Jepsons Gate and Healey Nab

Duncan wanted to chill out drinking tea in the van this morning and so drove over to Jepsons Gate to admire the scenery.  I went with him so that I could go for an easy run whilst he supped his tea and read his book.  Unfortunately, despite having it in his hand seconds before leaving the house, he forgot his book!  He ended up reading the various literature we store in the van, i.e. British wildlife books and walking/mountain biking guide books.

I ran down the road from Jepson's Gate, turning off on the left after the farm and heading down through the woods towards Anglezarke Reservoir.  I then ran along through the farmland and trails, coming out further down the road at Waterman's Cottage.  I followed the edge of the reservoir and climbed up the steps and through the field, to the Bridleway at Healey Nab which I crossed straight over and headed up to the cairn.  I was running surprisingly well this morning which was pleasing.

I came back down from the cairn back onto the bridleway and ran all the way along and out onto Back Lane.  Instead of staying on Back Lane to the Yew Tree, I came off on the left at the bend to go cross country.  It was insanely boggy around the stile and a man with wellies on was wading through telling me it was too deep.  I just said 'ah, what's the worst that can happen?' and ploughed on through, listening to him laughing (not in a nasty way) as I splashed my way along.

Very wet and muddy feet later, I came out onto the road opposite the Street and ran along to 'the slipway/the cascade' which I ran up really well but unfortunately didn't manage to get myself a PR on Strava. In fact, it later transpired that I was 12 seconds behind my PR.

Still running reasonably well, I made my way along the trail, out onto the road and along to Lead Mines Clough.  This was where the hard part came in, the short climb back up to the path to Jepsons Gate.  Thankfully, as mentioned, it is short so was over with quickly and here I did get a PR, beating my previous PR by 14 seconds.

Total distance - 5.7 miles