31 or 23 miles and 3500' ascent from Slaidburn, Lancashire via Ribble Valley, Pendle Hill organised by LDWA Westmorland & North Lancs Group
I was anticipating bad weather for this event, so I carefully prepared a "sawn-off" map that I wouldnt have to take out of the map case and re-fold half way round the event. It did occur to me afterwards that if I had got so completely lost as to wander off the square foot of map I was carrying, then I would have been in trouble. As expected, the bad weather arrived and, half way along the A65, on the way to the start, we drove through a flood and the engine died. A passing motorist with a can of WD40 came to our rescue and so, before too long we were standing outside Slaidburn Youth Hostel, shivering, but ready to set out.
This was another new event for us, in a new area but, yet again, featuring the same faces! Within five minutes of the start someone took a wrong turning and about fifty people followed him and ended up wading a stream, and climbing a steep bank and a fence. As well as the choice of reading the map or following the person in front, there was also a choice of a long or short route, the longer one going up a very windy Pendle Hill. The route then skirted round Clitheroe, with some pleasant riverside bits. At the checkpoint at Waddington, I caught up with a large bunch of walkers who were doing the shorter route. The checkpoint was rather chaotic, and it was not easy to find someone to give my number to. After this there was a long muddy section along which it seemed to be very difficult to make progress.
As the route rose onto Easington Fell the weather got worse and it began to rain in earnest. Eventually, I stopped trying to read the route and decided to try and follow the people in front. For the most part this was OK but I began to get a bit irritated by the person who kept turning round and shouting "GATE!!" in my face. I know the visibility was bad, but he must have noticed that I was well within talking distance and there was no need to shout so. The last section, through some flooded fields was quite good fun, splashing and wading through the puddles and swollen streams, there being no point in trying to avoid them. But it wasnt till I finished that I realised how soaked through I was. I sat and pigged myself on scones and jam until I felt sufficiently recovered.