January - Sick and Tired You've Been Hanging on Me

 

January, mainly was a "propah" winter as far as globally-warmed winters go. Plenty of snow and plenty of ice. This was Just Rubbing It In. Perfect hard neve formed towards the end of the month as a result of some freeze/that cycles and a large amount of snow over on the Weardale Fells, all of which shone bright white from a distance in any sunshine that happened to be going.  And that was the problem with January. The temptation to sneak up to the far-distant parts of Weardale and go and play on the deep and hard snow was...er..... tempting. But I didn't. Instead, me and LTD were confined to the immediate vicinity of Crook, with the odd adventure from Wolsingham. This was doing my training for a BIG walk in July no good at all.

The chart above (which, I believe is the first chart ever to appear in this Pieblog) shows this year's mileage as compared with last year's mileage by week. As you can see, whilst there was a good start, fueled by enthusiasm and some remaining Christmas cake and booze, things didn't really get going. This was partly due to some really poor weather and partly due to the shackles of Covid 19 rules and partly due to an inability to get up early enough to do a long walk. I did manage a couple of ten-milers and even a fifteen mile walk, but 2020 had a 20-miler.......  The Christmas cake and fine malt whiskies are now used up.  The bottom lines are that  in January 2021 I walked 116 miles as opposed to 159 in January 2020 and I need to do more, not less.

The task ahead is further complicated by what appears to be a further complication. The idea was to do a walk covering 70 mountains in my 70th year in July, starting on the 10th of July (10X7=70). Part of the training regime would be the 2021 TGO challenge which is planned for May 2021. But now, the organisers have announced that maybe, only maybe, though, that the TGO challenge could be moved to June or July. My priority would be to do the TGO challenge whenever it happens and, I believe, JJ has the same view. So, I'd have to do the 70 tops later on - probably September when the schools are back and the warmth and daylight are still with us.

I have the list of hills and a provisional route (the second attempt at a route) Thus, the attempt would begin at Haweswater and end at Langdale after performing a kind of figure-8. I would probably camp, mainly wild camping but with the odd campsite and fish and chip shop. I would aim to take LTD with me, which also provides another logistical challenge.......

This challenge involves Lucky's supply of kibble. The problem is that kibble can only be bought in quantities which are too big to reasonably carry. LTD can carry about 3 days supply and I could carry a similar extra amount, but at some point, re-supply would be needed. I might have to suggest to Mrs K that trips to Keswick  and Eskdale in September (Or July) would be Just The Thing.

Its all still in the planning stage - I might add a day or two as rest days. In the meantime, I think I need to do a really long walk or two....

Finally - the charity bit - last time I did this sort of thing, I managed to raise a fair amount of spondoolies by using those "reviews" that bloggers used to get to do, in which they got given free kit and had to write about how nice  and sploshingly good value for money whatever it was a company wanted reviewed. The companies were really very open to the suggestion that they send two bits of whatever kit it was and let me sell one and keep the other.... but nobody asks for reviews any more....  So I'm occasionally having a "trying-to-think-something-up" session and not being very successful about it, yo be honest. Some people raise charity cash by just asking for it, but I'm not really keen on that. I like people to get something in exchange.... other than a brief feeling of smug saintlyhood...  Not that there's anything wrong with a brief feeling of saintlyhood...