Went out yesterday to retry the Scarpas. It must be 6 weeks or so since my ankle started hurting and it is still bad. Went to Sutton Park, walked about 250 metres then returned to the car. Not good. Looks like a winter in approach shoes as even my old boots hurt to wear now.
Was only going to go to Sutton Park today for short walk but after yesterdays dissapointment, I decided to do the Longnor walk from Country Walking this month. Started out ok from Longnor, but it wasn’t long before I was trudging through a 8 inch deep muddy field, somehow managing to not get wet field. After skirting Upper Wheedon hill, I crossed some further fields heading towards the North West end of Chrome Hill. My left knee started hurting again as I decended to Chrome hill, but continued up to the top. I had forgotten just how craggy this hill is – though small a bit of scrabling can be found. I played for a while on this procastinating about the descent, I knew it would hurt me knee. It did. Took about 20 mins to decend including lots of zig zaging using both trekking poles.
Once down, a shortish painful walk back to Longnor got me back to the car. Did have a few scary moments climbing up the muddy bank just before town, looks like Merrells are not the best for muddy climbs!