Mini Adventure #2: The Edale Skyline

My second mini-adventure started with an unwelcome alarm at 6 am on Saturday morning signalling the need to get out of my nice warm bed in time to get over to Edale in time to see the sun rise. I was planning to run the route of the Edale Skyline,  an annual fell race race of 21 miles and 1400 m of ascent, starting at Edale and hugging the skyline around the valley.

I crawled out of bed, got some porridge and coffee down me and headed off in to the Peaks. After some minor unplanned detours due to a road closure and a stupid car park ticket machine not wanting to let me buy a ticket until 8 am, I set off from the car pack by Mam Tor (just missing the first bits of the sunrise as a result of that ticket machine!). 

There was biting wind but I warmed up quickly, gaining a bit of height getting up onto the ridge and then quickly getting cold again as I got the camera out – couldn’t resist, it was a stunning morning.  The ridge took me up over Lords Seat and after a bit of indecision as to the best route to take over to Brown Knoll I found the path.  This section is hard going over the bog (good training for the sand!) and I wished it had been a little colder over the preceding days as there was only a thin skin of ice over the peat.  I can be a real wimp when it comes to first getting my feet wet, so there was a bit of fannying about trying to keep my feet dry. Once even a tiny dibble of water gets into my shoes I don’t care anymore and will run through anything – you would have thought I’d have grown out of this by now!

Anyway it was a beautiful morning, I had only the grouse and skylarks for company and I was buzzing – definitely worth getting out if bed for. Once I had got by feet wet I was really enjoying the terrain – not moving terribly fast it has to be said, but this wasn’t about speed. I got up onto Brown knoll, had a quick breather (not the first I have to confess, but the earlier stops were mainly driven by photo opportunities), and headed off over towards Kinder – more fun bog and then… out on to a walkers motorway – not nearly so much fun! I met my first people on my way up toward Kinder Low – all nice and cheery having been up for the lovely rise too.

I briefly departed from the route here to pop up to the trig point on Kinder Low.  I’ve only ever been up on Kinder Scout in the cloud so I was curious to get a view over the plateau – and this was supposed to be about exploring after all.

After this point the trail becomes quite rocky with lots of amazing weathered rock formations in a strangely alien looking landscape. I may have been hallucinating, but I was sure I saw what looked like the outline of a family in one of the formations (sculpture not real of course – I’m not that loopy yet). There was a really fun bit with the trail going between the rock in a formation, with some rock acting as stepping stones over a small gully. I was glad I wasn’t doing this bit in the dark!

After a couple of miles I reached the path split down to Edale and having been robbed my opportunity to do the route from the correct start point by the stupid ticket machine, decided I had to go down to the bottom of the valley to make sure I didn’t miss any height gain. The sensible people out for their Saturday walk evidently thought I was out of my mind as I passed them for the second time on my way back up.

As a reward I stopped back on the top for a little lunch and to take in the view. Then set off again round the edge of the moor with a wide open view over to Win Hill. The downhill stretch was lovely but I realised on the way back up again that I hadn’t been quite vigilant enough with my sugar and suddenly found myself very grumpy at the path for daring to go upwards, however gently. That uphill seemed to take ages (I wasn’t moving very fast) but the views were lovely and the sun surprisingly strong. From the top of Win Hill it was a quick (or not so quick) downhill into Hope, past the Cheshire Cheese Pub which looked far too inviting. The final uphill was a 300 m ascent up to the top of Loose Hill, which wasn’t too far but it felt like a very long way with my knackered legs. The views were definitely worth it though, and I could see the entire route.  From there it was just a last couple of miles along the ridge back up to Mam Tor, into the sun. I was rewarded with some spectacular views of some hang-gliders to finish off with.

Mini-Adventure #1: 24 Miles of Thunder, Lightning and Locks

In the process of trying to find ways of making my long runs interesting, I came across Alistair Humphreys' website. Among other many other interesting and inspiring entries on his website (along with some great photography), he has a section on 'micro adventures'. This gave me the idea of turning my long distance training sessions into mini adventures and do a bit of exploring.

So this was my first mini adventure (not ever of course), running from Salford up the Rochdale Canal to Littleborough to meet a couple of friends for a run and a few pints down the pub afterwards. This route has the advantage that the canal follows the route of the railway pretty closely so it would be easy to escape if anything went wrong, like an injury playing up.

So I headed out from Salford and down onto the canal in Castlefield which I would follow all the way up through north Manchester and on up to Littleborough. I could see a storm up ahead and it looked like I was heading into oblivion it was so dark. Spend any length of time outside in north west England and any time of year, particularly in November and you expect to get a bit wet... I was about to get more than just a little wet!

It felt wonderfully silly to be setting out on my mini expedition into a storm, exploring new places I have lived so close to for so long but never been to. Manchester has such a rich industrial and cultural heritage that it doesn't make enough noise about in my opinion. The route of the canal shows off a great cross-section of the city - not all of it pretty by any means but so interesting passing all of these big old brick industrial buildings in various states of decay, some still in use and whirring away. The housing and old factories eventually give way to countryside and more and more picturesque locks and views. By this point it was absolutely tipping it down with a mixture of rain and hail which was just about hard enough to sting exposed areas of skin, and I was thinking that I should have brought a torch with me. All these factors may have contributed to be getting fairly convincingly lost around the M60 crossing where the tow path disappears - all part of the adventure! I did eventually manage to find the canal again after consulting Google Maps a couple of times and a stop off in an off licence (only for directions, promise).

I'm not sure whether I just kept running into the same storm, or if there were several different storms but I got comprehensively drenched at least 3 times. The advantage of all this weather was that there weren't may people to get in the way on the tow path, save the odd slightly very damp person out for a walk and some very silly people out angling. They must have been absolutely freezing sat there not moving - at least I was generating a fair amount of heat as I went!

It is a while since I can remember being outside during a thunder storm and I'm used to windows and walls dulling the sound slightly, so when there was the first flash rapidly followed by a very loud peel of thunder overhead, it almost made me leap into the canal! I quickly got used to it though and it made things just that bit more interesting.

After three hours or so running, I made it up to Littleborough and met my mates just in time for the sun to show its face. The took me for a lap of Hollingworth Lake and then we headed to the pub so I could undone some my good work with a pint or two of the local brew.  

So is the anti-boredom strategy working? Well, lately during my long runs I have needed music to keep myself entertained which works, but that is really just numbing the brain to the monotony - not a proper fix. This time I didn't need or even feel like listening to any music - I was just happy pootling along and taking in my surroundings - a good sign I think!

I also used my newly acquired rucksack - the smaller version of the Inov-8 pack (Race Pac 16) i used for the OMM - as expected very comfortable and very stable with no bouncing around as I ran. Can thoroughly recommenced it.