Easter Monday 22 April - Peel Fell (NY625997; 603m)

As I climbed out of bed this morning there were protests from certain of my muscles, unaccustomed as they have become to rough terrain and hills. That wasn't a problem, as today was down as a travelling and chores day, not a walking day...

...but the weather is so good just now. And it's a bank holiday, which suggested that forestry operations were unlikely to be active. And we were going to be driving past Peel Fell anyway. And it wasn't too big an outing.

So, I went up Peel Fell.

Unburying my bicycle from Bertie's boot was quite an endeavour, but it's one that Mick kindly undertook whilst I faffed around indoors and tried to convince my weary body that nipping up a hill really was a better option than having a mid-afternoon kip.

My route. Light red was by bike, bold red on foot.

It was gone ten past three by the time I pedalled off up the road, discovering after a couple of hundred metres that there was a layby right opposite the forest track I was to take. Ne'er mind. I'm sure the extra few pedal strokes did me good.

My objective. I stopped lower down in the forest to take a snap from a much better vantage point, but got distracted faffing with other things and completely forgot my reason for stopping

It's always a joy when an outing turns out to be significantly easier than expected, and this was one of those days.

The bike ride (my first time on my bike since Marilyn-bagging in Scotland last May) was a sufficiently gentle reintroduction to the activity, with only one short section of track causing me to click my way into the easiest gear.

Once I'd abandoned the bike at the track end, I expected a tussocky yomp. I certainly didn't anticipate a trodden line, with regular waymarkers, but that's what I got.

It may not qualify as a good path to most people, but it's a definite trodden line, making the going much easier than expected.

Another hazy day puts most of the hills behind me out of view.

Getting back down was a retracing of steps, and I'm afraid that in order to get back to my bicycle I had to break the rules:

Talking of getting back to my bicycle: on my way there I spotted another bike leaning against a cut tree trunk. "How odd!" I thought, as I hadn't seen anyone else on the hill. Where could they have been walking? And how fit must they be to have tackled the path beyond the track end? Then I noticed the track just a few yards away from the bike and realised that it was, in fact, mine. Idiot!

The stats: 2.5 miles each way on the bike and a few yards under 1 mile each way on foot. Around 190m ascent on the bike and 220m on foot.

Easter Weekend Backpack - Day 2

It's a few days more than two years since I last spent a night in a backpacking tent, and that was only a one-nighter. My last 'proper' backpacking trip was on the GR10 in the summer of 2016. It's a bit like riding a bike, though, in that I found I hadn't forgotten how to pitch a tent, prepare an evening meal or any of the other tasks required for a comfortable night on a hillside. There was just one 'how to' that had apparently fallen out of my memory: sleep.

The upside of a wakeful night was that we got an early start. Everything was packed, the tent stowed and breakfast had in the bothy (I did peer through the windows first to ensure it hadn't become occupied during the night; a late arrival wouldn't have appreciated us clattering in just after 6am!).

Well fed and watered and with our packs feeling light (even though we were carrying almost everything we'll need for the TGO Challenge - we didn't repack to remove stuff unneeded on a one-nighter in excellent weather), out of the building we strode whereupon a decision had to be made: left or right.

The plan had been to return by following the track towards Garrigil, then skirting back around Cross Fell. The whim that took us when faced with the decision was to go back over Cross Fell. It's taken me 11 years to get around to visiting its summit, so why not do it twice in 13 hours?

Mick on Cross Fell, with the sun in the east

In contrast to Saturday, when I scampered over the hills seemingly effortlessly, even with the pack on my back, on Sunday morning I felt positively sluggish and my legs protested at the reascent. I drew on the recollection of many mid-trip-weary Marilyn-bagging days when, during my first ascent of the day, I felt like I couldn't possibly do another X hills that day. So it proved to be. By the time we were on our way up the next lump on the ridge (Little Dun Fell), my legs had come to accept my expectations of them.

It was in between Little Dun Fell and Great Dun Fell that we passed the tent of a couple we'd spoken to on the other side Great Dun Fell on Saturday. We'd wondered what had become of them.

Our retracing of Saturday's steps only lasted as far as Knock Old Man, where we shunned the Pennine Way in favour of what could be described as 'good TGO Challenge training' as we set off across tussocks (fortunately no bogs to speak of in the current dry conditions) towards the old mine track above Great Rundale Beck.

By the time we made our way down the steep grassy slopes to the track below, the day had warmed back up to 'shorts and t-shirt' level. Being the weekend (indeed, Easter Sunday), we soon started meeting families walking up towards us and could see people making their way up and down the SE ridge of Dufton Pike.

My plan for Dufton Pike had been to head straight up its east side, visit its summit and descend the path down its SE ridge. Then Mick said he wasn't joining me on this little side trip, which meant I could stick with the plan, or walk slightly further, adding on a bit of descent/re-ascent, in order to take the side trip without my pack. I opted for the latter.

It's a steep ascent even on the path, but the ground was packed hard and was relatively smooth so I was able to make good time* and Mick wasn't waiting for long. Save for two people just finishing their ascent as I set off, I was lucky enough to have the hill to myself.

Happy to be there

It was then just a matter of following the track into Dufton and retracing our steps back to Brampton, where we arrived just over 23 hours after setting off, having covered a total of around 22 miles with (for me) around 4700' of ascent (3000 on Saturday, 1700 on Sunday).

A successful shake-down trip, except for the small matter of sleep. I'm wondering whether we can manage the logistics of another overnighter next week so I have the opportunity of practising that aspect of backpacking one more time before embarking on a longer trip.

^{(* I reached the top in 13 minutes and trotted down in 5. Later in the evening I saw that the route I took (0.35 mile with 170m ascent) is a Strava segment. Admittedly the entries on that list will have been running it, but their times made my times look very leisurely.)}