Chris Beesley’s Lockdown challenges – November 2020

It wasn’t my original intention to do so many Lockdown Challenges in one day. I had planned to do the 3 Trig point and 5 Postbox route last Sunday but, being a Southern softie, I was put off by the weather. The forecast for today was much better and so I decided to make my attempt despite celebrating my elder grandson’s 18^th birthday at a family Zoom party last night. By a pure fluke, I calculated that my route would cover 2 more Lockdown Challenges, 100km for the month and 3,000 metres of climbing.

Due to the aforementioned party, my 9.30am scheduled start was nearer 10am but, since I had no other plans for the day, I set off determined to do the whole route. The Postboxes on Church St and Townhead Ave were duly photographed. I had opted to do a clockwise route in order to get the steep climb over the saddle and up to Warrendale Knots done early on. In deference to my advancing years, I did walk a little on this bit. After Warrendale, a pleasant descent to Attermire but then a very wet section followed before I reached Stockdale Lane. I stuck to the Settle Loop and then traversed round the back of Ryeloaf Hill and up to Trig point number 2. The next section up to the radio mast would have been better done in waders, I don’t think I touched solid ground for nearly a mile and it was almost a relief to reach the tarmac.

A long road descent was followed by a pleasant run down Lambert Lane as far as the quarries. My intention had been to then cut straight across to the Hunter Bark Trig point. However, I hadn’t reckoned on the barbed wire fencing, so had to go down to the stile and trek back up to Trig point 3, and then return to the Cleatop Woods path. Through Cleatop Woods, across the fields, down Watery Lane – appropriately named this morning – and into town where I photographed  Postboxes at the PO, the Market Square and  Kirkgate. Then home for endless cups of tea.

My thanks to Becky for the Lockdown idea which has got many Harriers back out running with a purpose. My 7 Challenges completed today were #2-3 trig pillars, #7-5 postboxes, #9 – 100km (my total for November is 75 miles which is 120 km), # 14 – cleaning my fell shoes, # 15 – cleaning Anne’s fell shoes, #19 – climbing 3000m (my total is 3371m) and # 20 – write an article for the blog.

Chris Beesley

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