Thanks to all of you who wandered with us last night, it was certainly eventful and a run of more than two halves.
Starting off from the little car park at Newton Under Roseberry we trotted past the Kings Head, where I'm sure I could smell a hoppy aroma drifting from the hostelry out into the evening air.
After running up Roseberry Lane we were soon onto the steps that lead up to the base of Othnesbery, one of the many ancient alternate names for Roseberry Topping. The work the National Park have been carrying out on the steps seems to have been completed for now, and will help slow down the erosion caused to the path by the many feet passing up and down to the summit every week.
Soon we were at the gate leading to the start of the main climb up to the rugged peak of Odins Seat. From this point the going gets steeper with around 120 metres, or just shy of 400 ft of elevation to be gained before you reach the triangulation Pilllar. Incidentally the trig was placed there on April fools day 1959. I imagine it was quite a labour of love for the surveyors hiking up from Newton Under Roseberry carrying a theodolite and other associated instruments over their shoulders, wearing corduroy trousers and cagoules stuffed with pencils, notebooks, pocket knives and packed lunches of cheese and pickle stotties, which were later washed down with flasks of lukewarm tea.
Anyway I digress onwards and upwards.
The summit was still fairly busy when we arrived, as it was a fine evening giving clear views out onto the moors around to the Dales and coast. In a field below freshly reaped rolls of hay had been arrayed with what appeared to be military precision , from our raptor eye viewpoint they looked like rows of pegs on a golden solitaire board.
After a short reboot and a photo shoot we headed off down the main path off of the summit towards Little Roseberry properly known as Roseberry Common. Instead of climbing up onto Newton Moor we tacked Northwards into Hanging Stone Wood. It was still busy on the main track with walkers, bikers and horse riders taking the evening air, a bit more sedately than us it would seem, judging by the amount of puffing and panting we were doing in comparison to them.
Once we left the main track we headed into woods on a minor track that leads to Hutton Lowcross Woods and forms part of a Strava segment called The Tip End. It is worth a tilt at as not many people have currently ran it so trophies are up for grabs. Its a fairly good track which steadily climbs through the woods and eventually joins the main forestry track below Hanging stone. At the time of writing it is quite overgrown with bracken and brambles though not so much so that a lead runner armed with a tapang is needed.
After a short clip long the main track it was time to climb again up onto Hanging Stone, without mentioning names one of our number said she had never been there before. This revelation was met with a lack of credulity and much naysaying as everyones been there before haven't they?
The stone itself stands proud on the side of what is known as Ryston Nab on old OS maps, just behind it is a ridge line similarly called Ryston Bank. On the ridge are situated at least four round barrows which shows that the area would have been well known to the early inhabitants of the surrounding moors.
Leaving the Hanging Stone we nipped onto the Cleveland Way for about 20 paces before leaving it for another forest track taking us into Blue Lake wood. This track is not in the least indistinct allowing you to dig the spurs in and set forth descending at the gallop.
Eventually this track reaches a T junction where it joins the main one coming up from Hutton Village which ascends up to the Cleveland Way track junction onto Hutton Moor.
Hading west we followed the CW back to Hutton Moor and the gate above Roseberry Common. The fingerpost adjacent to the gate is one of the only ones with the national trail acorn denoting the Cleveland Way pointing in 3 directions, which facilitates trotting up to the top of Roseberry, anyone think of any others? Answers on an unbuttered Ryvita.
Whilst on the descent off of Little Roseberry things started to go little fruit shaped when Lilla our one year old Vizsla managed to slip the leash and set off like a four legged Usain Bolt in pursuit of an errant coney. Yours truly then spent the next half hour running around a field in the wake of a scent obsessed Vizsla wagging a very happy tail. As the shadows began to darken and after much up and down, toing and froing Lilla deigned to wander back to where Sam and the rest of the group were waiting, totally oblivious to me puffing, panting and cursing in her wake. As a breed Vizslas are capable of 40mph in short bursts, humans on the other hand are not, even in the shortest of bursts elite athletes only reach around 26 mph. It is no surprise then that all I saw was a wagging whip of a tail in the distance. Thanks to Martyn who came to assist with operation Lilla retrieval.
Once all were present and correct with the right amount of heads counted we followed the line off across the shale tips onto the path around the base of Roseberry to the gate above Roseberry Lane.
At the bottom of the Lane there is a very short segment called To the pub, myself and Martyn Brown had a little shot at it and both managed a credible 23 seconds for the 0.08 of a mile segment, somehow I think the course record of 6 seconds is erroneous and must have been done otherwise than on two legs. The thick end of 129 metres in well under 100 metre world record time, hmm I don't think so what do you say Strava admins?
After sprinting past the Kings head we rejoined to it in a more sedate fashion before taking some liquid refreshment.
Thanks again to all who wandered last night, until next week trot on.... 🦍
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