Although the weather helped enormously, the good company was the icing on the cake. Thanks folks, we’ll plot another Curry Walk soon.

Where we went:

 

Around 12.8 miles with norralot of ascent.

More photographs here.

Saturday 19th Sept, Open to Offas

A challenge walk in the Clwydian Hills

Eighty odd (some of them very odd) walkers & runners gathered in the tiny Welsh village of Cilcain to take part in the annual ‘Open to Offas’ challenge, a rather lovely yomp around the Clwydian Hills organised by the very fine folk of Merseystride.

With choices of 14, 21 and 30 mile routes there was something for everyone. I chose the 21 miler – having been out rather late the previous evening ;-)

This year the event was run in memory of it’s previous organiser, the very capable Geoff Saunders, who died last year.

At 8.30am,In gloriously bright sunshine, we set off out of the village on tarmac. I was walking in the good company of Meetup members Jo, Fergus and John. Jo had done the 21 mile route and I had done the 14 mile route before but it was a good few years ago.

First checkpoint of the day was at North End on the Offa’s Dyke path. Once we’d decimated the checkpoints food reserves and had our tally cards clipped and had a good chat we set off south along the LDP. still chatting.

It was then an uphill mile all the way to the burial mound on the summit of Penycloddiau. The lovely views made the cursing, puffing, panting, sweating perspiring worthwhile.

L > R: Fergus, Jo & John. The two ladies, Jane & Vicky, in the background had only relatively recently started walking and were taking part in the challenge in order to raise funds for Claire House Children’s Hospice at Clatterbridge. They did brilliantly :-)

If you want to throw some dosh at Claire house, or if you just want to learn a bit more about what they do click ur. 

Jane & Vicky, fundraisers extraordinaire!

Liquorice Allsorts & Checkpoint 2

Checkpoint 2, 8.5 miles into the route, was plonked right on the top of Moel Arthur, a 1500’ hill which might be a marilyn, hump, hillock, pillock or whatever. I don’t know, but whatever it was called it was a lovely hill. After a reward of Liquorice Allsorts my compatriots declared a 10 minute lunch break. Normally on a challenge like this food is eaten on the hoof, but we weren’t racing and it was good to enjoy a bit of a break and take in the views.

Our team had expanded to include Jane & Vicky, now we were six. The ladies were walking at our pace and proved to be great company.

View from Moel Arthur

 Checkpoint 3, at nearly 12 miles was at the Jubilee Tower on Moel Famau, 1800’

Checkpoint 2 to Checkpoint 3 looked an easy(ish) leg of the route, less than 3.5 miles with a bit of up and down but it was damned hard work. A baby lizard on the path was the ideal excuse reason to stop for 5 minutes.  

The Jubilee Tower on Moel Famau was clearly a popular tourist spot. Mums, dads, grannies, children, dogs of all shapes and sizes, had climbed to the top and were clearly enjoying the great weather. We were enjoying it too, but the burning sunshine combined the uphillness was conspiring to make some of our team suffer from the heat.

Checkpoint 3

Offa’s Dyke path is really easy to follow, it’s well signposted and really well defined – around this area anyway. Open to Offas participants are given a route description but no map. This really is no big deal, the route description is excellent. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t have a map of course.

The strenuous part of the route was now over. Up until Checkpoint 3 the route was predominantly uphill, from here on it was predominantly downhill – but downhill presents it’s own problems.

The descent to the next checkpoint was a bit of a killer, knees were protesting. It was only 1.5 miles of downhill track but it was very steep in places. John was lagging behind on this leg, one of his knees was protesting quite loudly, so much so that by the time we reached the bottom he’d decided to retire. At least he made it to the main food checkpoint.

A smiley Chris serving goodies to hungry and thirsty walkers at Checkpoint 4, 13.1 miles. Fundraising Jane slurping from a bottle of what she said was water.

After we’d had our fill of sausage rolls, banana & raisin cake and the most wonderful lemon drizzle cake we continued on our merry way. Whilst John was being driven back to Cilcain our band of five set off to our next rendezvous: a Self Clip (unmanned) checkpoint at 15.4 miles. These self clips are cunningly situated, the idea being that less scrupulous walkers (or runners) might take a short cut. Failure to check into a self clip could mean disqualification from the event.

After the hot sun of the earlier part of the day it was really quite pleasant to be walking through woodland. This is limestone country and the geology was characteristically attractive with lots of cliffs and caves, one of which was quite spectacular:

Devil’s Gorge, Loggerheads Country Park

This particular cave was probably used to mine lead in what was once a busy working valley. Nowadays the mining has gone but the gorge is frequently used by climbers doing climbing-type stuff.

A final checkpoint, and one with food :-) was at 17.8 miles, Loggerheads. Tea, cakes, a loo  and somewhere to sit for 5 minutes were on offer, just what the team needed. We were passed by a walker doing the 30 miles route, he was moving fast and purposefully. We on the other hand were bimbling along at a pleasant pace, having a good chat and generally putting the world to rights. All was well with the world.

Apart from a short, steep climb, the rest of the last few miles were on gently undulating paths through woodland. We really picked up speed here – it was probably our rumbling stomachs that pushed us on, we knew there was a meal waiting for us at the event centre. Our tea consisted of pasties & beans, rice pudding, tinned fruit, lots more cakes, and seemingly unlimited amounts of tea. It really hit the spot.

Where we jolly-well went (widdershins), 21 miles, 4900’ ascent:

  That pointy bit just beyond the half-way is Moel Famau

We had a great day out. I ate too many sweet things. And too many sausage rolls. Jo, Fergus, John and the two charity ladies proved ideal company. We had loads of laughs and we were all happy to wander round at a similar leisurely pace – we formed a fine team.

Thanks must go to my team for being such good sports, and to Merseystride LDWA who worked damned hard to put on such a splendid event. That’s it for another year then.

Vierdaagse Day1

At 5am the weather was awful, very heavy  rain = time for waterproofs. Not what I wanted with a 25 mile walk ahead.

I arrived at the start  of the walk at 6am, completely in the dry!

I won't write much, I'd rather let the pictures tell  the story. Briefly: it was very hot, a huge amount of fun, and the other 44,999 walkers seemed to enjoy it too. I crossed the start line at 6.30am and finished at 2.30pm. 

25 miles done, 75 to go!

Oh, and that last photo IS the inside of a pub, but it was taken after I'd finished the walk. Honest.