Author: Jess Guth

Dr Jess Guth is a Legal Academic. She blogs at jessguth.com She also doesn't really run - reallynotarunner.com

Fell Pony Adventures Mosedale Trek – Day 3

Jess Guth1 Comment

After Day 2 of the trek I was expecting to maybe be a little achey but overall everything felt fine. I slept relatively well, waking up just a few times. It was still raining and grey and seemed set in but as we had breakfast (charcoal stove toasted croissants again – so nice) and started to pack up there were also glimmers of blue sky. Tom had moved the ponies onto some better grass so they were all happily munching away. We got packed and on our way fairly quickly and day 1 started much how day 2 ended but it was less windy and while there was the odd little bit of rain we seemed to be mostly walking in the dry. The ground was wet though and there were some really boggy bits to navigate round.

Kath and Pansy

After a little while of walking and crossing a beck that Prince didn’t seem too keen on (we took the boxes off him to make it easier) and Pansy navigated in a rather undignified manner sliding down the bank on her bottom, Teddy took a good long look at before deciding it was ok and Fay and Trouble navigated really well, we soon arrived at Gatescarth Pass. We stopped for a few minutes to reduce layers of clothing, have a drink of water and I had a good look at the up that was coming. I was partly anxious and partly just trying to remember that the views would be worth it and that I would just get to the top when I got to the top.

We set off and very quickly Prince started picking his own way zig zagging along behind me and then past me. He was going faster than I could manage and I didn’t want to make it harder for him to carry his load up so chucked the rope over his pack saddle and let him get on with it. He made some interesting choices about his route and sometimes he trotted along like an idiot and I was worried he’d hurt himself – but of course he knew what he was doing – he’s a fell pony, he’s made for that terrain. So I huffed and puffed my way up. Sue chatted with me at the back and we got there eventually. It’s a stoney path which going up was fine but we were going up and over and that meant down the other side.

I started the downhill with Prince and for a while that worked well. He pinged from one side of the track to the other often walking on the grass bank. A couple of times he went further off piste than I had rope for so I let him go. Once he pulled me over into quite a high banking which I sort of belly flopped against and which made me giggle. The downhill was not my favourite part. The lack of core strength meant I felt ill equipped to deal with any slips and trips and rolling pebbles and sliding scree and I got in my head a bit. I caught up to Prince and on a less steep section took the rope again and hung out with him. I quickly focused less on me and my silly anxiety brain and more on where he was going and if I could go with him and how and did a bit better.

We stopped for lunch at a beautiful sport overlooking Haweswater. We tethered the ponies and set up the shelter so we could stay out of the rain which started again just as we stopped. Tom made a pasta and pesto lunch and we had a cup of tea and a biscuit. Then out of nowhere several mountain bikers came racing down the pass. They didn’t slow down for the horses and spooked them a bit. The last rider to come down obviously scared Trouble who managed to pull the tethering pin out of the ground as she bolted towards the others. Thankfully she settled down quickly as we all swore at the cyclists more or less under our breath.

After lunch we did the final little bit down the pass and then a little stretch along the road before another climb. This time we went over the Old Corpse Road. It’s steep but not as long as the previous up and because it was pretty narrow – certainly at the start – I just let Prince go ahead. I walked at the back with Sue and we kept Prince going vaguely in the right direction with the help of her dog Jess who seemed very pleased to finally have a job. The Corpse Road up was hard. I was probably getting tired and the up is very definitely up! Once at the top we stayed at quite a high level and started to make our way back towards Naddle Farm. Tom had already said that a lot of the final bit of the route was off piste but that he had discussed a potential route in with someone from Naddle Farm and was aiming to try that.

Well, we didn’t get that route quite right and had good chunk off piste with pretty boggy bits. I was definitely tired at this point and was just leaving Prince to it and just making my own way at the back. After a little bit of navigational backwards and forwards we committed to a route and eventually found the gate that Tom had been told about and from there took a good track through a gorgeous valley all the way back to the farm. Somewhere along this track Kath had taken Prince – I think she retrieved him from a random wander off and I took Pansy off Sue so I could enjoy the last stretch walking with a pony again. Pansy was lovely too. Less zig-zaggy than Prince and very responsive to voice and being talked to. I enjoyed the last stretch very much and was once again lost in my own thoughts occasionally talking to Pansy and trying to drink in as much of the scenery and bottle the calm.

We arrived back, wet, tired and very happy. Once we unleaded the ponies, retrieved our belongings from the packs, we got changed into dry clothes (dry socks are bliss!) and said our good byes. We stopped at Tebay services and got a sausage roll and chips to eat in the car before driving home, unpacking the worst of the wet gear and collapsing into a hot bath and then bed.

Saturday I woke up and wowsers, haven’t been that achey in a while. Hamstrings, quads, hip flexers and hips and lower back in particular were all there to say ‘Hi’. I stretched a little but I couldn’t even reach my toes. It eased slightly during the day and today it is noticeably easier again with just my back still being a bit unhappy. I miss the ponies and I miss the almost meditative walking along with them. I am so glad we decided to go and do another Fell Pony Adventures trek and I am proud I made it up and over those hills. Was it hard – yep, was it worth doing – absolutely. Would I do it again? In a heartbeat!

Fell Pony Adventures Mosedale Trek Day 1&2

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Picture of bell tent in a field with tree line in the distance and blue sky

Not a running adventure, but an outdoor moving sort of adventure. From Wednesday to Friday last week Kath and I did the Mosedale Trek with Fell Pony Adventures. On Wednesday (Day 1) we drove up to Naddle Farm at RSPB Haweswater to meet Tom and his ponies and the other 2 trek participants. The tents were already up so there wasn’t anything for us to do other than enjoy the sunshine, meet the ponies and learn a little more about Wild Haweswater from the RSPB Visitor Experience Manager Annabelle. It was really nice to see ponies Fay and Pansy again and meet Prince, Teddy and the affectionately named youngster Trouble – who wasn’t actually any trouble at all.

After a really yummy tea of quorn chilli we moved into the badger hide that is on site and settled in to wait. After about an hour a first badger appeared and a little while later a second one joined and eventually there were three of them. I’d never seen a badger in the wild in the UK and it was very cool to just see them doing their thing, foraging for food. We were all tucked up in our tents at not long after 10pm and I slept quite well. I woke up a few times and noticed that it was raining – which was a little disappointing as we were really hoping for a dry trek (wasn’t to be!) and then there was a noisy dawn chorus about 4.10am. I eventually woke up fully at a little before 7am.

After breakfast of bacon and eggs on a warmed croissant we started packing all the gear and getting it into the pack pony bags with Tom carefully weighing them to make sure we got even pairs for each pony. Then we got the ponies. Tom and Mountain Leader Sue had suggested who takes which pony and it worked really well. So Kath took Pansy and I took Prince. Tom showed us how to put the saddles on the ponies and then how to lift the packs on and then, after a quick ‘this is how you lead a pack pony induction’, we were off.

Pansy

I really liked walking along with Prince. He was lovely and mostly well behaved but with a clear idea about exactly where he wanted to walk which seemed to mostly involve zig zagging across the path behind me. The first stretch was a gentle path back through the field where the ponies had been turned out and through a little wood and then across to Swindale on a narrow up and then down track. We stopped for a little break and then made our way along Swindale Lane and onto a path which then took us to our lunch spot at Mosedale Beck. It turned wet and windy while we had a lovely lunch of soup and bread with nibbles of olives, hummus and local cheeses. The rain then eased off again and we set off on the afternoon section of our walk in grey but dry weather. We had come about 3 miles at this point and it had all been absolutely fine.

After lunch we headed up. This was a little more challenging and my lungs weren’t playing ball. It felt like I couldn’t really get any air in but Prince was patient with me and we stuck together and made it bit by bit with little stops where I focused on breathing and he focused on eating. I was slightly conscious of people waiting for me but everyone was really patient and the ponies happy to graze. There were one or two bits where Prince had ideas about where he would go that didn’t really match the path and I ran out of rope so left him too it and there was a steepish section where he was too fast for me.

Prince (Day 3, bottom of Old Corpse Road)

Mostly I managed the up with Prince and once or twice he saved me from a slip. When we reached the top and Mosedale Common, the wind was nippy and it was raining fairly consistently so we just all plodded along lost in our own thoughts avoiding the boggiest bits. In some ways this was my favourite bit of Day 1. Just me with Prince trudging along in the rain and wind with 4 other ponies and 5 other people doing the same. There was no point trying to talk to anyone, with hoods up and wind you couldn’t hear anyway so we were all in our own worlds and it felt perfect. A sort of being alone together which I really quite like.

Eventually Mosedale Cottage and with it our home for the night came into view. We unloaded the ponies and tethered them behind the cottage for a little shelter from the wind. We settled ourselves in and had a cup of tea and a biscuit and chatted a bit. It was nice to be out of the wind. Then Tom made another delicious meal (Flat bread with chick peas and peppers, tomatoes and herbs and spices). Not long after we’d eaten 3 lads appeared absolutely soaking wet through and rather clueless. I think they were happy to have a bit of advice and help and be able to come in out of the dry and warm as we had brought some firewood and lit a fire. They had some camping gear but the wrong sort of gas canister for their stove so Tom gave them one of his – that didn’t stop an attempt to warm tinned curry on the fire though. They were probably also a little embarrassed but they gave us a good giggle and deserve some credit for being out there and giving it a go. I don’t want to be preachy but please take the the Lake District fells seriously, things can and do go wrong quickly, get a proper map and learn how to use it, don’t rely on your phone and think about clothes, waterproofs and suitable footwear. Go with someone who knows what they are doing if you don’t.

I went to bed tired and happy. Yes, I had to go slow coming up onto Mosedale Common but I had made it without any drama, the terrain under foot hadn’t actually been an issue – I think leading Prince and chatting to him and focusing on that meant I hadn’t really thought about the ground partly being uneven, partly being slippery and partly being wet. I was just getting on with it – so yay to not overthinking. As I slowly dozed off snuggled into the sleeping bag I thought about how calming overall just being around horses is, how being out and moving puts everything into perspective, makes stresses melt away and how doing it with a fell pony out on the fells acts as a reminder of the importance of just being. Thursday had been 6 miles of moving at fell pony pace and a day of just being. I fell asleep happy.

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Solstice Saunter 2024

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Good Morning from the muppet who didn’t really stretch after completing the 5 mile Solstice Saunter yesterday. I’m not too stiff or achey but I didn’t sleep all that well because my body seemed to be working its way along each niggle to try and work out what to do with it – so it felt like I was mostly awake with something or other hurting a bit.

I like the Solstice Saunter. It’s held at Bolton Abbey annually on the day of the Summer Solstice. It’s a 5 mile undulating course which is very familiar because most of it is on our usual Bolton Abbey loop. As an added bonus the medals are always stunning. I was looking for to it. At the back of my mind was that little bit of doubt given that I didn’t exactly find parkrun a breeze and 5 miles on a hilly course is a different thing altogether from 3 miles on mostly flat. But I always wanted to go and do this.

So we set off, probably a bit too early really and got there about an hour before race start. We picked up our numbers, went to the loos, sat by the river for a bit and eventually wandered down to the start. At the start Kath and I split and Kath went further forward (I don’t think she quite went to the ‘nearly quick’ section, the name of which made me laugh). I stayed at the back with the slow jog/fast walk crowd.

We set off in waves and as we did I smiled and noted how the first jog felt nice and easy, good slow place, nothing silly or exciting as so often can happen at the start of a race. I immediately dropped into 30 second run/ 30 second walk intervals. I was around a couple of people running with dogs and neither had particularly good control of the dogs so it was slightly annoying. I thought about dropping back and keeping them in front of me but after a couple of run intervals I had left them firmly behind me and forgot about them. Then for about half a mile I kept going past and then being overtaken by a woman who was running constantly. I would go past on my run and then she would come past on my walk. Eventually though she moved ahead and I was quite happy to let her go. I was a mile in and it wasn’t easy.

Mile 2 has a lot of up in it and I didn’t even try running that. I was already feeling it and I wanted to enjoy it and stay positive so for mile 2 I walked up the hills and ran/walked down. It was a slow mile but quite a nice one. After that mile I was in a sort of bubble. I could just about see the person in front of me and I could just about see a couple of people behind me but basically I was on my own. It was perfect. I ran/walked fairly randomly for the rest of the loop really. I topped briefly at the water station for a conversation about the universe expanding – yep more random.

As I got close to the aqueduct there was a photographer and as I approached I said ‘You’re going to make me run aren’t you’? He insisted he wouldn’t but I did anyway and kept going for a bit once I had passed him. Then there’s another uphill so I marched up that. That was a fairly consistent pattern, power march up, jog down. The route here is up and down and not in a straight line so mostly I couldn’t see anyone. Bliss!

I got to the bottom of nemesis hill and could suddenly see a few people who were closer than I had thought they would be from when I had seen them earlier. I tiny little competitive streak appeared from somewhere deep down. I marched up nemesis hill as I have done so many times and when I got to the top I had gained on the people in front quite significantly even though they were on the downhill. Game on! I jogged down and was now pretty close. I also still had just over half a mile to go though, so let’s not peak too soon. I stayed behind them as they jogged and I ran/walked. With every run I was getting closer and I wasn’t dropping back in my walks. With about a quarter of a mile to go I passed them. At about the same time my left calf starting getting a little crampy on the run segments so I slowed off a little but kept the interval. Then I popped up over the last hill, saw Kath and broke into a job that somehow I kept going to the finish. The field finish was tricky terrain on tired legs and it felt like I just sort of threw myself over the finish line. Yay done.

It was hard. I walked lots and lots. It was slow. But it was a great event and a lovely evening. And just look at the medal!

parkrun for Pride

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After I wrote out my plan I had a pretty good week and while I did not stick to the plan, I did something equivalent and event enjoyed some of it! Then I had an off week, then we went to Coniston to head out on the Lakeland Trails 10k. We didn’t start as neither of us felt right and we ended up sleeping lots and not really doing very much at all. We have both been really tired and not particularly up for doing hard things. So apart from a bit of stretching and yoga I didn’t really ever get going.

This morning though we went to parkrun. Kath ran there and I drove across to Saltaire. I can’t really say I enjoyed the running because it just felt stupidly impossible and I was really conscious of people around me. I had a bit of a wobble around 2 miles but, as it always does, putting one foot in front of the other got me to the finish.

It was the Roberts Park Pride parkrun so I popped my Pride T-shirt on over my running top – not the best idea I’ve ever had as it was too warm really but marking Pride month seemed important and given that I find Pride events generally too people-y this worked for me. Thanks to Roberts Parkrun volunteers for the photos!

Birmingham run

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I’m in Birmingham for work and currently sitting in the Clayton Hotel restaurant hoping that writing this on my phone will make me look unsociable enough to stop any of the others joining me for breakfast. There should be a very clear rule against joining others for breakfast unless explicitly agreed beforehand.

Anyway, I am feeling quite pleased with myself because I actually got out for a run. I was awake early but couldn’t really be bothered to get up. I felt dehydrated and quite creaky. I dozed for a bit, had some water and decided to at least go for a little walk in what seemed to be glorious morning sunshine. I got my running gear on and set off. I walked up the slope towards the cathedral and after about 5 minutes dropped into run/walk. I carried on to symphony hall and then looped back to say hi to the Floozie in the Jacuzzi before coming back past the still closed shops, Moor Street station and the seemingly ever expanding HS2 building site.

The run was almost exactly 2 miles and felt like a positive loop to start the day with. My right hamstring and calf are tight and might need some tlc but other than that it just felt nice to be out.