Glossopdale Adventure Weekend Part Deux

The original Adventure weekend was mooted a while back. The premise being that on a given weekend, people from the Harriers might meet up in a Pub on the Friday night, discuss what they might try and do on the weekend that would challenge themselves either physically, mentally, or indeed both, before dispersing, doing said activity and then coming back to the pub on the Sunday to chat about their experiences.

Last time, it became apparent that the actually getting to a particular pub was problematic, which was a bit of a shame as I really wanted to have a bit of a social element to the whole thing. However, what with family commitments and life and all that kind of stuff getting in the way, it was deemed not necessary for the Second outing.

That being said, a few of us visited a put on the Friday night to discuss plans, and there were a few more people who joined in the adventuring over the weekend.

Marky Davenport

“winner” of the prize last time, for his audacious “longest run ever” from Hope to Glossop, Mark decided that this time the local hills weren’t going to provide enough of a challenge for him. His plan to do the Yorkshire 3 Peaks was there in the back of his mind, but was struggling to find accommodation. This may well have been something to do with the fact that this weekend is the 3 peaks Cyclocross race…. Unperturbed. Mark decided on a day-raid to Horton-in-Ribblesdale to do the 3 Peaks in the best style possible. Although navigation isn’t all that necessary on the route, it is relatively important to know which side of the hill you need to come off of, so he needed to keep his wits about him in the clag that was down. Thankfully, he ran it on the Saturday and so didn’t come to any grief with a few hundred cyclocrossers bashing across the moor. He did the route in under 6 hours, had a short break and trundled his way home to vast crowds and cheers of celebration. Have a look at his route here.

Obi-wan-sikobe and Guy Riddell

Decided that just running Glossop parkrun on its 2nd anniversary wasn’t enough. Indeed, just going for a quick pootle prior to it as a warm up wasn’t enough. Sikobe thought that heading out at just about 5am might be the best idea, and of course Guy was going to be up at that time anyway. They teamed up for a trot over to Wildbank trig, before heading back down the hill, over and across to their first “parkrun” of the day in somewhere I didn’t recognise, and THEN running across the way to Hyde for the second early parkrun…. and THEN heading over to Glossop for an actual, bone fide Parkrun at the right time. Phew. Quite a mornings work. True to form, parkruin, followed by vast amounts of cake had a slightly deleterous effect upon Sikobes muscles and he found gradual increments of cramp creeping through his calfs and quads. It was an impressive display of fasiculations, though Im not entirely sure that Sikobe really cared what they were called. I believe that the euphoria of doing a 26.1mile run vastly outweighed any of the post run pain. Here is the lovely tracky-thing.

Mark Harrison

Continuing the theme of going on a somewhat lengthy running adventure, Mark took the option of having a lazy day on the Saturday in order to gird his loins before heading out for a run on Sunday. The general premise appeared to be visiting the Dark Peak Tops in a somewhat more exciting version of the “Trigger”. Starting from Glossop with a nice easy blast along the trail, he then wandered up to Black hill, before coming back down a version of the Crowden Horseshoe route, before the first proper scramble of the day – up Wildboar clough… which is still a little bit Green to say the very least. Across Bleaklow to Bleaklow Head, then a straightline over to Kinder, taking in the somewhat excessively steep scramble of Upper (or was it Nether?) Redbrook. A simple jog out and back to Kinder Low and then back down via Wormstones saw the day finished. What a day though. Beautiful views, a bit of a breeze, a couple of scrambles, and a fine route across some of the best terrain that we have locally. Have a butchers at his rather superb video here.

Al and El

There aren’t enough waves in Glossop, someone was once heard to say. It was the call of the sea that drew Al and Els across the reaches of North Wales to Abersoch for a couple of days of surfing. Perhaps more of an adventure for Al, having never really ventured into the water alongside a 6ft plastic board. As magic seaweed promised, the surf was good on the saturday, and was proper banging on the sunday, providing plenty of opportunity to learn how to wipe out in style and consume your bodyweight in seawater. I’ve seen a photo of them in a car on the way back to Glossop, so apparently they are out of the water and are safely back on land. Having said that, I haven’t seen either of them in the flesh, so if someone could go and knock on one of their doors to check they got back, that’d be marvellous.

Charlie and Anne

Turned up to the pub on Friday night and said… what is everyone doing here? We’re here for a pre-dinner drink!

The Swans

Phil, Els, Caitlin and Josie, whether by accident or design, used the adventure weekend to head down to the Equinox running festival thing down in Leicester. Phil, as mentioned in the weekly report had some success in the 10k, as in he got round without anyone mugging him for his bermuda shorts, Els proved herself to be far more adventurous than her husband by taking part in the 24hour race as a part of a team of 8, while Caitlin and Josie ran in the Juniors race, providing the best results of the family with Josie coming 1st and Caitlin 4th. I would imagine that any alcohol that was won will have gone to the parents? Or are race organisers a bit more switched on to that now?

Alice and Tim

Definitely planned this one. I can’t believe that Alice *accidentally* happened to have her Birthday on the same weekend as the adventure weekend. The dauntless couple headed off to the Bogfest to enjoy vast amounts of cold, stagnant water, and then ran through a load of bogs. According to Tim (who apparently DIDN’T try to sabotage Alices race this time) Alice gave herself the bumps on the way down the final hill, and yet still managed to come in 3rd lady. This was then followed by an uproarious meal and drinking competition in a pub in Chorlton which descended into Happy Birthdays and a round of Sambuca from which our Glaswegian friends (John Ryan and Matt Hux) don’t appear to have recovered from yet.

Steve Knight

I’m just looking at strava and extrapolating now…. I have no idea if Steve actually knew it was the Adventure weekend, but whatever… he got away from the responsibilities of the family for a short time and did a quick bimble over Kinder. Well, I say a quick bimble, if you count half the Kinder Killer, with its associated ups and downs as a quick bimble. He keeps saying he is injured…. I’m not entirely sure.

Rob Murphy and Claire Higgins

Again, I’m totally extrapolating from Strava here, but their great adventure was probably more to do with actually getting to Cornwall rather than the run! (have you TRIED to drive down all those little roads crowded with umpteen campervans travelling at 10mph? I digress). They set out on a rather marvellous tour of Tin mines and Torrs. Or, rather less romantically, Mud and Mire. I’m guessing that there was a fair amount of bog, some fabulous views, a few mine workings and, most probably, Fish and Chips for tea.

Emma Rettig

Emma started out on a massive run around the Peak district, probably something that was going to rival the 21 trigs. A true 28 hour epic. Unfortunately her plans came to naught as illness and general malaise overtook her on her way up to the moor. Still, I presume she has a plan for the epic run to take place at some other time, so I look forward to seeing that up on strava over the winter!

Ok, I really don’t know who else did what in terms of adventurous stuff, and to be honest, I’m pretty much making it up now. I’m “awarding” the prize to Mark and Mark jointly – though I have yet to decide what it is that I’m awarding. I suspect it’ll be a Penguin biscuit circa 1987 or something. Whatever I can find in the bottom of my emergency food bag, really. It has been suggested that we have another Adventure Weekend type thing in a couple of months – ie. once the days get shorter and people are less inclined to get out and about. Anyone fancy planning an adventure for the weekend of the 4/5th November?