TGO Challenge Stuff Number Three

The Way to Hayfield

One of the things that happens (in normal times when there's no pandemic restrictions) is the TGO challenge "gatherings". There's two of these, one in Newtonmore and one in Derbyshire. This year the English Gathering organiser, Alan, organised a "do" at the Sportsman's Arms in Hayfield. This was good for me and LTD for several reasons: 

Hayfield is a good place for walking.

The Sportsman's Arms and the Kinder Lodge, where me and LTD stayed are both doggy friendly

and

Chrissie and Geoff live in Hayfield and said I could stay for the bagging of Robin Hood's Picking Rods, a place that has sneakily avoided my attentions for several years now for lots of different reasons, mainly, pandemics and Derbyshire County Council's enthusiasm for closing the Snake Pass.
 

Hatyfield (all these pics are in reverse order!)

Chrissie and Geoff and Pebbles and Islay

Dragons Back Again. (where has he been?)

So, the Gathering, for me, is part of the TGO challenge "thing", as is having a walk with Chrissie and Geoff and their doggies (although LTD is a grumpy bugger and did cause the occasional noisy fracas with the otherwise placid and, even  cuddly, Pebbles and Islay. ) He's a pillock for that sort of thing, and, it's probably my fault. Hard to stop, though. 

Anyway me and LTD turned up at the Kinder lodge in the Friday night, had dinner with a smattering of TGO-ers at the George Inn (also dog-friendly) and in the morning we (me and LTD)  went off to bag some hills just to the South of Buxton. The main victims of the knipey boots and paws being Parkhouse Hill and Chrome Hill aka The Dragons Back.

The Dragon's Back

More Dragons Back

After bagging the first two tops, and being unable to identify a permissive path to Chrome Hill,we found ourselves at the foot of Parkhouse Hill.  Parkhouse Hill has a bit of a reputation for scaring people ..... and their dogs.... and, from the bottom, I was quite doubtful of setting off. Lots of people were coming down the narrow ridge and some were having little "adventures". But nobody fell off and I decided just to go up an bit and have a look. 

Parkhouse Hill --- Ooooer....

Same place

It does look very big and spiky and scary, but, in fact, it's quite small and , quite quickly, I found myself in the company of three herbally scented individuals and their little dog and, noticeably, one empty bottle, an almost finished bottle and another spare back-up supply of strong liquor. They were in a happy mood and were trying to consider how they would get back down. They may still be there, who knows?

Infeasably steep grass

East side of Parkhouse Hill

LTD on the summit, yawning nervously

Having got up, we went back down, partly aux-gluteous maximus, and went off to climb Chrome Hill. This was much more civilised and friendly and the permissive path was obvious. So we went back to Hayfield. The do at the Sportsmans's Arms was grand and friendly and the food was good and LTD slept under the table and was  restored to conciousness by being fed quite a lot of chicken by a man from Burnley

Kinder

And in the morning we went to Geoff and Chrissie's and went off to finally bag Robin Hood's Picking Rods, and, in-between doggy-based skirmishes, we had a cracking walk in a chilly wind, breezing in from somewhere the other side of Manchester. Thanks to Geoff and Chrissie for looking after me and feeding me with Geoff's pasties (not a euphamism) and for breakfast and several brews. And so, me and LTD went home.

In other TGO news, I have laminated extracts from seven 1:50k OS maps, saving just half a kilogramme and next week I have a final TGO chally shake-down in Galloway, or South Ayrshire. I was going to go to Llangollen, but this would involve the trans-Pennine express/Northern rail and , frankly, their record of actually having a train turn up at all has been poor. They're blaming covid for a lack of drivers, but they failed to turn up several years ago when I went to the Dales for a pre-TGO shakedown, resulting in missed connections and a late arrival in Clapham. So I have more confidence in arriving at a destination by using the knipemobile. So that's what I'm doing. I have the maps. I have the dog. I'm going to Galloway. (hopefully!)

After this I'll do a food plan. This ought to be better than my Howgills food plan where I ran out of food. The upside of this was some very nice bacon from Sedbergh market.

And...rest (Pebbles snoozing on my lap)

TGO Challenge Stuff Number Two

LTD RTG (Ready to go)

So, what progress towards setting out on the TGO Challenge has been made so far? 

I have a vetted route, vetted by Dr Emma, who has been very helpful. 

I have a bed booked at an hotel in Hayfield for the TGO Challenge Spring Gathering, organised by the Very Lovely Alan. LTD is also attending and we're hoping for No Blizzards as in previous TGO Challenge gatherings and maybe an attempt on the legend-soaked Robin Hood's Picking Rods via the South Couloir with a direct ascent of the Gendarme du Merde followed by a traverse of the Bad Step. This hill has avoided my gentle attentions for several years now, mainly due to snow storms, Derbyshire County Council's enthusiasm for closing the Snake Pass and a Pandemic. The expedition will be lead by the Crowthers of Hayfield. They know the way and I don't. Nothing could possibly go wrong.....

LTD dribbles over JJ's lunch.

JJ auditions for Strictly Come Hiking

After having the route vetted and approved, I booked some trains. A train to Glasgow from That Durham and a train from Montrose to That Durham. Citylinks bus has been booked to take me from Glasgow to Dornie. Accomodation at Dornie will be in a tent. And I have a B&B booked in Newtonmore, so I'm fixed on getting to Newtonmore. In between Dornie and Stonehaven I are mainly camping, mostly wild and sometimes discreetly.

Determined JJ in the Howgill Fells

 

No idea who this is

Camp near Cautley

So, the next aspect of TGO chally preparation is physical and mental preparation. I usually deal with these things by 1) Walking about a lot. and 2) Having a couple of backpacking trips where lessons are re-learned - such as not running out of food, not mistaking bright moonlight for dawn and not carrying a load of stuff that's not going to be used. And, since the first day of the 2022 challenge and a bit of the second day will be in company with JJ, it seems logical to do some of this with JJ. And so, we went to the Howgill Fells and walked about a bit for two full days and two half days.

Seems to be in a fairly cheerful mood

JJ on a damp morning

second Howgills camp

The Howgills is a cracking place for backpacking. There's loads of places to camp and nobody goes there (apart from the four or five other backpackers we saw, the two runners and the half dozen day walkers. The water is good but the hills can form wind-tunnels in the North-South facing valleys. And navigation can be a bit of a challenge sometimes. Distances, however, on this particular walk, were short.

Day 2

Also Day 2

LTD has detected somebody opening a bag of smoky bacon crisps in Barrow in Furness

Anyway, it all went reasonably well. We walked from Ravenstonedale to Sedbergh and back in a big circle. I ran out of gas and LTD was a doggy food pouch short (and he blames ME for this!). But we re-supplied in Sedbergh. Unfortunately, during the transactions required for re-supplying, LTD attacked the shop owner's puppy, although I don't believe any physical harm was done, the shopkeeper was pretty unhappy about this and we had to retreat to the Red Lion where we ate and drank and tried to light their fire, which, for some reason, was quite reluctant in the conflagration department. We spent much time sheltering from the rain. Sedbergh market provided some nice bacon and a pasty and the Spar shop produced beans and smash and more whisky for the in-tent entertainment. And it rained all day.

LTD navigating. He's quite good at navigation

JJ follows closely behind, ever alert for sudden changes of direction

Justaminnit, these pics are in the wrong order

First camp

First camp (windy)

And so, replete with Sedbergh's hospitality and extra supplies of food and gas and drink, we slithered through the mud and rain up the bridleway to Cautley where we pitched the tents somewhat out of sight. The forecast for the last half day's walk was encouragingly good. This forecast turned out to be a load of dingo's kidneys and, after a brief spell of benignness  benignity   being a pleasant morning, it rained for the rest of the journey and the Cross Keys was closed. On the upside, the bacon and coffee for breakfast was superb. The key skill, with your bacon and only a small cooking pot, is to cut up the bacon into small pieces to get that all-over tan effect with crispy bits. The results can be loaded into a wrap, a sache of brown sauce applied and the whole thing washed down with a pint or so of hot Taylor's coffee at a strength sufficient to make your hair stand up. Only then can the packing of gear begin.

I'm in the planning stages of a similar trip to Galloway for April. The planning mainly consisting of buying a map

LTD won't be allowed on the TGO challenge

February - A Train Rant and Other Stuff

Northern (Comedy Service) Rail Not Coming From Carlisle

 I'll get to the rant in a minute. Bear with me, I need to build up some steam. But the picture above of the "arrivals" board at Newcastle Central Station is a symptom. The station is using the ironic, or maybe sarcastic version of "arrivals" here in that one of the trains is not arriving at all. In fact it hasn't set off.  More of which later.

My second little rant is about blogger , which, once again, has loaded the pictures in reverse order. It fights desperately with me if I try to re-arrange them and I've not yet been bright enough to outwit it by loading the pictures into the picture-selecting box in the opposite order to which they are required. This , the first picture is Lucky The Dog admiring the carpet in the Twice Brewed Inn on Hadrian's Wall.  One of the clauses that Hadrian had written into the contract for Hadrian's Wall was that it went quite close to the Twice Brewed Inn. Mainly because the beer there is very nice and much better than anything you could get in Rome at the time. That and the fact that they don't use much in the way of fomented fish sauce in the steak pie.

LTD looking for a crumb

Sycamore Gap from the North

Sum sheep. No idea how many, I keep falling asleep

Anyway, what of February. Mainly it rained and was very windy. I think it was Very very windy on four or five occasions and at times it was wet at the same time, or otherwise, just before the windy bits. Or just after. Several of the windy bits were Atlantic Storms which had cosy names like "Fluffy" and "Graham". "Ronnie was a bastard and tangled up the wind-chimes in our garden as well as blowing trampolines on to Lane Three of the A1(M) in several places. This was Not Good for the walking. So less walking was done in Feb 2022 than as far back as Feb 2011.

LTD suspects that there may be a gravy bone inside that rucksack

But there were some highlights, apart from the sheltering and drinking tea (Yorkshire Tea, grown in Doncaster) Me and Dawn went camping to Buttermere. This was a bit muddy but we were the only campers there and it was a nice break. Me and LTD managed to bag two very small hills. We left just as it got windy again (yellow warning for severe gales)

Crook and Weardale Ramblers doing a Caledonian-style river crossing

High Force, obviously

The, me and LTD attended three Crook and Weardale Ramblers walks, one of which was snowy, another wet, I mean quite wet... and another on a beautiful spring-like day. Attendance on walks seems to be increasing a bit - specially in terms of the canines. We were up to three doggies in Teesdale. LTD isn't keen on doggies....

White Horse of Kilburn (not ancient!)

Grasmoor, near Buttermere

Buttermere camp

And so, I come to the part where I have a bit of a rant. I had decided to have a night out at a certain bothy, not all that far from Hadrian's Wall and had secreted some firewood there a week or so earlier. I decided, that, rather than abandon a car nearby, I would go on the train - noting that Bardon Mill station was only a hop and a step away from the bothy and twenty quid for a return ticket with a lift home from Mrs Pieman would be a good strategy.

So she took me to the station. The first thing I noticed was that all of the trains coming up from That London were 15 minutes late due to a "security incident" at Peterborough. I had a ten-minute gap between trains, so I hopped on one I shouldn't have been on, according to my ticket.

At Newcastle, the station announcer announced that my train to Bardon Mill was cancelled due to a lack of drivers. A nice lady in a red suit confirmed this and added that the train after it was also cancelled. So I got on a train that went to Carlisle but stopped at Hexham, but not at Bardon Mill. I got the 685 bus to Bardon Mill and arrived only 30 minutes late. This is when it started raining.

I arrived at The Bothy at teatime, got water, fed the dog, put the dog to bed (he stayed there for the next 15 hours, a record - he was clearly fed-up) I lit the fire using some extra coal I'd brought and snuggled in for a very quiet night with brews and scotch and the radio. And LTD's contented sighs snores and farts.

The morning was really beautiful - a bright, sunny and frosty start and we had a lazy breakfast sitting in the doorway in the sun-trap.

The return walk was on paths North of the Wall and then to Twice Brewed for a couple of pints and a stupidly large breakfast and then down to Bardon Mill for the train.  

At Bardon Mill, an announcement was made that the train to Carlisle was cancelled. I began to have a sinking feeling about this. The phone to customer services couldn't confirm either way whether or not my train to Newcastle would or would not run, or even that it existed at all. So I decided to get the bus, which turned up at the bus stop a few minutes after me and LTD and took us to Newcastle, arriving 90 minutes early.

My train was, in fact, cancelled. Had I waited I would have missed the connection to Durham, and you can't get on one of these trains without a seat reservation.

Get my money back? I tried the website and it's impossible to navigate. So I rang them up and they won't talk about refunds on the phone.

If I'm ever faced with Northern Rail again, I think I'll pass and see what the local bus service can come up with. Or I'll drive...

Notice the use of green. All rants ought to be in green ink. It ought to be a rule. Or it's not a proper rant. Fact.

Anyway, it's spring now and the daffies are coming up, there's skylarks and lapwings in the fields and the sap is rising....

Must go backpacking.

What Happened in January

Angle Tarn

Sometimes it's nice to look back, especially when pulling out into lane 4 on the M1 to overtake a lane-hogging Audi. And at other times too. Sometimes I like to look back and I mean really, really back. My "Outdoor Stuff" logs go back as far as Easter 1964 when I was the child victim of a school trip to Helwith Bridge where I was not only subjected to a spectacularly spectacular haunting, but I also slit my thumb on a tin of corned beef, covering the lad in the bunk below me in blood. And then there was the walk up Penyghent where my rucksack fell off and spilled it's contents across the mountain, breaking some of my precious things, including my supply of fresh milk in a bottle,  causing me to almost starve to death and giving me a lifelong hate of cold tinned spaghetti in tomato sauce. (This was quite exotic for a mill-town lad in 1964). I got into bother for chucking the tin over the wall in disgust, decorating the horns of a passing Swaledale ewe. "Who did that?" demanded Mr Harris, the teacher. "It was Knipe, Sir" came the reply, pointing in accusation. "Tidy it up, Knipe" said Mr Harris, "Squash the tin and stick it in the wall"  It's probably still there.  Then there was the wet caving trip in Calf Holes Pot and my final escape to the Naked Man cafe in Settle - a wonderful place, even then. I spent all my bus fare on a fine breakfast, followed, in short order by a fine lunch. But will January 2022 match up to this fantastic   outrageously badly organised expedition? The tip I gave the motherly waitress concerned never trying to transport fresh milk up Penyghent. 

One of Li Yang's Long Walks

On the top of Loadpot Hill

Not as such...  But what happened, I hear you ask, impatiently, tapping your digits on the table and looking at your watch (clever trick that, as it happens...)

Well, according to my 2022 log of Outdoor Stuff Wot I Done, me and LTD did 15 walks and 2 nights camping. I also untangled the wind-chime in the back garden 3 times, following Atlantic storms, removed and burned bits of ash tree from around my car, washed the car a couple of times and went shopping. This is all Outdoor Stuff Wot I Done.

Red Pike Mardale

The Moors Above Rookhope

I should add that I completely realise that I can only do 15 walks in a month PLUS some shopping because I am an Old Age Pensioner. OAP's, it would appear, at first glance, have loads of time on their hands, when , in reality, they have little time left, so the idea is to get on with stuff before it all becomes too late. Very few ancestral Knipes or Earby-based Turners made it much past my current age and, if they did, they were in no fit state to walk to the co-op, never mind setting off at dawn with a lass who has too much energy than is sensible and a dog who would have preferred a bit longer snoozing by the radiator.

Elephant Trees Weardale

Slanty path up Skiddaw

So, the bottom line is, there is a limit to the time available and I don't know what it is. In fact, even on 1964, I didn't know what it was, but making it to fifty or sixty seemed a reasonable ambition and a six week summer holiday was most of a lifetime and could be frittered away tucking into Lucky Bags under Mick Burrow's verandah on Wentcliffe Drive.

Heading for Bakestall

Straw Man by the Wear near Durham

So, I did 15 walks and 143 miles (about 150 according to various GPS devices, but they're always wrong). Four of these  walks were with Crook and Weardale Ramblers. Two were with Li Yang and LTD and totaled 41 miles in...er.... total and 9 were just me and the dog. We (me and the dog) bagged 7 new hills, although Lucky's bag was 22 since I'd done the other 15 previously. That's quite good for a dog, I think. And we climbed about 23000 feet of uphill contours. Plus, of course, two nights camping at Angle Tarn. As it wasn't on a campsite, some would define this as "wild" camping, although, to be fair, it wasn't really very wild and nothing much happened at all, although it was very nice. I sort of counted it as a pre-TGO challenge event.  

And, speaking of which, I have received my TGO challenge vetter's comments from Dr Emma, who was very gentle with me and my ideas for a route, and has pointed out the locations of various shelters and tea-rooms (never pass a tea-room) and has done some additional investigation on the likelihood of me being washed away whilst crossing a certain burn (Scotch talk for "beck") This matters not very much since JJ will be with me at that point and I'll be sending him ahead to test the strength of the flow. There's a lochan just below this beck and, I expect that JJ is able to swim reasonably well should he unexpectedly arrive in this particular pond, as opposed to the Eastern bank of the burn.

It DID snow in January

 Me and LTD are now looking forward to February.... we have camping plans and , maybe a short backpack, providing I can decide where to go and whether or not it's cold and sunny or wet and windy. We don't really want wet and windy.