Winter Hill Round

 Steve Pearson and I missed the original run and so we decided to make our attempt on Sunday. Actually we had originally picked last Wednesday but Steve had to pull out, and the weather on Friday brought out the southern wimpiness in me, so we settled on Sunday.

I picked Steve up en route to the Top Barn and we set off just after 10.30. We decided that ploughing through long grass would be difficult so we followed the path from the car park into the woods and then uphill on a distinct track up through the trees to George's Lane and the first of our fence climbs. Noon Hill was ticked off and we managed to avoid the worst of the swamp by following a quad bike track to the trig on Winter Hill. 

Winter Hill

We followed the path to Counting Hill and then made a serious error of judgement. We opted for a direct line to Egg Hillock which proved problematical with long grass, tussocks and bracken all making progress difficult. (I suspect in winter the best line might be more obvious) Eventually we reached the col between Egg Hilock and Whimberry Hill, polished them off and followed the track south to find our first new CP, Lomax Wife's trig. Locating it was easy, getting to it a lot harder as we had to climb two fences.( that's three if anyone is counting). Someone had left some flowers on the trig, probably in memory of a loved one, so we eschewed the photo opportunity and followed a distinct track that led us out to Coal Pit road after another fence climb. We looked for the path marked on the map but decided that it was too overgrown and instead used the track past Hampsons Farm and out onto Colliers Row.

There now followed  a longish section of road running interrupted by a brief climb up from the car park to Matchmoor Lane. The next trig point was again difficult to get to because of a deer fence but we persevered and found it.

Matchmoor Trig

Exerting our right to roam, we cut across country to White Brow with yet another fence climb for good measure. Adam Hill proved problematic, not because we couldn't find it, but because there was a herd of cows with big horns and Steve doesn't like cows. As a result we had an extra two fence climbs before we reached the mast road and the easy run up to Two Lads. Here an unpleasant sight greeted us: some idiot had clearly vandalised it and the cairn was surrounded by green fencing.

Two Lads

Down to Sportsman's Cottage, along George's Lane, and the final two summits. Neither of us had been up Brown Hill and so from the summit we took a direct line to the Pike. Now apparently we should have carried on to north to a gate which would have avoided our final fence climb, our eighth, and saved me getting a  couple of nasty scratches from the barbed wire. The Pike was busy, so after the obligatory photo

                                                                      The Pike

it was downhill back to the barn., which should have been straight forward but since neither of us were familiar with all the renovations in the gardens, we didn't pick a good way down. 

Our running time was 2hrs 25 mins for 10.8 miles and 2000ft of ascent, which is not too shabby given that our combined age is nearly 140! My thanks to Steve for his company and to Ed for devising the route. If you haven't tried it, I strongly recommend it - a great day out.