Kinder reservoir circuit

I had the opportunity to spend a day in Edale and planned a circuit along the edge of the Kinder plateau, past the downfall, to the reservoir, to Hayfield and back on the Pennine Bridle Way via Chapel Gate.

During my ascent of Jacob's ladder it became clear that it would be far colder on the hill than in the village due to a strong northeasterly wind. The past weeks have been dry which was reflected in the minimal flow in the waterfall. However the wind was strong enough to be blowing back uphill most of the water. I thought that it had been around 40 years since I was last on this part of Kinder. I completed the Pennine Way in the early 1980s and walked up past the reservoir with a fellow student one very snowy morning at some point pre-1986. We'd hoped to reach the downfall but stopped as the snow was too deep for reasonable and safe progress. This time I found the path to be dry, well-made and unpopular. The latter was perhaps due to it being a potentially wet Monday morning.

I'm unaccustomed to the steepness of the cloughs and wasn't walking as quickly as hoped. So I chose to turn back after the reservoir rather than go to Hayfield village. This might not have been a wise decision as I had a caffeine-deficiency headache all afternoon.

The route along the bridleway was longer and more undulating than I recalled. Perhaps this is because my last use was on a motorbike while the track still had legal motorised access?

Chapel Gate gave me a great view along the Edale valley with Hollins Cross and Win Hill highlighted.

Ringing Roger

This morning I was in Edale, setting off just as the village was getting busy. I could see a stream of hikers heading up Grindsbrook Clough so decided to head east, starting with the ascent to the viewpoint of Ringing Roger.

Looping towards Lose Hill gives an excellent view of the valley which I find preferable to the Kinder plateau.

Despite making an effort, progress was relatively slow as the ascent is steep, the level paths have stones waiting to trip you up and the 'flat' route past the YHA is anything but!

Peak Raid 3 Round 1 Edale 2015

This morning I competed in a mini-mountain marathon out of Edale. It was Round 1 of the Peak Raid 3 series and had been suggested to me by Kim, the runners' physio. The format was a straightforward treasure hunt for points with a maximum time of 3 hours.

My route of 18km

The map was only revealed at starting and so there was little opportunity to weigh up options. The west of the map seemed to involve a lot of points on fells and the east had a high scoring point on a path. That made the decision clear for starting as I'm faster on paths and navigation is easier. I'd achieved 100 points in an under an hour and so had two hours to loop back past as many controls as possible.

As I went along the route became clear in my mind and the key goals were  to find the spots without too much circling and to keep up a solid pace. There was light fog on the edge of the Kinder plateau which made navigation a little harder, although the route I'd chosen was pretty fool proof. The mist did make spotting features a bit tougher than it might have been on a clear day but these damp conditions would favour the precise navigators.

...by a small pond...

I was very pleased at finding the controls as planned and set off to contour from a crag back on to the the path for the final descent. This is where things became very hard. The bracken was chest high, dripping wet and the only respite was boggy streams. I became very wet and my calves started to cramp. After twice the expected time I reached the path with legs that just didn't want to perform. Within few hundred metres both calves cramped solid and I fell to the ground. Luckily I wasn't going very fast and after catching my breath and a quick stretch I was back on my way. Amazingly the legs behaved nearly all the way back to Edale although I had to keep my heels down more than I like to and I think I had a very mincing gait.

With only just over 8 minutes to spare I checked in with a very respectable 230 points. I certainly needed the coffee and ginger biscuits before changing into dry clothes and shoes to head home. Once cleaned up, the wounds from the fall were trivial although the tight muscles haven't relaxed even after roller work and stretching. I'll have to do more as soon as I've finished typing.

The results were released a little while ago and I was very pleased to place in the top third overall. The winner of this Round with over 400 points must have really gone for it! There was a punitive penalty system in place whereby 50 points were deducted for every minute over the 3 hours and a number of runners clearly misjudged their progress and paid dearly, in a few cases losing all of their points.

Explorer Events and the Edale marshals did a great job. This was my first try at something like this and I've now got my eye on the other rounds. The event had simple administration and the volunteers and other competitors were friendly and helpful. The entry fee was pretty reasonable too.