Some cracking runs out this bank holiday weekend then:
Saturday - And its a bright an early start for me and Harry to get over the the Lakes to help Janson on leg 4 of his Bob Graham attempt. Leg 4 is a jolly good leg of the Bob Graham to offer assistance on too as, within the scheme of things, its pretty easy to turn up for even though it starts in Wasdale which, to get to by car, is a nightmare 7 day camel trek (well its at least 2 hours from Keswick via Cockermouth anyway). Its virtually always done in daylight too which is nice. Getting to Wasdale on foot is a doddle and its all about driving to Honister Slate Mine, through the Borrowdale valley from Keswick, parking up there and trotting the 6 miles over to Wasdale via Moses Trod. And I met up at 7am at Honister with Peter, also helping out, and by 8:30 we were in the National Trust car park in Wasdale waiting for Janson to arrive.
Soon after 9am Janson duly appeared as a dot on the Scafell ridge line and by 9:20 he'd arrived in Wasdale, alongside his leg 3 expert navigator Dale, looking in pretty damn good nick..... considering he'd been out in the hills since 7pm the evening before and had covered 44 miles, more or less, and 30 peaks by that point. Better still he was about 10 minutes ahead of his 22:45 hour schedule. Apparently he'd had some trouble with poor visibility in the hill fog over night on the second leg along the Helvellyn ridge line but, hey, nothing new there and welcome to the piss poor weather on BG leg 2 club (there are loads of members).
Although the weather forecast for Saturday said that rain would be coming in later, as it turned out, the weather for us on leg 4 over the peaks of Yewbarrow, Red Pike, Steeple, Pillar, Kirk Fell, Great Gable, Green Gable, Brandreth and Grey Knotts was really good with only one peak, Great Gable, having a wisp of cloud cover to 'cope with'. We, relatively speaking, whizzed round and delivered Janson to Honister at the end of the leg something like 45 minutes ahead of his schedule. He was absolutely cruising it actually and went on to finish the whole shebang about an hour ahead of his schedule and with getting on for two and a quarter hours to spare of the 24 hours allowed to complete the Bob Graham. Brilliant stuff Janson and thoroughly deserved - not quite as bum squeakingly close as my
6 minutes to spare last September then!
Oh and a bad day for photos as I must have dropped my camera as I got out of the car in Honister. Luckily somebody found it and kindly left it for me on my car windscreen. Thank you very, very much who ever you are ☺︎
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| Ze route - straight(ish) line out to Wasdale and around the houses going back |
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| Peter's picture of me with the emerging vista of Ennerdale behind |
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| Dale left, Janson sitting and the leg 4 support team right (apart from Hazzer out of shot). Have I got the best tan or what? |
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| Me and Janson on top of Steeple |
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| Lots of rock on this leg |
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| Janson looking blasé with just leg 5 to go |
Sunday - and me and Harry weren't exactly firing on all cylinders after Saturday's 17 or so miles. Never-the-less we still went for a gorgeous 7 mile run around the hills of Settle and through Cleatop Wood before I then popped over to Masham to see how Hester,
printmaker extraordinaire, was doing at
Crafted by Hand - she was doing very well as it happens and, apparently the crowd 'went wild' at her print making demo.
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| Harry surveying one of his many domains |
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| Settle Hills |
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| Harry back in Sticky (aka Cleatop) Wood |
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| Cleatop (and Harry) looking lush |
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| The buttercup fields around these parts are stunning |
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| Hester's stand at Craftted by Hand |
Monday - and as we hadn't been up Pen y Ghent since, er... last Wednesday and were getting withdrawal symptoms, we went for an extended 9 mile run up Pen y Ghent, looping back to Horton via Helwith Bridge and the Ribble Way. Another rip snorter and in lovely weather too!
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| Yet another picture of Pen y Ghent |
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| Harry with rock in mouth |
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| Harry hurtling down the side of Pen y Ghent chasing a rock |
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| Horton in Ribblesdale |
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| The Ribble (and Pen y Ghent) |
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| A Sandpiper's nest hidden on the river bank |
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| Harry at his favourite Ribble swimming spot |
Absolutely brilliant blog Stolly. And invaluable information on nice runs for those not as familiar with the Dales as you. Thanks for taking the time to post. Were you by chance on Pen y Ghent for the 3 Peaks race recently? I was watching with a pal and recall a friendly sheepdog who loved rocks and stones - could it have been Hazzer? Ian Sampson
ReplyDeleteSorry for the delay in replying Ian and thanks for following this blog. No it wasn't me and Harry - on the day of the 3 Peaks I was running the Fellsman :)
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