Snow

This must surely be the last of the snow around here. It seems reluctant to go.

TGO Challenge

Well, our route has been submitted for vetting. I don't think there should be any problem with it. As first time Challengers (well, two of us, anyway), the route seems pretty straightforward to me, apart from two stretches where there doesn't appear to be any path on the ground so good navigation skills will be needed. We start at Dornie and finish at Luna Bay. Once the route is approved, I'll post some more details.

Sunday

A quite windy night and a chill wind this morning made it seem quite raw. We walked back to Wetton via Warslow and the Manifold Way, calling in at the tearoom at Wettonmill. There was a lot of snow in the higher areas we walked through and plenty of ice, making the walking quite treacherous.

My Tyvek groundsheet performed well, basically doing its intended job of keeping me apart from the wet ground. The advantages it has over my usual space blanket or polycryo sheet are that it is much more robust and folds up easily after use; also, I don't snag my boots on it causing it to tear. The drawbacks are weight (when totally dry, it weighs eight ounces) and it takes up more space in my pack. I'll get some more polycryo for ultra-lightweight trips. It only weighs about one ounce.

Peak District - Wetton

The paddock where we pitched last night had been under several inches of snow but after a wet and windy night, most of the snow had gone by this morning, but it was still pretty cold.

We headed to Hartington across mainly snowy fields and plenty of slush and ice. Beresford Lane, where it meets the River Dove at Beresford Dale, was awash.

An egg and bacon bap with coffee at the tearooms at Hartington was very welcome.

From there we went to Sheen. Snow had tended to drift in the corners of fields, just where our squeezer stiles and gates were. There was a lot of very wet mud about as well. A memorable moment was when I put my foot through snow and my leg went down through mud up to my knee and no sooner had I extricated it than the other leg went in.

On then by the hamlet of Brund and here we are, pitched in a field behind The Butchers Arms at Reaps Moor. The weather forecast for today was for much rain but we had very little.

Tarp in the snow

The first outing of 2010

Looking forward to a trip to the Peak District this weekend. The snow is clearing at last. I shall take the tarp and I have a new bit of kit to try out. As a tarp groundsheet, I usually use either a space blanket or a piece of polycryo. Neither are that strong although they are both extremely light in weight. Today, I've acquired a length of Tyvek, the stuff made by DuPont and used in roofing. It's a bit heavier but should be tougher and, I'm hoping, sufficiently waterproof. Another posting tomorrow evening hopefully.

TGO Challenge

All's been quiet on the blogging front for a while. Anyway, we now have a route more or less planned and I've plotted it on Anquet digital mapping. We shall start at Dornie on the west coast and finish at Luna Bay on the east. It's not a particularly high level route but looks an interesting one. Plenty of wild, remote country. There will be some wild camping and a few sites and a couple of stretches where there is no discernable path, which should be fun. Once we have fine-tuned the route, it will be sent in to the organisers for vetting. More on this soon.