Walking With Williams

Not going out as last weekend I went to Wales (Hay Bluff / Lord Hereford’s Knob) and promptly knackered my ankle then my knee. This time my right knee feels how my left knee felt over Christmas. This aint good as I only have 3 weeks to mend myself before start of Project Peaks. Trying to sort physio over next couple of days and might hold back on walking next weekend too – not good as it is Easter. At least my new Paramo Fuera is GREAT.

Was a little annoyed Saturday. Normally, I manage to plan the weekends route in advance taking into account weather, what to take and similar. However, due to having to go to Scotland for a couple of days and other unpredictables, I failed to do this by Saturday morning. I wasn’t too concerned as I had planned to go out on Sunday but on review of the weather (Saturday nice, Sunday not) I decided to go out Saturday. I had’nt got a clue where I was going to go and as Church Stretton is never a mistake. I know it well enough now for poor weather to not deter me and its relatively close by.

I hadn’t done a big walk for a few weeks so I decided on a variation on the previous big walk over the south Shropshire hills. I started by parking on the north end of The Lawley.  I would then walk over this gradually ascending hill then down to the foot of Caer Caradoc. At the top, I would bear eastwards through Church Stretton to pick up some munchies on way to Long Mynd.

Carding Mill Valley was my planned ascent route and I particularly enjoyed walking past Light Spout Hollow. At the top I wondered along the plateau to descend down my favorite part of Long Mynd – Ashes Hollow. This stroll was made the more pleasant by the company of an ex vicar / church geezer. He was raving about long distance walking remenising about his own travels across south of France and Pyrenees. I haven’t seen Ashes Hollow so in spate and the scrambling was wet to say the least.

At the bottom I met with the A49 and turned left to tackle Ragleith Hill which wasn’t too bad. My final hill of the day was to be Hope Bowder hill, the plan being to descend and skirt Caer Caradoc and parallel the Lawley. However, I felt I had enough energy and skin on my feet to do another crossing of Caer Caradoc though I couldn’t repeat the Lawley. I finally got back to the car as it was turning dark. I blame the lack of light for the loss of my North Face beanie – oh how I miss you…

In the end I measured 21.5 miles with about 1250 metres of ascent and my legs felt like it until Tuesday

No photos as I couldn’ t be bothered.

Damn, GTD ain’t working. Got to 11 days after my 2nd attempt at Arenig Fawr and Moel Llyfnant. I attempted this route from Trail last year but retired due to a possible thunder storm approaching. I had managed Arenig Fawr but fell short of the 2nd mountain.

So here I go again. Got to Arenig Quarry about 08.30 but there were some dodgies in the car park opposite. As it was a v. quiet Saturday, I was a bit worried about leaving the car there so I parked it along Llyn Celyn at a National Trust car park.

Walked over the Afon Tryweryn and back to the quarry. Ascended a zig zag path to the base of some crags. I realised I had gone wrong on the previous attempt ended up on Y Castell. This time I also got it wrong but to a lesser degree. Crossing the marsh to the crags, I beared a little to right to take the crags nearly head on. It was a little vertical for my liking but I made it in one piece.

At the top of the crags, the fog came down and much compass work was needed to navigate to the drystone wall which handrailed me to the summit cairn / shelter. Its great to sit in the shade of the wind and strong rain. Decending the south west ridge was interesting with the great combination of wet rock AND wet grass AND steep decent. I went two foot sliding several times.

During the descent, a combination of rain and fog coupled with tired and blistering feet lead me to the solution of retiring back to the car. At the bottom of the drystone wall in the valley, I realised that the ‘bridleway’ that took my back to the main road was not visible in the heather covered bog. The bog was quite wet and I worried about another bog / thigh encounter so I took a bearing to the start of a farmers path at the edge of the valley. I made a beeline for this having to cross several (jumpable) streams and was relieved to find the path where I wanted it.

I followed the path back to the road, accross the Afon Tryweryn and back to the car. Its great to get the waterproofs off and sit in the car with the heater on . Also, being a Saturday I missed the Sunday driver / A5 conflict making the 90 mile journey is less than 2 hours – nice.

Flickr set for walk ( sorry from camera phone)

In reflection, I made the correct choice to abandon the full trail however I was disssapointed to not be able to knock off one of my incomplete routes which currently stand at:

1. Arenig Fawr / Moel Llyfnant
2. Cadair Idris
3. Full Edale skyline via my hell – aka Brown Knoll