Nidderdale Wander Social Run 13/03/2016

13/03/2016 Nidderdale Wander Social Run

The Nidderdale Wander was organised by Andy Purll and 21 runners met in the carpark at Lofthouse to take on the 10, 13 or 17 mile routes. Lofthouse was a good place to start as it has a public loo, always handy before a long run. 

The 10 and 13 mile routes headed up the road towards Masham before turning onto the moors. I was on the 17 mile route, we ran to a corner of the village, over a bridge over a pretty water fall and headed to How Stean we didn't go to the gorge, we headed past Studfold caravan park and ran across the fields 

to Ramsgill before climbing up through Bouthwaite onto the moors. 

As you can see from the pictures it was a misty day, mist plays havoc with my asthma, it's like breathing through a wet rag. This made the climbs tough with me struggling to get my Heartrate down. The rest of the group were very patient, I was ok on the flats and downs though.

We worked our way upwards for miles before reaching the Masham road. It was a shame about the mist, the views from up here were normally stunning. About 6 1/2 miles in, we joined the routes that the the others had taken. 

All routes headed to Scar House Reservoir.

It was treacherous running down towards the bridge on the loose grit, but the view down the valley was very pretty.

As the mist finally started to lift, we warmed up a bit.

The 10 mile route was to run over Scar House Dam 

with the 13 and 17 routes running around Scar House Reservoir and crossing Angram Dam between Scar House and Angram Reservoirs.

There was no sign of the other groups. We set of around Scarhouse Reservoir towards Angram.

It got even warmer so we had a strip stop.

The track was quite good for most of the way.

Snow in the distance, but we weren't going that far today.

We were soon at the dam, looking down the valley

After the crossing we had about a mile and a half of Tarmac, time to pic up the pace and admire the views

We got our breath back before heading over to Middlesmoor, Kim leading the way up the steep rocky track 15 miles into the run.

Oops, seems like we might be going a little further than 17 miles today.

It was a long trek up and the group got split, the first four, Kim, Stan Alan and Lesley set off for the pub, I waited for Mike, Tony and Kelly, and we set off down together. It wasn't an easy run down, it was a real ankle turning rutted track. But soon we were in Middlesmoor and a short section of Tarmac 

Then down across the fields to cross the gorge, up past the caravan where the path goes through a garden and back to tarmack to run down past How Stean Gorge, back to the caravan site and up to the main road

Around the cricket pitch and back into Lofthouse the way we had left 4 hours 24 minutes before.

We met some of God other runners in the Crown Inn for lunch, most had gone home, were were over an hour after them. 

The routes all had a little extra distance on, the 17 was 19 miles everyone seemed to enjoy it though.

The food in the pub is highly recommended, cash only though, but decent portions of home cooked food. Just what a hungry runner needs.