Around Withnell Moor

A wet week had culminated in enormous amounts of rain in Cumbria and extensive flooding. The Tockholes area had not been flooded, but is was far from dry. So the hares took us across the vast, damp moorland to the west.
Blackshaw, one of the hares, had caused some consternation during the week by allowing it to be known that he had taken 1 ¾ hours to get round. Consequently everyone rearranged their start times and Early Taylor went off around 1:30. Norman and Brown set off shortly after, chased by Wells who had messed up his transport arrangements. Some of the slower fast boys were not far behind, while the faster medium pack joined the fast pack, but set of promptly.
The route set off down through the woods across the road, dropping down to the river and following it until bursting out of the woods and crossing the road to start the long climb up to Great Hill. The going was very slippery with many deep bogs to avoid. Once the summit was achieved we were blasted by horizontal rain driven by almost gale force winds. It was enervating and encouraged us to head down the path to White Coppice as fast as possible. Once in the shelter of the gulley, the wind dropped and it grew quite warm, although the light rain continued unabated. We followed the Goit towards Brinscale, then cut up through the woods on a gradual incline to reach the moorland plateau. After a brief run uphill into the teeth of the wind, we cut left to run down towards Roddlesworth. The tower at Darwin was now in sight with the promise of the pub and shelter. With the wind at our backs, almost, and the finish in sight, if distant, our spirits picked up and we enjoyed the view to the north.
The trail led down across the main road and on down to cross the Roddlesworth reservoir before a stiff pull up into a field. Along this with the pub in sight, we cross the road and take a circuitous route to the pub, avoiding a jog along the road.
The pub was warm and pleasant, and we stated re-hydrating as soon as we were able. Eccles Cake Ale and Bobbins beer were two of the choices, and the former was so good I wasn’t tempted to try any other. The bath was crammed into the toilet, and we changed wherever possible. All the hounds arrived back in a short span, with the fastest taking 1 hour 35 mins and the slowest 2 hours 10. The high scores on the sheet reflected the enjoyment most runners had in the trail.
The food was adequate and enjoyed with a beer. Biker Eastwood was coercing people to cough up deposits for the Lakes weekend and the Hon Sec was back from the antipodes to keep us in order.