Distance: 7 miles

A boggy walk with everything the British weather can throw at you, except for sun.

This walk I left up to my dad to sort out, it was taken from Country Walking and lets say I will not let my dad do the navigating in the future.

The weather really was atrocious, with high winds, rain, hail, sleet and snow. Any sensible person would of stopped inside, sensible isn’t something I’m accused of very often.

Most of the walk was a trudge, but did like walking through Coldberry gutter where there were quite a few deep air vents (I think) that were sort of fenced off. It could be quite easy to fall down one.

The roads were quite badly flooded near Bowlees by the time we left and snow was just starting to lie on the road at the high point before dropping down to Bollihope common.

Sorry no photos again, haven’t replaced my camera yet and didn’t dare risk drowning another iPhone.

Quick Kit Failure Report

I managed to find out a few things about kit, due to the weather. My Sealskinz gloves are rubbish and don’t keep your hands dry at all, I’ve had them 2 years and have had problems before with them.

I also definitely don’t want to walk in Gore-Tex Trail shoes, I prefer non lined shoes. The water went over the tops of my shoes and never got back out, not a nice experience. I got home and had to pour water out of them. The shoes I used today were Inov-8 345GTX, they were orignally bought for wandering around the snow in Val d’isere earlier in the year  (which they worked perfectly for). Normally I wear either some Montrail Continental Divide or Inov-8 Flyroc 310 both are the old versions and need replacing.

Something that did work were the Icebreaker M Hiker Lite Socks, I’ve worn these a few times and a really comfortable even when they are submerged in water. Will definitely buy more of these.

The website has had a slight design refresh, I’ve been using the ColdBlue WordPress theme for a few weeks but needed a new header image. I must of mentioned this to Jonathan Craddock who sent a picture of one by Twitter.

He kindly split the image into seperate files and emailed them. I quickly got the background mountains to display, but the logo caused me a headache for the next 3 hours. Always a problem modifying other peoples code.

Anyway its up there and looks loads better than what was there before, I may modify the Steven Horner logo in the future though.

Buachaille Etive Mor by Tim Haynes

My head has been all over this week, everywhere but work. All I can think about is walking, routes, maps & gear.

I haven’t finalised my route for the TGO challenge yet, I’m intending to sit down at the weekend and not move until I decide on my route. It’s more or less taken shape itself somehow, including Sheil Bridge, Fort Augustus, Kingussie, Braemar, Tarfside & St Cyrus. Those are the main towns I would be going through, from what I’ve read there are several doing almost an identical route which is sort of why I haven’t filled in the rest in that description. I would like a few days of solitude (I think), so might rehash the rest or maybe even the whole thing.

West Highland Way Map

Besides for the Challenge, I’ve also decided I will redo the West Highland Way and finish it. Previously I stopped at Crianlarich and got the train home, I learnt a lot about gear and more importantly myself on that failed trip. In the 2.5 years that’s passed since, a lot as happened (not enough walking). I’m intending to get to Milngavie on 27th February 2009, I’m yet to confirm the time off work though. This is quite early to walk the West Highland Way I guess but it will give me a chance to test some of the gear I want to take on the TGOC and by late February I will be desperate for some time off work. Phil Turner may walk from Bridge of Orchy with me, if he’s free at the time.

I said my mind was full of walking, not content with the above 2 walks, I also have The Cape Wrath Trail stuck in my head. This is another 200 mile walk from Fort William to Cape Wrath, which from driving through the area is probably the most stunning scenery I’ve seen in the UK. I haven’t done any research  into it yet and the major problem is the time of year I would want to do it, I imagine it’s the wrong time. Late August/early September is smack bang in the middle of the stalking season and I’m guessing the midges and Ticks will be bad then. This needs a lot more thought. My dad said did I not fancy doing the Pennine Way, but my image of the 2 walks are very different and know where my heart lies.

I will have 6 weeks of holiday to take next year and don’t want to be sat on my arse staring at the computer on my holidays.

Oh the reason for Buachaille Etive Mor above, besides for it looking fantastic. I’m thinking about driving up to Kings House Hotel on New Years Eve and doing some walking on New Years Day. This is just a thought at the moment, but would be an excellent start to hopefully an amazing year.

Distance: 2.6 miles

A very short run to clear my head in horrible weather. It was p***ing it down with strong winds, which made it quite hard to run when facing the wind head on.

I enjoyed the run though, at the beginning up the track and my favourite bit through the mud of the woods near the end. I felt like a kid again jumping into the puddles and mud rather than trying to avoid it like a sensible person.

You can see the incredibly bad stats for the run here.

Distance: 6.2 miles

A short walk with the folks on Sunday morning at one of my favourite places, Tunstall. It was a bit of a wet day but far better than sitting in the house.

Unfortunately there’s no pictures, it was raining and I didn’t want to break another iPhone by getting it wet.

Distance: 6.3 miles

I went for a run last night the first in months, I’d agreed to go earlier in the week and had expected to run about 4 miles at most. We ended up running to the old Cock O’ The North round-a-bout and back.

I haven’t ran regularly since June, with maybe 2 runs since then. I have never found it easy running on tarmac, my left knee never thanks me. The outward half wasn’t too bad but I got slower and slower on the way back. I ended up finishing 5 minutes behind my running partner, although I was happy I didn’t give in and kept running to the end. I wont say how long it took me or the speed I ran out but if your interested you could look at the log here. Much Improvement is needed.

Below is a chart showing my heart rate, the highest was 205 bpm, average 197 bpm. This makes me sound like I’m about to die, well it felt like it, but this is normal for me (not the death bit).

Distance: 12 miles

I originally intended to be walking in the Lake District today, but I’m on a mission to save some money. So the £25 petrol for a lakes trip is saved instead.

I’ve seen a few pictures of the Hundred Acre Plantation at Oakenshaw on Darren Christies blog and decided I would re-visit the ponds there.

The map abovet shows my tracks from the walk along with the elevation and for a change my heart rate. For anyone who doesn’t know me or hasn’t seen my old blog, I had some heart problems a couple of years ago when I was the fittest I’ve been.  If you want to know more about it read this or this old post.

Anyway back to todays walk.

The good thing about walking locally is there’s no need to be up at the crack of dawn to drive somewhere. Today’s walk didn’t start until nearly 11 after a nice lie in. As well as Oakenshaw I also wanted to explore another area that was also Opencast in the 80′s (Birk’s Wood area). The map above still shows some Opencast workings, but I can’t remember there being any for 10 years or more.

As well as having an explore, I thought I’d take a stove and make some tea rather than having no hot drink or carrying a flask. I have never done this before on a day walk, only on multi-days. I could go on talking about the walk for ages but I’m sure no one’s interested so instead I will post a few pictures taken with the iPhone and you could look at the map.

Memorial Seat at Stanley Crook

Moto-X Track at Stanley Crook

Sheep wondering who the strange person is

Woods opposite Baal Hill (forgot name)

Overgrown pond where I sat for a cuppa

Making a cup of tea

Looking past the pot at the other overgrown pond

Ducks & swan at Hundred Acre Plantation (Oakenshaw)

Swan at Hundred Acre Plantation (Oakenshaw)

A hide in the woods

Coke? works in Willington

Quarry at Dowfold above Crook

I do nearly all of these!

Distance: 6 miles

I did this walk last Sunday with my dad, it was in very heavy rain. The original plan was for a 10 miles walk but the rain was so heavy we cut it short.

It woul be quite a nice walk on a sunnier day, but this was the heaviest rain I’ve walked in for a long time. When I got back to the car I found my iPhone and Camera had drowned in the dry bag. The bag is supposed to keep everything dry but I was stood for a while waiting to put my car keys in, while my dad was messing around with his GPS. I think rain ran in while I was stood there with the bag open.

• GPX File

I read this morning on Mike Knipes blog that emails were being sent out to let people know if they had got into the TGO Challenge 2010. After staring at my inbox for a couple of hours and nothing arriving I decided to sit down and read Crush It while I waited. I lost track of time and read a Tweet from Darren Christie asking if I got in. Dived to the computer to check my email, there was one there from Roger Smith. I had to re-read the email a couple of times to take in that I had actually got a place.

So in May next year I will be walking from the West Coast to the East Coast of Scotland by a route that I will be planning over the next few weeks. I’ve already ordered an overview map of Scotland (Scotland OS Tour Map) to help with the planning.

I’ve had a big smile on my face all day since reading the email.