Blubberhouses 25 Marshall's Walk, 25 Miles

    

The Nidderdale LDWA holds two annual Challenge walks each year.  To make sure each route is still accessible and all of the checkpoint are still available, the club does a Marshall's Walk a few weeks before the actual events.

The Blubberhouses 25 route has a lot of memories for me, as this was the VERY FIRST EVENT I ever did in the UK.  Actually, I had only been here a week!   So this walk introduced me to route finding, map reading, high winds, fells, moors, bogs, dales, more bogs, and mud.    Oh, and the joys of required kit....
 

Rocking Hall checkpoint

I must have enjoyed the route, though, because two years later I am still getting out for muddy runs as often as I can.   But I hadn't returned to the trails of this Challenge, and I wanted to see if the route was as tough as it had seemed that first time.   In particular, I remember helplessly standing on a tussock of grass, with water all around me, wondering how I was going to keep my shoes dry!

The conditions this time around were much nicer, with sunshine and nice temps helping us doff several sets of outer layers by the middle of the route (only to put them back on again later in the afternoon when the sun got lower).  Our walk around took the five of us exactly 8 hours, but a slower pace gave me a chance to really take in the scenery.  We even found a sheltered grassy slope that was perfect for a lunch stop and a short nap in the sunshine.

So it was as nice as I had remembered...probably nicer because the weather cooperated.  We passed by rocks and forests, rivers, reservoirs, open moors with wonderful views, a few memorable bogs, and even an Abbey! 

I love these trails (I do say that about every trail I've been on) especially as they bring me out into the hills that are so close to home.   Welcome to my backyard!

  

 



Bolton Abbey

 



An old waymarker for the mule trail between Skipton and Harrogate