Recce weekend - LDWA Trans-Pennine 100 route - Part 1/2

The annual, full LDWA 100 route, recce trip is back on, post a hiatus for Covid! Great to be back with the recce crew (Tara, Alan and Andrew) for a long weekend adventure - this year's LDWA 100 will be at the beginning of June, and is called the "Trans-Pennine 100", so it was off to the Peak District that we went....

"the route"

Caught a train up to Sheffield with Alan on Thursday evening, where we met up with Tara, for a stop over in the Purple Palace, ahead of....

Day 1: Penistone to Glossop, 29 miles, ascent 4244 ft

Caught (after a short delay, where the brakes needed to be fixed) the train from Sheffield to Penistone (which had the nicest train guard possibly to be found anywhere in the world, who walked up and down the train for the whole journey, apologising individually to each passenger for the delay, and making sure everyone was OK!)

 "Miles statue at Sheffield station"

From Penistone (which I understand is pronounced properly as "Penny stone", and not in any other way that might be suggested), the route headed north, along lanes and fields and past Scout Dike Reservoir, to Birdsedge. Spotted some spring lambs, and some llamas along the way.

 "Llama drama"

A checkpoint, then some more running, climbing higher for some great views.

 "a view"

"a seat with a view"

Before arriving at Holmbridge where we interrupted a stand off between two ducks and a cat, and found some unusual sheep!

 "duck V cat"

 "sheep!"

After this, we embarked on a nice reservoir section.

 "Ramsden Reservoir"

And the moors (where we were heading for) came into view, looking ominous, all covered in snow and clouds.

 "view towards Black Hill"

 "stopping to admire the view!"

We carried on climbing, up a track called "Issues Road" which was an accurate name both for the track (full of holes/ puddles) and us (main issue, the large hills we were encountering).     

The moors got closer....

 "heading up to Black Hill"

Until we were upon them, and wow, how beautiful it was up there in the fresh snow, in the dazzling sunlight!

 "Black Hill"

 "snow!"

At the top of Black Hill it was really quite magical, and I would have loved to have stayed in the wintery wonderland, except for the rather heavy looking snowstorm which was fast approaching behind us.

 "escaping the snow storm"

Having made a rather speedier than planned descent off the tops, we passed Laddow Rocks, and made it a bit lower down before it started snowing. To pass the time along the way (the descent to the valley, although very brief on the route description, seemed to go on for ages, and was very tricky underfoot), we discussed RuPaul's Drag Race, and what our Drag Queen names would be (Raspberry Ripple, Scarlet O'Harley, Talikser Twinkle, and Tweety Pie).

 "Laddow Rocks"

 "view down to Crowden"

Back down in the valley, Tara found a deep bog...

 "the Bog Monster"

And looking back up to the hills, who would have guessed there was a snow storm!

 "where we'd come from"

Then, the last 10km for the day was much flatter, along the valley to Glossop, where we had takeaway pizzas for tea, and checked in to the Travelodge. The Glossop Travelodge has the nicest receptionist on the planet (James), who sorted out the mix up with our room bookings with a cheery air. Then, after working hard all day, and having an extra extended train journey courtesy of a fire, Andrew arrived, to complete the recce team! 

Day 2: Glossop to Hathersage, 25 miles, ascent 4130 ft

The next morning, we left Glossop to pick up the trail again, for a lovely hilly section to Hayfield. We passed and got chatting to a guy, who was marshalling for the Chicken Run, a 13 km race that was about to start from Hayfield - it's called the Chicken Run as it's a loop, and you can chicken out half way round, and do a different route back to make it shorter! We had also been informed there was an Easter Festival on in Hayfield school, and tea and cakes would be available!

 "view back down towards Glossop"

 "a seat with a view"

Such was the anticipation, I fell over on the way into Hayfield, we missed the school, and missed the cakes. Still, the next section was also beautiful, so that took my mind off things. There was another running race on as well, going in the other direction to us, so had some nice chats to runners along the way.

 "view from South Head"

Our next checkpoint was just before Mam Tor, where we had lunch, and Andrew had prawn cocktail Wotsits (which tasted better than they sound, like tomato ketchup). Then it was up Mam Tor and along the Great Ridge to Lose Hill. It was beautiful, but very busy up there!

 "Mam Tor"

 "lunch"

 "view from Mam Tor"

 "view from Mam Tor"

 "Back Tor"

 "summit of Lose Hill"

Nice descent down towards Hope, where I fell over again (#2). Fields full of tiny lambs!

 "lambs!"

Then I fell off a stile into a hedge, to complete my hat trick of falling for the day. Having got that out of my system, we continued to Hope, where our hope for an ice-cream came true. Then it was time to tackle the last section, which was very lovely, through pretty villages, admiring the spring flowers, and along the River Derwent into Hathersage.

 "daffs"

Here, we stayed overnight at the YHA, where we had a whole dorm to ourselves, and the best drying room downstairs! Andrew and Alan had fish and chips, whilst Tara and I explored the biggest outdoor shop I've ever been in (called Outside, surprisingly), and somehow managed to come out having not bought any gear, but having bought coffee and cakes instead. After dinner in the pub (The Little John) which had the warmest and most welcoming fire, and delicious pizza, we reconvened in our dorm for our "spirit animal presentation evening". We each have a spirit animal for running (which we invented when we were all running virtually from Wuhan to London during the first lockdown). Alan = sheepdog (as he herds us), Tara = sloth (AKA super sloth), Andrew = haggis (Scot), and me = dolphin (I don't know why). Andrew did a quiz about haggi, Alan and Tara did a Spring Watch style presentation about a sheep dog and sloth trial, Tara an extra presentation about sloths, and I wrote a poem about dolphins. This replaced the usual annual "luxury item" competition, as we (well, Tara and I in particular) carry a lot of luxury items anyway. 

And so it was to bed, to rest ahead of the second part of the weekend....