Friday, March 29, 2013
Snow Joke!!
As I wasn't able to do this year's Charnwood Marathon due to family commitments, I decided that as it's an ideal training walk for the Three Shires Challenge and I have the route description from last year, I could just pop along and do it any time... so planned it in for Wednesday as I had taken a couple of extra days off work.
Although we had a fair bit of snow last weekend, it's nearly all gone now, and so as I parked up in equally snowless Quorn and locked the car, I assumed I may see a little bit of snow but not too much... yeh right...
The first part of the route, through Woodhouse and Woodhouse Eves, was easy, if rather muddy. I stopped at the village shop in Woodhouse Eves for supplies and the climbed towards Broombriggs Farm... oh how pretty, look- there's a dusting of snow here!
The route climbs the hill in the distance, before describing a large circle back to the track. As I climbed, the snow became deeper, and skirting the field at the top I realised that I was having to wade through nearly knee deep snow- pretty tiring! It made me feel a little apprehensive as to what was ahead...
The track up towards Beacon Hill was a mixture of ice and snow, which made for an interesting descent. The summit was relatively snow free but as soon as I started to descend the other side, I was walking through snow at least ankle deep. Of course, I didn't have my walking boots on, just my running shoes, and they quickly became sodden.
Sculpture At Beacon Hill
The 'Old Man'
Highland Cattle Near The Summit
As I descended and the climbed again the snow became progressively deeper, and I ended up walking through drifts. This is incredibly tiring- one minute you are trudging along fairly happily and then all of a sudden you plunge into the white stuff up to your thigh.
As I struggled through the next few miles, I started to wonder whether it would be feasible to try to complete the whole 27 miles. It was already taking me a lot longer than I expected and fighting my way through endless banks and drifts of snow was making me feel pretty tired.
I walked past a reservoir, surprising a stoat, and climbed through snow and mud towards the kissing gate onto the road opposite Mount St Bernards Abbey. As I neared the gate I noticed a little snag...
... I had to some how get round this little lot, and then over the drifts which had completely covered the gate. As I struggled to the gate, a passing group of walkers had an incredulous chuckle over my predicament. I noticed that someone had made it over the gate without sinking in, so tried to follow their footsteps as best I could. One of the walkers whipped her camera out, saying 'I want to get a picture of you coming over the gate!'
The Gate!
Thankfully I didn't sink.
As I had a coffee whilst sheltering in the toilets at the Abbey, I decided that a change of plan was called for... I would walk through the Warren Hills and then instead of climbing to Bardon Hill I'd cut down the road to Copt Oak.
But first I had to negotiate the Warren Hills... the path started off easy enough but quickly became blocked by an endless series of huge drifts.
Some were higher than me! I dropped height towards the road and followed a path someone had made along the lower slopes, before leaving the hills for the road.
This was harrowing- although it's a country road, it's quite straight and it's surprising the number of motorists who think it's perfectly acceptable to whiz by walkers at speed and give them about 2 inches of room...
Along the crest of the road the snowploughs had obviously been at work and sheer cliffs of snow rose high above me.
Finally I made it to Copt Oak, and then to Ulverscroft Priory by fighting through more drifts, walking on snow covering slippery mud and climbing fences as most of the kissing gates where blocked by the snow.
There was less snow from now on... just oodles and oodles of wet, slippery mud instead...
The cottages at Newtown Linford were a spectacular sight, with icicles hanging from roofs and windows. I hope that the occupants of this cottage are careful coming out their front door when it starts to thaw!
I decided not to climb up to the Old John and trudged the tourist route along the road to Hallgates car park. I was feeling exhausted and my body was struggling to retain any warmth, but I still had a few miles to go. The last part of the walk was the worst- this particular track always feels endless to me, but today it was just an endless mess of water filled, slippy mud. I'm afraid my language deteriorated at this point and I had a bit of a rant to myself about how there's no pleasure in walking anywhere at the moment as everywhere is so depressingly muddy! It's true though- I reckon we need a good six month dry spell to repair the damage that's been done.
I am a bit concerned about the Three Shires Challenge next week. If the Charnwood Hills have had this much snow, The Peaks are bound to have had more- the walk goes right into the heart of the Peaks, and paths over places such as The Roaches may be rather dodgy. The good thing about the walk is that if conditions are severe I can decide to cut out the longer loop options when I reach the checkpoint at Wildboarclough and complete the shorter 20 mile option. We shall see...
Although we had a fair bit of snow last weekend, it's nearly all gone now, and so as I parked up in equally snowless Quorn and locked the car, I assumed I may see a little bit of snow but not too much... yeh right...
The first part of the route, through Woodhouse and Woodhouse Eves, was easy, if rather muddy. I stopped at the village shop in Woodhouse Eves for supplies and the climbed towards Broombriggs Farm... oh how pretty, look- there's a dusting of snow here!
The track up towards Beacon Hill was a mixture of ice and snow, which made for an interesting descent. The summit was relatively snow free but as soon as I started to descend the other side, I was walking through snow at least ankle deep. Of course, I didn't have my walking boots on, just my running shoes, and they quickly became sodden.
As I descended and the climbed again the snow became progressively deeper, and I ended up walking through drifts. This is incredibly tiring- one minute you are trudging along fairly happily and then all of a sudden you plunge into the white stuff up to your thigh.
As I struggled through the next few miles, I started to wonder whether it would be feasible to try to complete the whole 27 miles. It was already taking me a lot longer than I expected and fighting my way through endless banks and drifts of snow was making me feel pretty tired.
I walked past a reservoir, surprising a stoat, and climbed through snow and mud towards the kissing gate onto the road opposite Mount St Bernards Abbey. As I neared the gate I noticed a little snag...
Thankfully I didn't sink.
As I had a coffee whilst sheltering in the toilets at the Abbey, I decided that a change of plan was called for... I would walk through the Warren Hills and then instead of climbing to Bardon Hill I'd cut down the road to Copt Oak.
But first I had to negotiate the Warren Hills... the path started off easy enough but quickly became blocked by an endless series of huge drifts.
This was harrowing- although it's a country road, it's quite straight and it's surprising the number of motorists who think it's perfectly acceptable to whiz by walkers at speed and give them about 2 inches of room...
Along the crest of the road the snowploughs had obviously been at work and sheer cliffs of snow rose high above me.
There was less snow from now on... just oodles and oodles of wet, slippery mud instead...
The cottages at Newtown Linford were a spectacular sight, with icicles hanging from roofs and windows. I hope that the occupants of this cottage are careful coming out their front door when it starts to thaw!
I am a bit concerned about the Three Shires Challenge next week. If the Charnwood Hills have had this much snow, The Peaks are bound to have had more- the walk goes right into the heart of the Peaks, and paths over places such as The Roaches may be rather dodgy. The good thing about the walk is that if conditions are severe I can decide to cut out the longer loop options when I reach the checkpoint at Wildboarclough and complete the shorter 20 mile option. We shall see...
