Inspired by Anna and Ian’s running excellence, and always aiming to keep our fitness levels up for greater adventures in the Alps, we thought we’d go for a run on Sunday.
I have wanted to venture into Mosedale for some time – it’s pretty remote and featureless and I thought it would be a great place to escape any crowds. I set a route that started from Sadgill in Londsleddale, heading up towards Brownhowe Bottom, with a diversion to check out Wrengill Quarry, then back along Brownhowe Bottom towards Mosedale Cottage. Then an uphill struggle behind Tarn Crag and Grey Crag, then a downhill slither back to Sadgill and the car.
I started slowly, not much faster than walking speed actually, but I decided I needed a gentle warm up. The lungs and legs were soon complaining, and I was pretty warm by the time we got to Brownhowe Bottom.
Time for a rest, and the diversion into Wrengill Quarry.
No more excuses for stopping, and I was getting cold, so we started the next leg, along Brownhowe Bottom towards Mosedale Cottage. The path was very wet! I think I need some Goretex shoes – my feet were soaked in seconds and they were getting very cold. :freeze:
Mosedale Cottage is a really interesting bothy in the middle of no where. I’d seen lots of pictures of it and was keen to check it out. It’s very clean and well maintained. It looks like an excellent place to stop the night, if you fancied a weekend of isolation. Anyway, another rest was in order, so we had a good look around and a little snacket to keep the energy up.
Legs rested, and snack consumed, we started the uphill struggle behind Tarn Crag. Not much running was done at this point. Actually, it was all walking, but we did walk as fast as we could.
And then we looked up…
We were down wind form the deer, so I suppose they didn’t know we were coming – although I’m surprised they didn’t hear my heavy breathing!
Anyway, that was pretty cool, but they were in our path, so we had to keep going, and they soon scampered off.
At last we were going down hill, but as always, it’s at this point were my knees complain.
The final descent to the car was pretty steep, and as I carefully descended I looked up to see a flash of yellow and black. A serious, and obviously experienced, fell runner ran past at great speed. He was the first person we’d seen all day. I consoled myself and decided that he was probably rubbish when he first started fell running as well.
When we got home I consoled myself even more… home made lemon cup cakes… pehaps the blog-master will be able to add a photo of them (if there are any left!!).
You are clearly seriously hard; featureless fell is quite a different prospect from road races. When I did the 8 teashops run recently a lot of it was knee deep in water but lovely clean cold water, no mud!
Looks like a great run, and pretty hard core 😯 😯
I bet you wish you’d taken a padlock with you for the bothy door…………. 👿 👿 then you could have had all the lemon cup cakes youself!!! :love: :love:
Looks idyllic … nicer than cycling up the local slag heap 7 times which was tonights punishment 🙂
So long as the reward was some kind of rad swooping descent with a big berm and killer loop jump at the bottom, x7… 😛 He He!
As requested, cakes…
nice
Mosedale is a fantastic remote place. I did a run over there after the CC 100 years of guidebooks bash starting from Sledderdale (going past the farm which was made famous by Withnail & I which was in the news at the time). When I got to Mosedale I found the remoteness a real contrast to the previous evening’s entertainment!
As for gortex running shoes in my opinion they are a waste of money as the water comes over the top in places like you were running. I would experiment with socks some are warmer than others & others I know use sealskin socks
Andy
I saw that farm up for sale a few years back. Looked interesting and very remote. Heard a local bought it – was glad it wasn’t some celeb (the news said Kate Moss was interested like as if she’d spend weekends up there ha ha!!)
You might be right about the gortex shoes. There’s not a lot of choice for gortex, so me thinks not many people bother. Went in to a running shop in Edinburgh and the guy there suggested I would also need some of those mini gators to stop water coming over the top.
Anyway, I think I might just look for some warmer socks… or maybe I should just not bother running in winter 🙂
Yes the farm is remote it was quite a shock to me as I had half read this report (inc picture) in the paper on say the Wednesday & then ran past it on the Sunday & it was only when I was there that I put 2 & 2 together. It would be horrid if it had turned into a second home
Warmer socks is the way forward; don’t give up running in winter in this country. The weather has a much less negative effect on it than any of your other interests (other than cake shops that is!) 😉
… I never get cold feet. My advise is run faster 😆
😯 Faster?!?! 😯
It’s gonna be ages before I can manage that.
But on Friday I purchased some sealskin socks. We’ll see how well they work, but I thought they would also be good for mountain biking when I also get freeeeezing feet.