Langley and Tegg's Nose
I found myself working, once again, on the first weekend in August. Tragic, especially as the weather was fine. To make the best of it I decided to have a good run on the way home. I had plumped on 'The Cloud' again as I knew the route and it is the most 'on the way home' (that is, not really, rather than not at all) of any real hill. As I worked my way through my boring tasks, I decided I deserved something a little more special.
I formed the idea of making a five and a half mile loop out of the nearest section of my old 'cooking' 28 miler. Trouble was, I had no maps. I did however have my Mio GPS that I had brought for logging and tracking. I quickly drew up a route, made a .gpx and loaded it onto the Mio. I have serious reservations about running with a GPS only, mainly because of the lack of geographical features or any route overview. As I knew the area a little, the route was frequently crossed by roads, and Tegg's Nose was likely to be visible most of the time, I didn't really think that there were any significant risks. I arrived in the car park by the reservoir in Langley at around half five.
I ran towards 'Hanging Gate', peeling off south west before I got there. I met a few walkers, who were looking for the pub, just after I crossed Meg Lane and I was able to point out the route. I ran on until Hollin Lane and then followed it north west until the next footpath but one. This was a new path to me and I was pleasantly surprised by an unmapped expanse of water near its end. I ran through Langley, back through the car park then on up Tegg's Nose for an amazing panorama followed by some good descent practise.
It all went rather smoothly, I found running with the Mio in my hand less of a pain than I had anticipated. There were a few easily corrected navigational wobbles. These were no more than I would expect where there are proximate multiple paths, even if I had been 'thumbing' a printed map.
A lovely white dog, with a wagging tail and what I can only describe as a big smile on its face, came over to see me as I finished a wash back at the car. I was charmed by the creature's enthusiastic candour and was soon fussing my new friend. I chatted for a while with her humans, about the lovely light, before they all went on their way.
I had brought a few sandwiches and had a 'Nanny State' that I had cooled in the fridge at work then wrapped in blankets. After my dousing and with fresh clothes donned, I sat on a bench by the reservoir and enjoyed the rest of the evening light, my sandwiches and the still chilled 'Nanny State'. I really can't think of many finer ways to enjoy a summers evening.
The route (in red) - about 5.5 miles and 1080' of ascent. Shown over OpenStreetMap, Cycle Map layer.
Parkhouse Hill, Chrome Hill and High Edge from Earl Sterndale
The success of the snatched evening at Langley, furthered my resolve to plan some better routes. I no longer have an easy way of printing from my mapping software so it would have to be the Mio again. I was somewhat emboldened by my last experience, so felt happy to venture somewhere new (I know Earl Sterndale well, but know the inside of the 'Quiet Woman' better than the local paths).I took the path by the 'Quiet Woman', my route turned right almost immediately. I could see the path straight ahead, but could not work out the route through buildings and gardens to the right. I gave up on my path as I didn't fancy hopping through gardens without a firm idea of the way. I knew that the other path wasn't a huge detour and it looked pleasant enough. I would leave it to my GPS to figure out the detour back onto the route. I was about to learn a lesson in 'hard' logic.
It all made sense at first, I followed instructions to turn right at the end of the path until I met a road. My intuition told me to turn right here, but the device told me to carry straight on. This was a surprise as the first hill was now on my right. I thought perhaps the ridge was joined from the side so let it go. After a while and when the device told me to turn left I began to smell a rat. Then the truth dawned. GPSs don't care about running the route, it was taking me on the shortest line to join the return leg!!
I used my common sense and eyes to find my way up Parkhouse Hill, I retraced my steps back to the road so that I started at the end of the ridge. The route was now obvious for a while. This was just as well as the bright, but low sun made the Mio display almost invisible*. The run along the ridge was excellent and the views very special. The ridge looked as if it came to a steep end at a rocky knoll and indeed it did. The descent route looked like err, interesting running. The descent itself was very steep and the drop to the side was not one you would want to fall down.
I reached the road intact, if shaken, crossed it and was soon on my way up Chrome Hill, I passed a little limestone arch with views to north north east and was soon near the end of this ridge. Again, the views were really rather wonderful.
I descended Chrome Hill and joined a track, following it north west then turning north onto a footpath and High Edge. I left the footpath when I was due east of the summit and headed directly west across the moor. I soon found what I was looking for, an enigmatic World War II bunker, I managed to drop the Mio and put a tiny dink in the glass, while climbing inside. My peace was shattered on this part of the route by loud squealing, the sound of thrashed engines, the smell of burning rubber and a pall of smoke. It seems there was a practise session at High Edge Raceway.
I continued in the same direction until I met the path on the western side of High Edge, turned south, recrossed the track and continued south on a footpath then track. I got into some difficulty with navigation here, the instructions I was getting were nonsensical, I could barely see the display and what I could see was just a line in space. I took a recommended turn and 'miles remaining' jumped from just over three to four and a half! Something was clearly amiss so I abandoned the intended route (I had forgotten that I had stuffed the huge OL24 White Peak map in my bum bag) and put the Mio away.
I headed east past Stoop Farm to join the track I had taken to High Edge, then keeping the ridge I had come in on to my right, I ran by track, path and road, back to Earl Sterndale. I had to reset the Mio to turn it off. Fortunately the data was saved. A post mortem on Monday revealed the reason for some of the errors**, but not the freeze. My reservations concerning devices that don't show elevation and cannot present an overview (a: screen too small. b: footpaths and tracks are not shown at all at wider view zoom levels) are renewed. I'll just have to fork out another fortune for ink cartridges.
It was a cracking run, notwithstanding the navigational failures. I ran just under 8.5 miles and 1730' of ascent. I do think the intended route back, to the south of the ridge would have been better and would have given very nearly 250' per mile.
The ridge run, ascents and descents were absolutely excellent, more like a mountain run than anything else. Cheese and mustard pickle sandwiches and a chilled Nanny State finished the morning nicely.
* The Mio display is transflective, and very good in quite strong light. It was the very low angle of the strong light that was the problem.
** Not usually actual errors. I find that most daft GPS behaviour is caused by hard logic on tiny inaccuracies or discontinuities in the .gpx. These are often caused by badly drawn nodes in the underlying map ways (see below).
Discontinuities in a mapped way also explain the oft seen, 'in 800 metres go straight on', when there is no junction in sight. There may be a junction in the mapped ways, effectively the device is saying 'at end of Road A part one, go straight on to Road A part two'.
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