Coniston 10,000 - Day 2

(Continued from here.)

Saturday morning 19/03/2011 Coniston.

After a drunken night's sleep and being repeatedly awoken through dehydration, toilet visits, headache tablets and a faulty B&B alarm clock, I finally awoke at the correct time of 7:30 and went downstairs for my English breakfast.

I felt surprisingly well, ate my food, booted up and walked the short distance into town to meet the forming flock at the tourist information car park.

Waiting there for people to arrive I quickly realised I was struggling to stand up straight without wobbling - the reason I was feeling reasonably OK was because I was still drunk. The merciless, and deserved, teasing started here and continued throughout the day and evening.

I then got a lift in Patrick's van up to the Walna Scar Road car park. Here we waited and met up with everyone else.

Roll call
(In no particular order and with Geocaching usernames.)
Ernie (Mr. Truffles) - his event, his soon-to-be 10,000th cache.
Mike (MikeG) - flag carrier (for the peak and for photos.)
Steve (StevieP)
Patrick and Donna (Patdhill) and Dizzy the dog.
Dave and Sue (The Black Pigs) and Brook the smelly caching dog (their words, not mine.)
Paul (Penfolio)
Gary (Bleaklow)
and me Mark (Aggrajag)

We started with a gentle walk along the Walna Scar Road heading towards the Boo Tarn path that we were going to take up to the summit of Coniston Old Man but tragically I remember very little of the first hour. My lungs felt like I was eighty, I was wheezing, my heart was pounding and I was perpetually thirsty. I'd taken tablets and had two litres of water on me for the day, so I was prepared - but my body wasn't.

Within twenty minutes I thought I would die here. I honestly couldn't cope, even taking it all one-foot-in-front-of-the-other I could see I'd not make it to the first plateau nevermind the summit. Why on Earth did I drink so much the previous night?

Ernie encouraged me and told me to take my time, along with another couple who were struggling, and to keep plodding on steadily each time the group stopped to find and sign a cache. I mostly did this and for this reason didn't even see the first five caches.

We headed up and up and up, in beautiful weather with clouds around the peaks, and slowly my body started to work. Like a seized up engine slowly easing free my lungs expanded and performed more quietly so my breathing was far less laboured, my joints loosened and my pounding heart slowed to a steady pace. Continually sipping water from my platypus I gradually felt better although I did take another couple of painkillers about 10:30am for a headache I could feel creeping in.

During one of my 'keep on walking' phases I missed a turning, or to quote someone I "zagged instead of zigged" and ended up a good way off course. Determined at all costs not to walk downhill and waste any energy already spent I mountain-goated it along a non-path towards a potential rendezvous point and consequently completely missed the third cache by about a 70 foot elevation.

Some distance up the mountain

Between the third and fifth cache I was fooled by a couple of false peaks. Maybe it was just delusional hope but it's soul destroying to come over the brow of a hill to see another three in front of it.

Further up the mountain and looking to Coniston Water

We all grouped up at the fifth cache (Geocache link: Peek a Boo 5) ready for the final push; the steepest part of the walk and the last leg before the summit. I was feeling even better so set off second behind Mr Truffles who had got a burst of 'Truffle power' because the next cache would be his 10,000th.

A really arduous walk to the top, I was easily overtaken by Bleaklow, but was pleased to eventually arrive third and joyously congratulated Mr T on his epic landmark - 10,000 caches! - it really puts my 700 into perspective.

It was now 10:50, only 100 minutes into the expedition yet amazingly 1,800 feet higher than the start with us now being at an altitude of 2,550 feet.

Everyone arrived and we celebrated with champagne and chocolate truffles from the main man himself, and also parkin provided by the Black Pigs. (Personally I would have sold my children at this point, had I got them with me, for a cup of coffee.) MikeG constructed his Yorkshire flag and we took many photos of the group and the fantastic views all around us - including 'Low Water' 700 feet directly below us. We even sang 'Happy 10,000 to you' to the tune of Happy Birthday. It was bitterly cold, now exposed to the wind, and there were even patches of snow around but we stopped for 30 minutes before heading off North towards Brim Fell.

Mr. Truffles bags his 10,000th cache
(Also note snowball made by Bleaklow)

Mr. Truffles being congratulated by flag carrier MikeG

A view from the peak down to Low Water - a deceiving 700 feet below

(Please note that my pictures today were taken by a simple point and shoot Kodak digital camera. Distance does not show itself in these pictures and the lighting is also pretty poor in some of them.)

A long flat walk, rising only 30 feet over the next half a mile we soon arrived at the highest point of our day at 2,587 feet - the peak of Brim Fell. Heading South-West we made a long descent to a dip between Brim Fell and Dow Crag and here we stopped for lunch in a lovely sheltered location affording us fantastic views towards the rocky mountaineering sides of Dow Crag. Time to eat, take some more pictures and also have a play with my binoculars.

Looking at Dow Crag

From this lower point of 2,100 feet we then walked steadily up to the peak of Dow Crag arriving at 12:30 and now at about 2,470 feet. Hard going again as I had food sitting uncomfortably inside me - nothing to do with alcohol or the side effects, just simply a lump of food in the way. Otherwise I was feeling fantastic.

Here some of us (not me I confess) found A Window on Dow Crag (Geocache link) which is a hard cache overlooking very steep cliffs. Here there is a stone rested on another stone leaving a 'window' in the mountain. All much too scary for me.

StevieP following Mr. Truffles to 'The Window'

From here a long gentle walk South through bitterly cold blowing fog towards Brown Pike peaking at 2,120 feet. The clouds were very strange for although you could see them blowing past you merely five feet away you could still see tremendously long distances. It was like fog in reverse.

By this point I was full of energy and feeling fit as a fiddle albeit, of course, with tired legs.

From here we headed South West on a long, but easy, dog leg to pick up a couple of unrelated caches. The first half was tricky, rocky paths but the second half was lovely flat grass and was a welcome relief on the ankles.

An about turn and most of the way back to Brown Pike stopping short and heading off East across the Southern face of it before turning North and heading along the East face towards a natural wonder (in my eyes) - Blind Tarn. This is a beautiful natural lake invisible from all sides except from Brown Pike above; crystal clear water fills a genuinely tranquil hidden oasis. We all stopped to admire it's beauty for fifteen minutes or so.

A view from above taken much earlier

A Mediterranean Oasis? Nah, it's near frozen

The same with the sun hiding

Back to the path on the South face of Brown Pike and then a long hard trek East along a stony and rocky path until we arrived, knees aching, at a stone bridge over a small beck. I found this rather strange as it was the first sight of civilisation we'd had for several hours and seemed rather at odds with the surroundings. From here we could also see through the reverse side of 'The Window' way, way up the hills back at Dow Crag to our North North West. Another peek through the binoculars to see it much closer.

The end now in sight we decided to divert once more to pick up another cache at a disused quarry south of the track we were on. Leaving rocky tracks we thankfully started walking on grass again and soon arrived at a man-made wonder. A beautiful waterfall hidden in what appears to be an abandoned slate quarry (I could be wrong.) The pictures do not do the light justice.

Abandoned quarry

A different view

Heading back North to the original track again (and having to regain lost height much to the chagrin of certain members) we soon arrived back at the track and then made the final push North East then East back towards the car park only stopping for a quick look at some rocks to fulfil the requirements of an Earthcache (and educate ourselves) and also a group photo for the same reason.

From L-R: Sue, Dave, Brook the Dog, MikeG, Bleaklow, StevieP, Penfolio, Yours truly, Patdhill, Dizzy the Dog and Mr. Truffles.
Thanks to Donna for taking the photo.

We arrived back at the cars, weary and aching, at 15:30 having been out for six and a half hours and having walked/climbed/struggled through nine miles of mountains atop five peaks - Old Man of Coniston, Brim Fell, Dow Crag, Brown Pike and White Maiden.

Elevation profile of the walk - it's got up and down bits!

The route as mapped by my GPSr

The route viewed in 3D using Google Earth.
The start and finish point is at the far right.
We worked anti-clockwise.

We drove back down to the village of Coniston and for a final flourish took a group photo for a webcam cache (our 20th cache and last of the day) before Mr. Truffles kindly bought us all a much needed celebratory pint. An hour's chatting, more shaking of hands and slaps of backs and then we all mostly went our own ways.

Webcache photo

Five of us remained for a further night. We met up for food at seven but I can tell you it was significantly more subdued than the previous evening and after food and a lemonade I was back at my B&B for 10pm watching TV and ready for a sleep!

All in all an absolutely fantastic weekend. I hope to do it more often and even now, three days later, I'm still buzzing from the experience.

Thank you to ALL that attended for making it the event it was.

Incredible.

Coniston 10,000 - The evening before the morning after

I'm breaking this weekend's events down into two blogs. This first one is going to have very little to do with actual Geocaching and an awful lot to do with Guinness...

Ernie 'Mr. Truffles' Roper has been planning for his 10,000th cache for a couple of months and wanted to do something special. He eventually settled upon the idea of walking up and around The Old Man of Coniston (aka Coniston Old Man, here's a link to some info about it on Wikipedia.) Essentially it is a mountain. A big mountain surrounded by other mountains and those mountains are surrounded by hills disguised as mountains or mountains pretending to be hills, I'm not sure, but that's how it seemed to me. However I digress, more of this in blog #2.

I had wanted to go on this walk since I'd heard about it but was worried about the logistics of work, having the kids at weekends, driving long distances and various other things I always seem to worry about.

However the Monday before the event I took the plunge and arranged with my ex-wife to have the kids over the weekend, booked two nights B&B in Coniston and set about preparing my packing list, my equipment and my mountain of technology - camera, GPS etc. I even ordered myself a quality pair of binoculars which I may or may not remember to mention later.

I was looking forward to it all week and as I'd already booked the Friday morning off for my son's guitar exam I extended this to the whole day and set off at 2pm for the ~3 hour drive to Coniston. Beautiful weather, very little traffic and the first five remastered Queen albums (for their 40th anniversary!) to entertain me on the journey. Things were looking good.

I arrived at 4:30, unpacked (well I'm a man - I opened my suitcase), and headed off into town for some food. I settled into the Crown Inn and ordered Steak and Kidney pie and a Guinness. Excellent food. From here I emailed Mr Truffles and asked him to forward my mobile number to anyone else who was already in the area. I'd not been clever enough to do this earlier in the week except for an email to two attendees that morning.

A quick reply and I see he's forwarded it to StevieP who he guesses may already be in the Sun Hotel. At the bar.

I trot up there and just as I arrive my phone rings. It's Paul 'Penfolio' (someone I'd emailed that morning) who is just arriving at the Crown so I return to meet him and also StevieP - I must have missed them by seconds just ten minutes earlier. It's good fortune Penfolio had read my email as StevieP had been given the wrong number for me. (Typing error.)

Introductions are made and a round is ordered. StevieP and his wife are regulars to Coniston and recommend elsewhere to eat so I follow them all to The Yewdale where they order food. A couple more drinks are ordered and then Dave and Sue 'The Black Pigs' arrive. More introductions and more beer.

It's only about 8pm, I'm on five pints and thinking hey, the night is young; there's loads of time to rest and sober up ready for the morning. It's the weekend, it's new friends, it's a holiday!

Penfolio expresses some concern about carrying on drinking but I can tell he likes a drink. I manage to pursuade him (after about 5 seconds) to have another - and anyway, StevieP, the local expert, has said Coniston Old Man is, and I quote, "A walk in the park", "Easier than Jagger's Clough" (on Kinder Scout) and "Nothing to worry about". Oh how we laughed through the tears at these comments the next day.

Moving up to StevieP's regular holiday drinking den, The Sun Hotel, we find it is a large hotel and bar full of Red Nose Day revellers and celebrations. There are darts and domino tournaments being arranged, quizzes and other such entertainment. The place is packed and loud but all good fun. Several of us get roped into events and somehow I end up becoming a domino referee - moving into another side of the pub full of boisterous women determined to win at dominoes for which no-one is actually sure of which rules are being played. As a referee I make some up and stick to them.

From this point on things are hazy; stories were swapped and arguments were had with the noisy gang of women. Penfolio and I had a good laugh and I did my best to circulate between both sets of new friends, buying and drinking rounds at both ends of the pub. The beer monster had well and truly kicked in.

By 10pm I do remember thinking that I would easily manage in the morning, after all it was only a walk in the park, nothing to worry about.

By 11pm my logic had turned to who cares, I'll probably be OK and so what if I'm not.

By midnight I was thinking I'm going to be ill tomorrow but as self-punishment I damned well WILL do this walk.

By 12:45 I was happily trying to find my B&B with 11 pints of Guinness sloshing around inside me and thinking about having to get up at 8am to be ready at the car park for 8:45...


Continued here.

...and The Gruffalo makes it 700

Sunday afternoon 13/03/2011

n.e.a.r. (a group of Geocachers I've mentioned previously) published a new series today based on The Gruffalo, a famous children's book/poem. This is a child friendly series, created by their young daughter, where each of the four caches is hidden somewhere appropriate for each animal met in the story.

We were having a lazy weekend because Jade had a heavy cold but eventually the lure of a possible FTF, plus the planned fresh air, was too much and we headed off. The plan fell apart quickly and Jade was left at her mother's while I inherited their little sister Olivia - who has more Geocaching eagerness than either of my two have ever had.

We drove up to Wickersley, parked and were quickly on location at the first cache. Whilst hunting, weakly it must be said, Angellica turned up with her two girls Grace (aged 2) and Katie (age 6?). Katie was quickly onto the cache firmly, I suspect, putting Olivia's nose out of joint.

We walked around the short circuit in about 45 minutes basically circling the entire Wickersley Woods. Katie is an expert and got three while Olivia got one, although truth be told I actually found #3 and #4 and then hinted to the kids where I thought they might be - it's a kids series and I wasn't going to spoil it for them!

It was all over far too quickly for Olivia and we headed back to the car.

This last one was Hannah's 600th and that reminded us that I would now be on 699 so we drove off to pick-up a simple drive-by at Ravensfield. This cache has been on my radar for ages but it wasn't really worth the distance to pick-up a single cache. However as we were most of the way there it was an ideal single to bag my 700th - even if the actual cache was something of a let down (sorry but terrible coordinates do bug me.)

[A small walk of just over a mile, 5 caches and 4 joint-FTFs.]

Wentworth Trilogy

Just a brief note to explain my lack of blogs... I've done no caches!

Sunday 06/03/2011

Participants:
* Team PADS - Patrick, Aggrajag, Donna and Spandannah.
* All the kids - Adam, Jade, Christianna, Bethany and Jordan.
* Snoopyisboss (Sarah) and her dog - Megs.
* Patrick & Donna's dog - Dizzy.

All going to make up an extended Team PADSS.

Today we met at Wentworth to do Mr Truffles WMW series. Patrick had done all the peripheral caches but none of the WMW. Hannah and Sarah had done none. I had done them all.

We had lovely weather and a nice walk around the 13 mile circuit. Patrick got 45 caches, Hannah & Sarah got 51 and as it's my third walk around this series I got none.

However even though I got no caches I wouldn't have missed it for anything, in fact it didn't even cross my mind to go caching elsewhere. A really nice day and with the extra daylight we even stopped for a picnic type lunch rather than eating on the hoof.

We were even joined briefly by Mr. Truffles himself who was out performing maintenance.

And yes, even though it's my third time around, my legs still ached the next day!

Standhill Woods

Hoping for a break in the lousy weather we met up with Patrick and Donna on Saturday afternoon (26/02/2011) just North of Barnsley for a series called Standhill Woods. This is another series on reclaimed mining land that runs alongside a river and some mature woodland.

It had rained on and off all week so we knew the going would be tough but we really needed to get out and as this was only a small series then it would be just the ticket to start again.

We parked as suggested on the outskirts of Mapplewell (which I'd never heard of, sorry) and set off down the road before turning into a field. The first cache was almost immediately upon us but we had to hang around trying to look innocent whilst a loitering metal-detectorist was hanging around looking guilty. He probably had the exact same thought process but in reverse. Once clear Hannah quickly found the cache, we signed it and moved on.

This is when we hit the first problem.

Patrick, Hannah and I were all using our own GPS devices. My GPS had the 'pocket query' (a file containing all the cache information) loaded onto it that I had created on Friday afternoon. Patrick had created his on the Thursday but he, unlike me, also includes disabled caches. Hannah had created hers that same Saturday morning and merged it into her existing file of 'local to home' caches.

It turns out that the second cache had been disabled a couple of weeks before and then replaced and reactivated in a slightly different location only the day before. So in a comedy of errors set of combinations and complications this meant that:

• Patrick had the disabled cache on his GPS, but at the old coordinates.
• I didn't have the disabled cache at all.
• Hannah had, it turns out, the cache on her original 'local to home' file and the GPS was using that, rather than the new download, and as this was 3 weeks old it wasn't disabled but was still at the old coordinates.

Three variations, all wrong.

Fortunately three of us have iPhones and Donna was soon out with hers (while we were head scratching) reading what was going on and providing us all with up-to-date coordinates.

Patrick then found the cache and we crossed the bridge, over the swirling and swollen river, to walk half a mile along the bank towards cache number three.

Second problem. (I bet you can see it coming can't you?)

At 100 feet from the cache we realised it was the other side of the uncrossable river. By now it was raining quite hard and I could feel the kids hearts sink and to be honest I felt for them - there's nothing worse than being dragged out to do something than then finding out it was pointless and you have to go back and do it again.

I think the adult's spirits were high, certainly mine were, so it was no problem to walk back and pick up the correct path on the other side of the river.

Number three was found by Donna near an impromptu pond and we then slipped and slid our way towards number four. Another simple find for Patrick and then we walked up the river, err, path (as Patrick stated quite accurately in his log) towards number five.

Problem number three was a copy of problem two and again Donna dug up the new coordinates for a cache I didn't even know existed. After that it was a quick find and then onto the last of the main series.

Walking in intermittant rain we soon arrived and got hold of the last coordinate for the bonus cache which was conveniently, as is really to be expected, back towards the starting point in this nice circular walk.

Problem number four.

We got to where we believed number seven to be and saw either a small pond, or a huge puddle depending on whether you like a half full or half empty glass. It was about 30 feet long but as it was mentioned in a previous log we thought we were in the right area. What did put us off though was all the nearby trees, at the other side of the path, were also all underwater. We read the hint, double-checked Patrick's writing (of the feeder clues) and the coordinates we'd each entered onto our GPS devices. We were sure we were in the right area but couldn't fathom why the only likely place for the cache, given the hint, was a foot underwater.

I prodded the area for a while with my walking pole and then went off to circle the zone. Hannah started to feel around in the water whilst I had walked through it to the other side to see if there were any likely spots behind. There wasn't and it was awkward, and previously occupied by kids dens I think, so looked unlikely.

I went back and took over from Hannah standing in the water and feeling around under this specific tree. Luckily I found it. The stone protecting it had come off as it had floated upwards (the cache, not the stone!) but luckily it had got stuck fast as it rose into the bent over tree. Some leverage in the icy water and I pulled it out and found it completely dry inside. Thankfully the seal had held together.

It's hard to see from this angle that it was deeper on the other side.

We signed the log, Patrick took a travel bug, and we then had a discussion on what to do with the cache. I wanted to replace it where found but went with the majority decision to relocate it and post new coordinates and a picture on our logs. This way subsequent users can still find it and of course the cache owner can relocate it when the waters recede.

What a day but I have to say that despite me having used the word 'problem' for each of our issues during this walk, it was a really nice walk. Yes we were wet and exceptionally muddy, yes we'd made a couple of mistakes and had a technological breakdown but we had finally got some fresh air and we'd had quite a good adventure too. It was also great to get out with Patrick and Donna again after what seems like weeks.

[Total for the day was 2.9 miles and 7 caches.]