Margaret Traill 1925-2011

My mother and best friend, Margaret (also known as "Peggy" by her friends) died peacefully in hospital at 04:45 am this morning of 16th February 2011. She had suffered a short illness.

I'm adding this blog hoping that somewhere in the future this information may be useful to a relative who would like to know more about her.

Possibly in 1933, Stothard Street, Jarrow, with her sisters and brothers.

August 2008, just before the onset of a more advanced form of Dementia.

If all people were like my mother, they'd be no wars and no hunger. 

RIP Mam. I will always think about you and love you.

Margaret Traill (nee Charlton) 

--

East Howgills for 2011

OK, so it was the start of a new year, abate 1 day late, this being the 2nd of January 2011. The weather forecast said it was going to be sunny. So I had 4 choices of routes. A Scotland trip to bag 3 Marilyns, a 3 cycled Marilyn bagging trip, Lake District to bag a few Nuttalls or a quad of Deweys in the Howgills. As I didn't fancy long drives in the dark nights, only the eastern Howgills ticked all the right boxes. 

The roads were quiet at 07:30am as I drove to Cross keys, just north of Sedbergh town in the Howgills. Once parked and booted up I immediately changed my mind in the direction of the route. Instead of anti-clockwise, I went clock-wise. Why can't I stick to a plan?

I therefore started the hard slog up Yarlside, which I've previously climbed in 2005. Halfway up, a significant path skirted Yarlside to it's saddle with Kensgriff my premier objective. It was here that I realised the anti-clockwise direction would have been far easier and faster. You could almost see the whole route from this standpoint. Why can't I stick to a plan? (whoops I've already said that!)

I missed out Yarlside as the extra climbing and "significant" descending would have added close to 45 minutes to route time. At the saddle I heard motorbikes revving and immediately saw 2 motocross riders zoom straight up the 33% slope in less then a minute. Oh, how I wished I could have had a backer as I slogged up to Kensgriff.

Over the top, I then needed to skirt around Randygill (another previously bagged Nuttall) to a long ridged Dewey called Hooksey. Then another skirting around to Green Bell, a Dewey with a trig point, a rarity for these parts. 

So far nothing special about these hills, just frozen grass and snowpatches. The next objective was Harter Fell and to get there I followed a small rough unpathed stream called Gais Gill. These small streams often have very few visitors and this was evident by no paths. I often think they are sometimes better to walk along side then bagging the boring mountains and hills that tower over them.

Harter Fell was an easy bag, with a dozen wild Howgill ponies all watching me about from 50 metres away. That completed the Deweys.

However, a HumP (hundred metre prominent) hill called Wansdale Hill was still to be bagged. This looked easier on the map then in reality. Google earth showed the eastern side was the best side as there was large gaps in the walls. But viewing the hillside from Harter Fell showed it was steep and unrelenting. I therefore decided to bag it from the shallower north. The ground was rough but easy in gradient. The descent was also easy by taking a baring towards the Mountain View house in the valley and then following the bridleway to Narthwaite farm.

Like most paths that go through farm yards I just don't like it, and this was one of those nightmares for me. This path went right next to the farm cottage, and the dog's kennels. The signage was a yellow dotted arrow. But I knew it was the wrong way as the one I followed was the farmers road. So I had to return back to the farm yard and guess the correct route back to Cross keys. I jumped over a cattle gate, then another before just seeing the correct pathway...Phew!

I finished much earlier then expected (due to missing out Yarlside) and started to kick myself for not bringing 2 maps of easy Dewey hills on the way back. 

Mellbreak and 4 others

The proposed route were a double, first off was a five Wainwright route and then a 2 easy Wainwright route just north of the main one.

My morning didn't start well as I have a chest cold and sore throat, but still felt OK. I think if the walk had been the day before I might have posponed it, so we were lucky on that account.

Arriving at Maggies Bridge car park, we set off back up the road to the start of Mellbreak. I have often wanted to climb Mellbreak on it's northern ridge as it looks steep and exciting. However, there was only a few places of excitement and lots of scree to climb. This was my first Dewey this year, I had previously climbed Mellbreak's southern Wainwright top many years ago.

Mellbreaks north ridge, the route is the scree just the right hand side.

After we had bagged the southern top we head back over onto the saddle and dropped down to Mosedale to climb a pathless sided Hen comb. Once bagged, Ross suggested we follow the fence line to Gavel fell, the next Wainwright. On the map the bridleway looked best, but as usual changing a plan once seeing the lay of the land can be a bonus and a short cut.

A view of Honister Pass in the distance.

The weather up to now had been cool, breezy and sometimes sunny. Now it became colder and windy. A slog upto Blake Fell meant at least we were closer to finishing. At the top we decided to split up. Ross was to take on his main objective Burnbank Fell and me on Carling Knott (a Dewey). We met up just before Holme Wood.

The loneliness of a long distance walker, mountainmanjuniour is the spot

Ross sleeping like a ...er, log!

The completed route for me, but Ross bagged the Wainwright Burnbank Fell.

We had both agreed to drop the 2nd route as I had been feeling tired and I have a strange injury to my ankle which I'll investigate further but I think it my be related to my boots innersole.

A slow drive back through Buttermere followed, to the amusement of Japanese tourists on a bus as I had to squeeze my car past their coach. I loved the comment from Ross "Did you see their faces?"....NO, I didn't because I only had 1 inch clearance either side of my car! The last place I wanted to look was up :-0 

It's now Monday morning and I'm coughing my lungs out!!!!

All the ten's

Just a quick update on a me and Mountainmanjunior's walk of the Kentmere round last weekend. Also my apologizes for the lateness as I only had my laptop available and I didn't know my password - LOL

I realised early on that there was 9 Wainwrights in the Kentmere round, but Mountainmanjunior had already bagged High Street, and that 2 Wainwrights (Sallow and Sour Howes) were fairly close. This would have meant a good 10 Wainwrights on the 10th of October (10th month) 2010....Wicked! 

I parked at Troutbeck, just beside the river and next to the church. First thing was I had forgotten how to reset the GPS - DOH. This took at least 1km to rectify. 

As sometimes happens it wasn't easy to spot the top heights of a Wainwright and both Sallows and Sour Hows meant we had passed the tops without realising it. The GPX file does confirm both bagged....phew!

As soon as the Sallows was bagged we started on the Kentmere round going in a clockwise direction. I had elected to go ultra-lightweight and this had the effect of me being fairly easy going up the long ridges of Yoke, Ill Bell and Froswick. At the beacon of Thornthwaite Crag we ate some sandwiches sheltering from the wind. Up to now the day was cool and hazy.

Mardale Ill bell was a bit troublesome as we didn't find a path up from our direction, although it was probably there but due to my impatience we cut across rough ground and almost immediately found the top.

A lengthy and rocky ascent lead up to Harter Fell and from there a whole long ridge meant an easy bagging of Kentmere and Shipman Knotts. We had completed the 10 Wainwrights fairly easily and I was feeling quite good and not even tired.

We cut through some right of ways past lovely fields, streams and bridges to Kentmere village itself. Now was our hardest test, the bridle path of Garburn Pass back to Troutbeck. It was littered with small to meduim sized pebbles and stones. It twisted your ankles and strained my knees. The worse was on the descent side and at one point my right knee had a shooting pain. The only course of action was to try and find the smoothest route through.

It was only the Garburn Pass that drained me of energy as we arrived back at the car. A quick energy drink and we set off to travel as far as possible before it got dark. I don't like driving in the dark :-(

The following day only tight Achilles heel and a bit of tiredness showed. I must be fitter then I thought.

And the last photos.

Look what I found...pics of suffering!

These are photographs of me on Boltby Bank. Just after I passed the photographer I had to walk the rest of the way - like the other poor soles who tried and failed.

Sorry for the watermarks, I'm too stingy to buy the photos.

Suffering was the game, despite the photos making it look flat, it was very steep.

Almost a golden moment!

OK, I'll get to the point straight away, I missed out on the Gold Award by 12 minutes and 56 seconds! I received a Silver.

Sunday 8th August 2010, the Ryedale Rumble Sportive. I was really looking forward to this to test my hill climbing ability. It was route 2 with 71.1 miles (114.4 km). The 2 main events are the very steep Boltby Bank and Blakey Bank hill climbs.

The day started off a bit like my Richmond 3 dales ride in June. I felt groggy and tired by the time I reached the start venue, the magnificent Ampleforth College, situated between Thirsk and Helmsley. What a place! To compare this school with my old comprehensive is like comparing a penthouse to a mud hut, it truly is. Next time I'll take a photo, because the entrance we used was almost a straight mile uphill to the splendid collage sitting halfway up a hill. 

Once I set off I was by myself for much of the way until Boltby Bank 20 miles further on. the route profile was deceiving and there was many up and down hills shown only as bumps on the map. So, arriving at Boltby bank I got a shock of my life. I can only describe it as a sheer vertical cliff face LOL. I got half way up and finally jumped off exhausted, but not before passing the event photographer. All that hill training and I still had to walk 50 metres to the top!!!

A steep descent from the top of Boltby was tricky as was the ford at the bottom, to which a girl fell in. The long uphill drag from there was leg burning especially after Boltby. 

By now, my stomach was hurting, I seemed to have cramp or a stitch. It felt very uncomfortable. I soon realised it might be the change of food and drink I was using. Reading many articles I decided to try a new way of continuing with my energy levels when cycling. Simply put, I took too much food and too much energy drinks. 

At Helmsley, again I took too long at the feed station. The next 5 miles was going was fairly fast as I was on a main A170 road. Once off the A170 a series of complicated minor and farm track roads made way for Blakely Bank. Even from a distance I could see this was long and just as steep as Boltby. I struggled on. Stopped and rested, struggled on and then just as other cyclists did, got off and walked.

Hell burned into legs.

Strangely, walking up probably saved a lot of energy because at the top I was very fast over Blakely ridge down to Hutton-le-Hole then then next feedstation. There, I ditched all my energy drinks and filled up with fresh plain water and GOD did it feel much better. Over the next hour my stomach ache went and I was more convinced more then ever it was the energy drink giving me jip.

The last hour and a bit I felt good, a bit tired and leg achy, but cycling at a constant speed. I was very surprised I was catching up with other cyclists who looked completely Fooked. The last 1 mile into Ampleforth College is cruel and the finishing line is on a shallow hill.

So. My finishing time was 05:14:56. Not bad and almost within my predicted time.

What did I learn and what did I do wrong? Mostly learned that 25% hills and cycling are harder then 8 hours walking in Scotland LOL

My bike is a Cyclocross bike and the gearing was simply under geared.  The lowest my gear inches are 36 front cog and 25 rear cog = 38 gear inches. Compare this to a compact geared road bike of 34 front/27 rear = 33.1 gear inches. So, a new road bike specific for hilly sportives might be handy. Or, a new 12-27 rear cassette would be my cheapest option this would make it 36/27 = 35.2 gear inches. 

Energy food and drink is great in principle, but it does seem to upset my stomach. I'm pretty certain now that I have to find my tipping point where I can ride with just plain water. I think that may be at 30 miles before food intake replenishes lost energy. If so, then most sportives have feed stations within this 30 mile zone. So, I need to know exactly how much water to take and a spare energy gell and a few jelly babies as emergency food. 

Clothing, well this is the second sportive it's been spot on. Only cycling shorts and top. No rain jackets or windproofs. The cycling shoes are great and have loads of air vents - absolutely no sweaty feet.

Next ride is possibly the Cumberland challenge in September. This is over 100 miles and apart from a 1 major climb it's mostly rolling. But i may need a "babysitter" as it'll be an all day ride.

I feel a bit tired, but no sore knees or stiff legs, and could if needed cycle another 50 miler. Next year, I'll be blazing for Gold Award standard in every event.