The route I chose (entitled ‘Great Hill – Great Walk’) was down as being 11 miles in the book but it started in Belmont so I decided to get Duncan to drop me off there and then at the end of the run I would get back to Belmont and then go up over the top of Winter Hill back to Horwich so I worked out that it would be around 14 miles.
So Duncan dropped me off in Belmont and I set off along Belmont Reservoir. I went over the dam and then turned left up to Higher Pasture House Farm where I stopped to take a (very poor quality) picture of Winter Hill.
After going through the farm yard, I continued along the path to Lower Pasture Barn Farm, and then straight on until eventually coming out on the road to Tockholes. From here, I turned left and headed to the main road (A675) between Belmont and Abbey Village. I crossed over, ran along a bit to the right and then through the gate on the left and along a track through the moorland. There was a nice track for a while but this then turned into a complete bog which was pretty hard to run through and went on for quite a while. It was whilst following this track that I lost my bearings for the first time. I was supposed to descend to a trial shaft and then turn right by a fence over a stile but I didn’t come to any of this. I did get back onto the same track as the book though as I used my map and navigated to a wall which I followed. I then climbed up to Great Hill which wasn’t as tough as I had expected.
At the top of Great Hill I got my bearings and decided which path I needed to take. I bumped into another runner up on the top and he just so happened to be a navigation expert and he assured me that the path I had chosen was the correct one.
Once I got to Drinkwaters Farm I stopped to take a picture of ‘Joe’s Cup’. For those of you who don’t know, this is a plaque on a wall (see picture) and when some of the bricks in the wall are removed there is an old tin cup which a fell runner (named Joe would you believe) kept there so that he could use it to scoop up some water from the stream whilst out on a run and have a drink.
Just around the corner from Joe’s Cup, I bumped into Ed and John Swift. We had a bit of a natter and then Ed and John were going separate ways, Ed’s way being the same as mine. We headed down towards the quarries and then out to White Coppice. At this point Ed left and went back to Rivington and I continued along to the cricket ground. I walked through here for a bit so I could eat a cereal bar I had brought with me, and I got chatting to a couple with three Labradors. I walked along with them up to White Coppice Farm and then continued on my own. I ran through some farm fields and then out onto a narrow road and then turned off the road and went over a bridge and continued into some woods. I got slightly off track in the woods as the instructions in the book weren’t terribly good at this point but I soon found my way through and up onto the road. I then ran along the road to Jepson’s Gate and made my way to the Bomber Memorial. I was now fully aware of where I was and didn’t need to navigate but still wanted to carry on with the walk in the book, rather than just making my own way. The book took me down to Lead Mines Clough and then up the steep embankment at the other side, out into the farm field. I crossed the field until I got to the track and continued along this to a ruin named ‘Simms’. This is where I made my worst navigational error but, again, it’s because I was trying to make sense of the directions in the book which weren’t at all clear. The book told me to leave the track at this point and head towards a waymaker which was across boggy ground. It then told me to stay parallel with the track I had just left until the path I was on turned sharp right. The thing is, the ‘path’ I was on was just a total bog so it was really difficult to work out which way it went. There was mention of a bridge going over a stream but I think the bridge I went over was the wrong one.
After lots of wading through bogs, I finally made it back to a path that I knew and headed the way I thought I was supposed to. I did eventually get back on track but I had come to the next junction from the opposite direction to which I should have done!
I went past Higher Hempshaws and followed the path towards ‘Will Narr’. I then turned right to come out onto Rivington Road. I ran along the road for about 50 metres and then crossed the stile on the left and ran along the ridge back into Belmont.
Once back at Belmont, I made my way around the Blue Lagoon, which is when the weather started to turn. From here I made my way up to the top of winter Hill along the route of the Belmont Winter Hill Fell race. I was really tired at this point and walked the majority of the hill. The weather got really bad whilst I was climbing with very strong wind and hailstone pelting me all the way up. I started to get a bit worried really because I was moving quite slowly and was worried I’d get too cold. It seemed to take ages to get to the top and the weather was getting worse and worse. By the time I did reach the top I was saturated. My hands were freezing because my gloves were completely soaked.
I got onto the mast road and decided to stay on this for a while because I knew I could get a decent speed up on it and that would hopefully help keep me warm.
I turned off the mast road, cutting the corner down to George’s Lane. From there I went down through Wilderswood. By this point I was really cold. Even though I was running at a good pace my legs were so wet that I was starting to lose feeling in them. The thing is, I had kit with me, including waterproof over trousers but I didn’t want to stop to put these on because the weather was so bad that I thought stopping would just make me get colder even quicker.
I realise now how easy it is when fell running to get cold and get into big trouble. I’m so glad I was wearing decent kit – OMM smock and, surprisingly, my Crane Sports (Aldi) thermal base layer which I must say I actually prefer to my Helly H!
I’ve never been so glad to walk through my front door but my hands were so numb I struggled to get my key out of my bag, put it in the lock and turn it. Once I managed to get through the door, all I wanted to do was strip out of my soaking clothes but, again, due to numb hands, I couldn’t undo my laces to get my shoes off. Nobody was home to help me so I had to struggle for ages to get them undone. When I finally managed to get my shoes off, I stripped off there and then, right inside my front door as I couldn’t keep the wet clothes on any longer - good job the postman didn't turn up at this point as we have a glass panel next to the front door! I was really shivering and threw all my clothes onto the floor - my leggins even made a huge 'splosh' sound as they landed - and ran upstairs and straight into the shower. The warm water of the shower actually hurt my freezing cold hands which wasn’t very pleasant at all.
I’m now sat on the couch having just devoured a tin of hot soup with four slices of bread but I’m still struggling a bit to get warm, despite having turned my heating up to 24 degrees.
It really does show how dangerous it can be out there.
Total distance – 15.85 miles
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