![\"2022-11-04--blackden-track.jpeg-web.png\"](\"\/uploads\/blog\/pictures\/2022-11-04--blackden-track.jpeg-web.png\")
<\/p>\nWednesday in winter does seem to steer the weather to the wet and windy for Slow Warts\u2019 outings. This night was no exception, with the added forecast precision for the wind and rain to be between 5pm and 7pm which was exactly our time for fun and exhilaration. The forecast was right! Our garb was a few underlayers and the full waterproofs which were duly displayed at the Blackden car park by our seven brave stalwarts. The start here is special in that almost immediately after leaving the warmth and shelter of the car, we are plunged into a reasonably challenging and steep descent over rock, cattle foot prints, dying thistles, tussocks and wet, sloppy and slippery grass. It was fortunate that Roger who was just in front of me, used the grass for some horizontal meditation, apparently. He did a graceful slide in his Hokas, landing on his back, perfectly stretched out. This was a timely warning for other Hoka wearers (me included) to avoid this grass ski slope. Thankyou Roger for your noble sacrifice.<\/p>\n
Having got into the swing of things in the first few minutes, the time came to face the weather, the dark of our first winter outing and the climb to, eventually, Kinder. Andy\u2019s plan was to visit Druid\u2019s Stone by first going up the stream passing the \u201cslumpage\u201d on the south west of Dean Hill and across Ashop Moor and Blackden Edge. Fortunately, there is no visual record of our progress up the climb otherwise we would have been mistaken for a line of staggering drunks incapable of staying vertical for too long. No alcohol had yet been consumed but the gusty wind had had the same effect, without the normal accompanying inebriated pleasure. There was a brief period of relative calm before the Edge which brought us into the full force of the southerly gale which seemed to turn us into LS Lowry figures all leaning forward into the wind. Progress was not quick but we managed to cross over to the southern edge of Kinder where Lose Hill\u2019s silhouette could be seen through our wind watering eyes.<\/p>\n
Our two navigators, Tom and Andy, with their respective followers followed slightly different lines to the edge path where, in the interest of safety and companionship, we came back together despite the fact that neither group had found Druid\u2019s Stone. But, we were very close; see Michael\u2019s track:<\/p>\n
.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Whether we\u2019d developed a small dose of concussion from the battering wind, I\u2019m not sure but as every orienteer knows, we were close enough (!!). Precise and accurate navigation was to be discussed later in the pub after the Club Championships RO had announced the race was to be more about accuracy than precision, which caused much speculation about the course, assuming it started at Langsett and finished at the Strines Inn. A bus ride was thought to be involved, though not for the first time for Club Champs.<\/p>\n
However, such thoughts were not being considered as we turned from facing the wind to taking advantage of it, back, initially, to the Blackden trig whose flagged surround appeared to be more paddling pool than plaza. Now we had a navigational fix for Bob\u2019s Rock, the next CP, although the question of precision or accuracy cropped up again as we found a set of unnamed rocks similar to, but not Bob\u2019s Rocks. We resisted the temptation to accept these as good enough and contoured round to make sure we were both accurate and precise to reach the large and rather forbidding Rocks.<\/p>\n
By now the rain had eased and we were somewhat sheltered in the Blackden valley from the strong and gusting wind, so some warmth was creeping back into our numbed limbs. They were tested on a surprisingly long though reasonable descent to Blackden Brook for a nostalgic visit to the richly fruitful holly tree, a well-used CP for several of Andy\u2019s Crookestone races.<\/p>\n
Now within shouting distance (certainly, on a less windy day) of the car park, the last stretch was surprisingly rough with a descent to the stream similar to our descent from the car park at the start. However, the usual dash to the finish did spread us out as I found myself attempting to run (a long-held obsession) back up to the car park but with no one watching, disappointingly, I walked. Fortunately, I was able to drown my sorrows at the Yorkshire Bridge Inn where talk of the impending Club Championships was dominant though the talk of future car parking charges at Fairholmes also sparked some grumpy debate.<\/p>\n
The declaration the Slow Warts made at the end of all this was, of course, that it had been a grand evening!<\/p>\n
Graham<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Wednesday in winter does seem to steer the weather to the wet and windy for Slow Warts\u2019 outings. This night was no exception, with the added forecast precision for the wind and rain to be between 5pm and 7pm which was exactly our time for fun and exhilaration. The forecast […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[155],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-warts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dpfr.org.uk\/wp_dpfr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dpfr.org.uk\/wp_dpfr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dpfr.org.uk\/wp_dpfr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dpfr.org.uk\/wp_dpfr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/73"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dpfr.org.uk\/wp_dpfr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dpfr.org.uk\/wp_dpfr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3584\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dpfr.org.uk\/wp_dpfr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dpfr.org.uk\/wp_dpfr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dpfr.org.uk\/wp_dpfr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}