Recce Five – Dufton to Alston

Ideally by now I would have recce’d every section of the Pennine Way. However that’s 268 miles, a lot of travelling and a lot of time. I have recce’d all of the first leg, I’ve revisited Blenkinsop Bog – sorry, Common – always get that wrong, as well as as God’s Bridge and some other assorted bits of bog. And let’s not forget I spent many hours in bogs just so I could do a small section of the Pennine Way in the Cheviots.

However there was one section of the Pennine Way I really needed to revisit before the Big Day (it deserves capitals) and that was Cross Fell and the path to Alston. Those that have read my earlier blog entries – in particular ‘So what went wrong – Part Three?’ – will know that I had a very bad time and a great deal of confusion and delirium when I traversed this part of the course last June. I was relatively coherent at Dufton but as the light faded so did my mental competence until I was running backwards and forwards, first along the track from Greg’s Hut to Garrigill and then, even though it was now light, along the river between Garrigill and Alston.

Since the race, I’d extensively studied the OS map of the area (something I should have done more of before the race) and was fairly happy that actually the path from Greg’s Hut to Alston was quite easy to follow. However in order to banish any demons I wanted to run it again to be sure. Also I’d been guided across much of the Fells and so wanted to (OK, needed to, ‘wanted’ is perhaps overstating things) traverse Cross Fell again, navigating myself.

Anyway what his is all getting to is that a weekend was selected, (very nice) accommodation was booked and a plan formulated which was to see me standing outside the Stag Inn in Dufton at about quarter to ten on Saturday morning. The Stag Inn was the location of the Spine Safety Team, also had I gone in there and got some food and drink after I spoke to them the following few hours may have been different – although I was in a sufficiently dodgy state by then it might not have made much difference.

Sharon had dropped me off in Dufton and had gone back to Knock, a very small village a couple of miles away to park the car. She would run from Knock and meet me a mile and a half into my run on the Pennine Way in theory. In practice she arrived at the Pennine Way before me, didn’t realise it was the Pennine Way, and continued running ahead of me until after about half a mile she came to a gate and saw me puffing along desperately trying to catch up with her. As this was my last recce and the race is only a month away, I was carrying full kit, including two and a half litres of water, so my pack weighed around 7kg.

The farm track gave way to a small path which varied in existence as we climbed up towards Knock Fell. A combination of GPS and the fact that ‘up’ was the main attribute of this part of the route meant that we got to the top of the ridge with little drama. I was also carrying my filter bottle. As I’d never used it and as our route was alongside Knock Hush (according to the OS map anyway), a small stream, I stopped and filled the bottle and tried drinking from it. The water tasted OK. Sharon tried it as well, on the grounds that we might as well get ill together. On reflection, given that our accommodation only had one toilet, that was probably a bad idea. However we both survived with no ill effects.

We reached Knock Fell without any major incident but it was getting windier and the sky was getting cloudier. Soon I decided it was time for a jacket and gloves. I’ve bought a new OMM Halo jacket as years of neglect and mistreatment had caused my old one to start to delaminate. I also have an OMM Kamelika jacket, which is a bit more substantial. I’m planning on taking both on the event and using the Halo if the conditions aren’t too bad but switching to the Kamelika if the weather looks like it is going to take a turn for the worse. I would have preferred the Kamelika on this recce, the Halo did the job but it has a much simpler hood with no adjustment possible. It fits me fairly well but as the wind picked up the hood flapped and rattled in a quite deafening way. Why hadn’t I taken the Kamelika given Cross Fell’s reputation? Because I’m a nice person and I’d lent it to Sharon. Anyway whilst, as I said, the Halo had its shortcomings it did keep the wind and the (fortunately) small amount of rain we experienced out. Obviously I have no idea what the weather will be in a months time but my current expectation is that I will use the Halo from the start to CP3 and probably use the Kamelika from there on – certainly over Cross Fell and over the Cheviots anyway.

On my only previous trip over Cross Fell it had mostly been dark and so I wasn’t aware you can see the ‘Giant Golf Ball’ antenna on Great Dun Fell on the way up. I had pointed it out to Sharon, and also made her aware that we wouldn’t be simply heading straight towards it, even though we would pass it later.

Later arrived, and we were soon walking along the path below the antenna installation. The fact the path was below the installation, coupled with the size of it, meant that it provided welcome respite from the wind, a fact a fellow hiker (we weren’t really running much at this point) was making good use of as he had sat down for a rest.

I haven’t said much about the path so far, this is mainly because anyone that follows this blog could probably guess, it’s a mixture of bog and slabs in the main, with a few grassy sections that – in May at least – aren’t quite a bog.

The wind was getting worse but we were committed by now and continued on to Little Dun Fell. This was a key point for me as it was where I found some shelter and some loose rock on the Spine Race. I didn’t want to leave the shelter and I didn’t want to cross the loose rock, so I ran around in circles until someone else appeared and followed them to Cross Fell and Greg’s Hut. In daylight, and with a brain functioning as well as it ever manages, the reality is that it is a small and easily crossable patch of loose rock, and not the terrifying opportunity to twist an ankle I believed it to be before.

As we approached Cross Fell, the wind seemed to increase and the cloud got lower. I’ve been in these positions before and always felt that it is wrong that fog and strong winds should be able to exist together – surely the wind should blow the fog away? Of course the reality was that this was low bank of cloud being driven onto the fells by the wind and so one was actually a consequence of the other. Anyway when I’m up here next month the weather will be what it will be and no amount of me complaining that ‘it’s not fair’ will change it. Actually I was quite glad the weather wasn’t perfect for the recce as, whilst it could be a lot worse next month, it at least allowed me to experience slightly adverse conditions.

After a short climb upwards (through some bog, naturally) a couple of windswept adventurers took a very bad selfie at the trig point.

As we left the fell, the visibility had reduced to the point we were going cairn to cairn. Whilst I’m reasonably happy I could have found my way down without it, GPS makes life a lot easier. Even then we had to retrace our steps as, although we weren’t far away from the path, we were getting further and further into the inevitable bog. To be fair quite a bit of the ‘path’ was a bog. For reasons unknown I decided to demonstrate the limits of grip of graphene enhanced trail shoe soles and fell flat on my back when I attempted to stop on a piece of rock covered in slimy wet peat (bog).

After a short while we joined the path to Greg’s Hut to the right and the ‘Pennine Journey’ to the left. The plan was for Sharon to take the Pennine Journey path and return to Knock where she had left the car, while I would continue on the Pennine Way back to our accommodation at Alston. I was aware the weather wasn’t as good as it could be and quizzed her as to whether or not she was entirely happy for us to split up. I was happy as I knew that, despite evidence to the contrary from the last time I did it, my path was very clear and easy to follow. We had no idea what Sharon’s would be like.

She assured me she was happy to continue as planned. She did however have very cold hands as she doesn’t usually wear gloves, relying instead on putting her hands in her sleeves. Unfortunately that didn’t really work with walking poles. Fortunately the Spine kit list specifies that two pairs of gloves must be carried so I gave her my spare ones. With that sorted we went our separate ways, would we ever see each other again? I will mention at this point that we were both using Garmin Livetrack so that we could at least check on each others progress.

The only even slightly interesting thing on my route was Greg’s Hut, half a mile down. After that it was six miles of track to Garrigill. Six miles I’d run all of before, quite a lot of it several times and very little of which I remembered. Anyway this time I did something sensible and stopped at Greg’s Hut and had a snack before continuing.

Last time I was at Greg’s Hut I didn’t go in – probably a mistake, no, definitely a mistake. I did however take a picture of it and it’s that picture that is on the cover of my fundraising page. Last year I raised money for Mesothelioma UK as my Father-in-Law, Archie, hade recently been diagnosed with the disease. Sadly he passed away in November but received some amazing end of life care from Marie Curie and his local hospice, Accord. As a result this year I’m raising money for both of those great organisations. If you like my blog and would like to support me then obviously a donation would be wonderful but just sharing my page and letting people know what I’m doing would be great too.
https://donate.giveasyoulive.com/fundraising/colins-summer-spine-race
Thank you!

OK, charity appeal over, on with the bog, sorry, blog…

After Greg’s Hut the track continues in a fairly rocky lumpy sort of way until it quite abruptly becomes a smoother, sandy coloured, dirt road. I remember this very well and very badly from the Spine Race. I remember the track, I remember numerous imaginary conversations with various imaginary people telling me the checkpoint was on the track somewhere, but they kept moving it so I kept running backwards and forwards looking for it.

After several miles of running in the same direction Garrigill appeared.

On the Spine race I was met by a Safety Team member as I joined the ‘main road’ through the village. Somehow at this point I was coherent enough to convince him I was OK to continue. This time I met a 90 year old man who had lived in Garrigill all his life and had built the rather nice bungalow at the end of the track by the road. We had a brief chat about High Cup Nick and Cross Fell and I continued along the road until I turned off onto the path to Alston.

Soon I arrived at Alston. The first thing I saw was the cemetery next to the Youth Hostel. When I arrived at the checkpoint on the Spine Race I was more fit for the cemetery than to continue the race but thanks to Rachel and Max I somehow left the checkpoint and continued as those that have read ‘So what went wrong? – Part Four (the last bit)?’ will know.

I paused at the Youth Hostel and promised myself I would be back at it with a smile on my face and fit to continue this year. Rachel has told me she will be there again but this year I hope she will be looking after someone that is going to Kirk Yetholm, not Carlisle A&E!

From the Youth Hostel it was a short jog through Alston to our accommodation. I checked up on Sharon on the Livetrack and was delighted to see she was nearly back to the car. I phoned her. she was also delighted to know she was nearly back at the car. Apparently the latter stages of her route crossed numerous fields and farms with non-existent stiles, tied up gates and killer cows (no really, she was told the cows had killed people a couple of years ago – but this year they seemed OK and hadn’t killed anyone yet). Fortunately with the help of a few locals, the GPS and some determination she made it back to the car and arrived back at Alston less than an hour after me.

So, my last recce, a test with full kit and on the part of the route that was effectively my Nemesis – I may have got further but it was Cross Fell that did it. How did it go? I think it went well, the kit was all good. I was wearing Dexshell waterproof socks and would thoroughly recommend them. They were very comfortable and protected my feet from the worst of the bog. It was still a cold, unpleasant experience stepping in a bog but at least it wasn’t cold, unpleasant and wet. The Halo jacket was OK but the Kamelika is definitely being packed in my drop bag at least. Do I feel ready? Not sure. I’ve been having issues with my right calf and hamstring and so I don’t feel as fit and certainly haven’t done anywhere near as many miles as I had at this point last year. On the other hand mentally I feel far more prepared, I know what I’m taking on, and I have more of a plan than I had last year. I have to be positive and believe I can finish or what’s the point of starting?

There may be one more blog entry about my final preparations and kit – or I may leave it so late that there’s no time to blog. Anyway there will undoubtedly be social media posts – I’m trying to build my Twitter following @colinh_runs if you want to follow me. Please also do visit my fundraising page
https://donate.giveasyoulive.com/fundraising/colins-summer-spine-race
Now, more than never before, for me at least, The Only Way is Pennine!