The night walk that wasn't....

This is the view up the Gatesgarth pass and is one of the sections on the 50 mile challenge that I am attempting in July. Given the holiday for me I decided to recce some of the route; and also decided to incorporate a late start. This was partly due to the weather but also taking advice from Mum and Peter, both very experienced at ultra-distance walking who advised me to get some practice at night walking - given that the walk starts at noon I am likely to go into darkness....so at 5.30 I locked the car and started up into a gloomy late afternoon.

Arriving on top of the pass after a rapid and breathless climb I was

confronted

by this......NOWHERE on the 50 mile challenge (or probably anywhere else for that matter) will I yearn for my bike as much as this....the 3mile descent into Long Sleddale and the farm at Sadgill. Mind you, I can't complain as it was not blowing a howling gale; throwing it down with rain that would not disgrace a monsoon and visibility was more than 2 inches - conditions that confronted us the last time we did this walk (the other way round.)

Rather gingerly (and I was using the knee brace) I loped off downhill - not especially fast and half jogged and half walked down the pass....

One good thing abo

ut arriving at Sadgill was this....the sun. To say this was an improvement on the rest of the day's offering would be an understatement....away went the coat into the pack where it stayed for the rest of the walk.

The bit I really wanted to check was over the Sadgill pass in Kentmere itself and that is a lot more obvious than the route description suggests...and will be runnable on the day itself as well. It took 1hr 40 to get to the church (the turn round point) and I'll aim for 1 1/2 on the event...so back up the endless Nan Bield it was to be.....this fellow had the right idea so I took my cue from him and munched a cheese sarnie...

When I eventually got to the top of the pass I found a couple of tents there....a nice spot but a little odd as there is no water. Another tent was pitched lower down on the outflow of Smallwater which would also be a nice spot...I managed to jog almost all the descent - especially the less rocky lower sections and got back to the car 3 1/2 hrs after setting out...a round that is probably 11 miles or so with a reasonable amount of ascent...quite chuffed; shame about the lack of night walking though...:-)