Peebles-Moffat Round Two Day 0.5

After a brief foregathering in the drinking dens and pizza bars of Moffat the night before a bunch of nine Moffateers gathered once again on Saturday morning in Moffat high Street. Two cars were sufficient to take the hopefuls to Peebles where a short rest was called in the Bridge Inn.
Revd Albon and Big Jugs Monthly Bossman and Pie provider Humphrey Weightman joined the mildly excited throng for a pint. Humphrey donated some quality pies to the team’s resources. I regret to admit that I did, in fact, eat all the pies……   I am, of course, distraught and so is my cardiac nurse.

And then, after a brief press call in the car park during which Mr Sloman tempted fate by miming his fence climbing skills, nine of us plus Dave Albon invaded Glen Sax. Dave had to leave us after a mile or two as he had work to do. 

We’d taken the lower route this time to ensure that we actually got somewhere before it went dark.
This seemed to work and ultimately, as the walls of Upper Glen sax closed in, we spotted the ideal site for Camp Alpha, on a little  possibly natural grassy shelf amongst all the heather.

The night was moonlit (to such an extent that I thought it was dawn at about half one) and frosty.
Spirits were vaguely optimistic if a bit nervous. There were  early nights and snoring.

Today’s walkers were me, Alan Sloman and Shirley (Peewiglet) Worral plus Piglet the Doglet, Mike (no not that Mike, the other Mike) Pope and his dad Martin (Phreerunner) Banfield, Tony (Pennine Ranger) Bennet and  his handler Christine, Andrew (I can’t decide which decision to decide on) Walker and his miraculous underpants and and John (I wish I had Mike Harding’s Money) Jocys. I think that was it.
Anyway, I think we did six and a half miles and 1400 feet of uphill.
We were still OK.  But much more excitements later…..

Peebles – Moffat Earwiggo Again

There will now be another one of those long gaps. I’m just about to nick off to the Crook Co-OP for the shopping for the second attempt on this walk. Part of the shopping will include a bottle of vino-collapso for Martin (Phreerunner) Banfield for secretion at a certain strategic spot.  I may pre-place other essential medical logistical items as well, who knows?  [If anybody wants anything pre-placed for entertainment purposes for the second night, best let me know before I get to Moffat on Friday!]
There seems to be eleven starters for the walk, plus a small crowd to see us off (Dave Albon and, possibly, Humphrey Weightman if he can drag himself away from putting together the Christmas edition of Big Jugs Monthly, the scramblers fanzine.)
There has been a little staff wastage in the last few days, and there are people who retain an interest in this walk but couldn’t make it this time. So, I’m wondering about staging it yet again in September 2011. I suspect there are blogger/backpacker types out there who might also enjoy this kind of thing. So, if this one goes reasonably well and not too many people are lost or fatally struck down by something or other, that there’ll be invites going out next summer.
I think a dozen walkers is about right.
We have seven, I think who have declared an intention to try to walk back to Peebles from Moffat.
The silence from this blog is likely to be broken by just the one post-Meefatt posting, next Friday, and then I’m off to Wales for a fortnight. So the quietness will continue.
However, there are some notable bloggers involved in this walk – notably Alan Sloman, Peewiglet, Martin (Phreerunner)  Banfield and Tony (Pennine Ranger) Bennett, so there should be no shortage of finely crafted reports for your edification.
Me and the dawg have lots of jolly japes planned for whatever will remain of October, though, watch this space.
Shall we have some post-walk entertainments?

Calf Top Not 2000 Feet High

Just thought I’d mention this as I’m re-bagging the Yorkshire dales 2000 foot tops.
Those hill-bagging height surveyors who recently measured Tryfan and Glyder Fach and so on, have just published some results concerning the height of Calf Top.
calf Top is just to the left of Barbon and, whilst it isn’t technically in the Yorkshire Dales, it is in the Pennines next to Great Coum and not far from the Howgills, so if it turned out to be 2000 feet high, then I’d have to bag it.
As it happens, i bagged it earlier this year, but never mind that – stop being so pedantic.
Anyway, following the resurvey, the OS have accepted the results and , in future, calf Top will appear on new OS maps with a height of 610 metres.
Justaminnit – I hear you exclaim…  610 metres is 2000 feet!
Yes it is. But it’s been rounded up. Apparently, they take averages and use horrible things like probabilities and statistics and things with Numbers. And calf Top is probably just under 2000 feet by a couple of millimetres. 13/16ths of an inch, to be probably fairly precise.
So its not a Nuttall/Hewitt.
And I don’t have to bag it again. I don’t have to, but its rather a nice hill, so I might anyway.
Just so that when you see the new height on your new map, you won’t do anything rash.
The results and survey report are in http://www.hill-bagging.co.uk/

More Birkett Bagging Beyond Buttermere

Actually, it was quite near Ennerdale.
But anyway – I’d set off to bag Swainson Knott and it’s two little satellite hills Ponsonby Fell and Stone Pike, when, as I was driving towards the starting point, I noticed Flat fell.
I didn’t have the map for Flat Fell, but it was an easy bag from the road – half an hour did it.  It was about 2km and 140 metres of up – mainly the crossing of a deep peri-glacial channel. I noticed, though, that due to the sogginess of the ground today, both of my feet were soaked after this short jaunt.

I then bagged Cold Fell – another small Wainwright outlier during which I got a really good view of Sellafield Nuclear Power Station and Armageddon Repository, and that my tootsies were now even wetter.
Bruno suggested lunch in the car. So that’s what we did. I had Lancashire Cheese and Tomato and Bruno had Dog Dribble. Is that cruel?  I just dont care mwwwwwuhahahah…

After this we paddled off to outflank Ponsonby Fell. This involved a long outward leg on some bridleways, one of which crossed Worm Gill. Worm Gill, it turned out was in a bit of a bad mood and was having a rage. The crossing point was flowing fast at just over knee-deep. This would have been disastrous for keeping everything else other than the wet socks dry. Upstream, though, the beck is braided into four smaller streams and only one of these was almost knee deep. The others were shallow. Nevertheless, the feet could not, now get any wetter.

At Scalperskew Farm, they were bringing in the gimmers and one of the dogs, I noticed only had three legs. Not only that but the scruffy little pooch wasn’t even a “proper” sheep dog – it was some kind of poodle/terrier/collie/alsation/greyhound/sheep cross. QAnd it was barking and biting the tyres of the shepherd’s ATV.
When the shepherd drove across a cattle grid, the poor tripod couldn’t get across and had aa bark at the gate at the side. I let him through and he dashed off after the ATV with remarkable efficiency.

Ponsonby Fell was quickly bagged, followed by a barbed-wire defended Stone Pike, which has a sheepfold on top for the sheltering behind whilst drinking coffee and scoffing ginger cake. And then it was Swainson Knott, with it’s cairn made of what appears to be cow bones.
The sun came out for the return up by the River Calder (?Calderdale!) and, it has to be said, that this little dale is remarkably beautiful and a bit wild.

When i got back to the car, two constables from BNF’s Sellafield Police Force were posted next to my car. They check out all badly parked cars, apparently. They were very friendly, though and allowed me to attack their boots with my groin before driving off laughing. (Actually, that last bit didn’t happen…)

Today was 11 miles and 2200 feet of upness. I’ve only put up a map of the Swainson Knott bit of the route. Anybody intent on following this route should note that the descent from Swainson Knott to Calderdale was a trespass and was defended by particularly6 spiky barbed wire fences. Nothing stops The Pie and his Superdawg, though.
Three Birketts and Three Wainwright Outliers ticked. (some overlap exists)

Winter Draws on – A Competition

On 26th October 2009 I began a NorthernPies series of walks for the bagging of all of the 2000 foot tops in the Yorkshire Dales – That is, everything of 610 metres and over between the A65 and the A66 – the Aire Gap and Stainmore Pass.
An account of each of the walks appears in this very blog – well, where else would it be?
I’ve done them all except two. These last two will be done in one final walk.
The question is: Which hill will be the last one?
The prize is worth about twenty of your English pounds, is still in its original packaging and is something which will help to keep you warm during the forthcoming hardest-winter- since-the-last-one. In fact it’s so good, I might get one myself. This is a unisex piece of kit.
Entries to the competition can be made either by a comment to this thread or by email (see my profile). Emails are more discreet, obviously. Some comments won’t be published straight away, though as I’ll be on my hols for some of the time.
The closing date is midnight on 17 October 2010.
Its likely that there will be more than one correct entry and, if so, a random draw will be made.
Only one entry per reader and as I am de judge, my decisions on all matters concerning this competition will be final and there is no appeals mechanism.
The hill will not have been climbed by me or superdawg since 26 October 2009
Which hill will be the last in the series?