Author Archives: essiep

Llyn Morwynon. Wild camp.

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12°C, brighter and some cloud descending. Light breeze.
What has happened to Cwm Bwycam campsite. The portaloos have gone, and the signs. Walk around the field and there’s no sign of tents in the grass. Nothing. It’s sad to see it like this. I used to come here every year, sometimes several times. Places from memories, the crowded trips, I’ve quiet lonely ones. I learnt some tricks here from some trainee RAF guys, and they did from me. The site was managed by an old guy from the Midlands. He was a cyclist and would talk about bikes at the least opportunity.
Let’s hope that it reopens.

Wild camp. Found an ideal spot by the lake. It took about 1h 45m to get here from Cwm Bycam.

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It’s so peaceful here, barely a sound. There are a few geese on the water, and I can hear a distant cuckoo.
Deeply relaxing, especially after a strenuous morning.

Snowdon, and a cuppa.

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11°C, rain easing, but when you start to relax, down it comes.
Up early, woken by cuckoos. Put the tent away while slightly drier, but it’s still drenched.
The car tyre is flat after last night’s re-inflation. It didn’t hold. I decided to swap in the spare after my morning espresso.
I met up with the others, half an hour late and threw my kit on. We started at about 8.15.
With speed we headed off. I don’t think I’ve been this way, it’s a nice enough route. Hill fog was dense above 500m and rain was in future force by the summit. 1h 58 min. got us there.
We decided to stop in the cafe. I have never been inside the new place. Strange, it wasn’t packed out. Did the weather put some off?
I was noticeably slower on the descent. As always, I’m less confident coming down and feel the need for more certainty on each foot fall.
Round trip, 3h40 roughly. Okay considering kid heavy rain and strong winds. Actually, the wind wasn’t much of a problem.

Crafllyn site: Rhyd Ddu

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16°C, clouding over. Rain in the west.
Heading for Snowden. Left work early and aiming for a camp in the village. The plan is to meet Chris and Em in the early morning to climb Snowdon. We’re taking a route from the west to use it out.
I decided to head out tonight so I have no long drive early in the morning.
This is all training for the 3-Peaks next week. Therefore, we should make good speed.
Made camp. Ate in the pub in RD, fantastic food, better than many restaurants.
The forecast now says this heavy rain will continue until midday tomorrow. Then it dries for a few days.
The car has a puncture.

Looks like summer, but it’s cold.

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I rode fixed with MapMyRide+! Distance: 84.86km, time: 03:18:54, pace: 2:21min/km, speed: 25.60km/h.
http://mapmyride.com/workout/1474829699
That’s 52 miles to you.

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A field in Dalton, where an intimidating sign warned off trespassers. Looking left, the eye is drawn to the door of a sandstone church. Looking ahead, I could see all the way to Wales. It was that clear.
That was a very satisfying ride, it felt easy to life the pace as the bike felt light. That’s partly the summer wheels, partly the fine, energising sunshine.
It’s remarkable how quickly the summer takes hold.

I’m going metric.

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I rode Cyclocross with MapMyRide+! Distance: 31.24km, time: 01:33:30, pace: 3:00min/km, speed: 20.05km/h.
http://mapmyride.com/workout/1473311243
To tie in with hiking, I will try recording rides in metric. It’s going to take some getting used to.
Besides, the Jake has new tyres, a pair of gravel tyres, Schwalbe CX.

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Somewhere in West Lancs.

For today’s conditions, they were perfect. Rolling is much better on tarmac and hard tracks. There are plenty of those this time of year. The only problem I had was a slow puncture caused by disturbing the slime inner-tube.
What a gorgeous day, not warm but blazing bright sun and fees blue.

Innoo solar battery pack

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Review: relatively low cost for its power storage, and fairly robust. I chose this one because I need recharging on the go, especially backpacking. Last week, I ran it down to one car with 3 charges, mine and other people’s phones.
Since then, it’s been propped up on a south facing window sill in bright sunny May conditions.
Seven days later, it has built up 1 more bar of charge. I accept that these charge indicators are arbitrary, but will it really take three weeks to charge up in full sunshine?

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After 1 week in full sun.

50 miles cyclocross.

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24°C, light SE, bright sun very dry.
I rode The Jake with MapMyRide+! Distance: 49.43mi, time: 04:02:36, pace: 4:55min/mi, speed: 12.22mi/h.
http://mapmyride.com/workout/1463746063
The route shows several diversions, they were to collect water. Today was hot, the speedo read 28°C and the Jake has only one water bottle mount. At least those canals have lots of places to stop and re-fill.
The ground is hard with all that mud dried out. It’s actually quite jarring on hands.
It’s certainly time to fit the summer gravel tyres. They should be faster, soother and probably more hard wearing.

Diamond abseil.

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20°C, bright sun and little wind.

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Matthew Bolton College.

Four staff, and five kids from our school went to Matthew Bolton College for a Diamond anniversary of the DofE publicity stunt. Royalty arrived about 11am and we were prepped on what to say. The publicity guy said something about how to answer. ‘Don’t just nod when asked something, you will want to tell your relatives when you get older’. I’m not star struck, I hate all that swooning adoration that the royal family attract. We didn’t vote for them, why should I care about them. They live the life of luxury and privilege at our expense. Don’t ask me to swoon.

Anyway, the abseil was fine, no hesitation because of height. I felt no fear and I don’t mind looking down. The only awkward moment was climbing over the edge. It’s easier when the rope is fixed higher because you can get your feet up easily. I was able to spring outward to get over the windows. Inside, there are windows sills. Students sat there to spectate so I pulled silly faces as I passed downwards.
A great day out.

Yorkshire Three Peaks challenge.

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4°C, sunny start and snow on summits. Hail and snow later.

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Diamond Challenge training hike. Climb the three peaks in Yorkshire under 12 hours. Started at Horton-in-Ribblesdale. It’s a very popular event this, the crowds were building when I got there at 6.30. A fell running event was setting up as was  a Sikh Three Peaks Warriors event!
Booted up, we started on 7am dead. The return was at 17.58, eleven hours. We considered that decent when slowed progress on snowy summits and the fell runners race got in the way.
From a personal view, I probably went too fast at the beginning and flagged near the end. Despite saying that, I led most of the day.

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MapMyWalk screen, before mapping.


The going was mostly secure. Lower down, there were limestone pavements, in a few places polished like limestone does. All the peaks were, however gritstone.
Gritstone offers good grip even with a thin coating of snow. It’s almost May now, so the ground is warm enough to prevent much ice forming. Most of the white we saw, was soft snow.