The dodgy achilles limp-along post..

Warkworth beach boat wreck

A recent ultrasound provided me with a new label to add to the middle-aged collection of ailment badges.

Achilles Tendinopathy.

So that’s what the painful bulge on the back of my ankle was.

The pain is exacerbated by the off-piste moors yomps I love with the dog. And hilly / mountain hikes (I ignored the signs over the last year or more, doh). And the stop: start driving on the M62.

So all the above are being avoided where at all possible.

I don’t miss the M62, I do miss the moors and mountains.

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Tree Hunting on Marsden Moor

Millstone Edge Close Moss Marsden Moor hike

I stumbled across a tree stump a couple of weeks ago, which was remarkable, as the higher parts of the Marsden Moor estate are now a treeless landscape. That wasn’t the case 6000 or 7000 years ago. I know that because peat is everywhere; testament to the fibrous disintegration of tree trunk and branch, leaf and root as well as grasses and moss.

I’ve seen bits of wood sticking out of some of the peat channels and cloughs during my wanderings over various parts of Marsden Moor. Some of it so well persevered through lack of oxygen, buried feet below the surface, that you can tell it’s birch by the still-visible white bark. Those branches or roots are occasionally exposed through the action of water and peat bog creep.

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Training Walk to Millstone Edge

I haven’t been able to get a ‘big’ walk in of late but with an eye on the rapidly looming NSPCC HACK 2014 challenge (that’s a link to my sponsorship page kids) I’ve had two modest but leg-stretching yomps this weekend. The weather for the June challenge can only be better (surely?) .. Brodie dog and I were soaked on both walks this weekend!

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Marsden Moor National Trust – Meet The Ranger / Spot a Hare / Hike

Marsden Moor National Trust - Hare walk

The morning started slowly, (a nice meal out and yes, maybe a little too much wine and beer the night before) but I was feeling surprisingly (very surprisingly) chipper as Brodie and I got togged up and jumped in the car to drive over to White Moss car park.

The little car park  is on the A635 which traverses the moors between Holmfirth and Greenfield and we were meeting up with whoever else had spotted the ‘Meet The Ranger / spot an elusive Mountain Hare’ walk announcement that had been posted on the Marsden Moor National Trust Facebook page. The clue would be in the word ‘elusive’..

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A Heritage Hike and a Roman Road – out on a @walkandridefest hike

The South Pennines Walk and Ride Festival has been going on for the last few days but what with work, the Yorkshire 3 Peaks  and the Mikron Theatre boatathon I haven’t been able to get to anything until this event. On Saturday I joined some other walkers for the ‘Marsden Moor Heritage Trail South’ hike. And very conveniently for Brodie Dog and I, it started in, well, … read more >