The Road goes ever on and on; Down from the door where it began;
Now far ahead the Road has gone; And I must follow, if I can;
Pursuing it with eager feet; Until it joins some larger way;
Where many paths and errands met; And whither then? I cannot say.

[JRR Tolkien, Lord of the Rings]

Friday 14 March 2014

A Novel Route On The Chase

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A section of nicely-surfaced track just before Stepping Stones

Tuesday’s walk (11 March) is worthy of a very brief mention (for the purposes of my own records), for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, it was our first training walk of the year carrying loaded packs (towels and water mainly; if we were to come across a beached whale, we would be well set to help). Secondly, even though it was on our local stomping-ground of Cannock Chase, it saw us visit a couple of tracks and paths that we have never before walked.

A 15.5 mile circuit was followed (with just one failure-to-navigate deviation), with 2000’ of ascent, and whilst I didn’t ache unduly having sat down for a few hours afterwards, I was a touch on the tired side.

The day would also have been remarkable for being the first day of the year on which I wore summer trousers, if that hadn’t occurred the previous day (when Mick and I sploshed through more soupy mud than is reasonable, on a local 10-miler). As it went, it was so cold when we left the car park on Wednesday morning that I was yearning for my Paramo trousers and thinking that I would never be warm again. The latter feeling lasted as far as the first incline.

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A section of now-horribly-muddy track, which used to have a nice surface,

torn up from forest operations over this wet winter

1 comment:

  1. I never do the loaded rucksacj thing unless I'm doing an overnighter. Hmmm.

    ReplyDelete