What a Palaver!

I met up with Kev and Ed and John Swift this morning for a long run in the thin layer of snow which came down last night.  I was a bit pushed for time today as I had to get over to Leeds for a wedding so I was playing it by ear as to how far I got.  John, still recovering from his shoulder op, had a route in mind which was mostly over even ground and so the rest of us decided to keep him company.

We set off from the barn towards Rivington Green and then along to the Bowling Club and towards Yarrow.  We dropped down ‘the slipway’ out onto Knowsley Lane, where it started hailing and I wished I was wearing a cap as they kept hitting my nose and were quite big balls of hail. 

We continued along towards the Yew Tree and then turned down the road and headed over to Healey Nab.  Kev went up to the trig point but the rest of us continued along and then ran down into White Coppice. 

From White Coppice, John and Ed had decided on separate routes, leaving myself and Kev pondering over which one to take ourselves.  We both decided to take Ed’s route, my reason being that John’s route would take too long and I wouldn’t get back home in time.  Ed, Kev and I then ran up the quarry out of White Coppice and headed up to Drinkwaters.  When we were at Drinkwaters, Kev pointed out to me that if I was to carry on up Great Hill and then over Spitlers I wouldn’t make it home in time and suggested that I would be better off going back down to White Coppice as it’s much faster moving going that way and is all downhill/flat.  I agreed that this was the best idea but, knowing that it would still be six or seven miles to get home that way, I thought I would be better off ringing Duncan to get him to pick me up somewhere as time was really running out. 

Unfortunately, Duncan didn’t answer his phone.  I eventually got through to him when I was at Watermans Cottage but he informed me that, since the hail, the roads had turned to sheet ice so it would be difficult for him to come and get me from anywhere that involved a hill as the van is useless on ice.  We decided that he would just drive to the Bowling Club and pick me up from there, which is only a few miles away from where I now was.  I therefore ran along the side of Anglezarke, coming out again on Knowsley Lane which is where Duncan rang me.  He said that he would try to get to the Yew Tree so I should make my way there, which was only round the corner from where I was. 

As I was just passing the end of The Street, my phone rang again and it was Duncan saying there was no way he could get to the Yew Tree in the van because it was too icy.  He then suggested that I run along The Street and he would meet me at the other end which is what I did. 

As I neared the end of The Street, Duncan was walking along it with Ruby.  I was 0.1 miles under 11 so I said I wanted to carry on (I have a bit of a thing for having to finish on a round number) so I took Ruby and ran along to the van and, surprisingly, Duncan actually ran with me! 

So after much messing around I eventually got into the van but it then took us an hour to get home!!!  The reason for this is that Duncan decided he wanted to go to the bike shop near The Bridge to get a part for his bike but Horwich Town Centre was utter carnage!  We had no idea because, the un-gritted road to Rivington was absolutely fine, yet the town centre road through Horwich was sheet ice.  There were abandoned cars everywhere and cars, including ours, which couldn’t get up the hill outside the leisure centre.  Even the flat Chorley New Road was horrendous and people were wheel spinning everywhere.  C’mon Bolton Council, it’s not like the snow was a surprise – where was the grit!

Total distance – 11 miles

 https://www.strava.com/activities/242765178