Cross Fell and Maiden Way
Cross Fell by dingbatbell at Garmin Connect – Details.Me and Scottish out for a nice ride in the hills of the North Pennines. One slight error meant we went way off course and got lost.
Started off quite well, followed the track up hill for a few miles. Last couple of times I have done this I have had to get off and push but this time my fitness must have been a lot better because I didn’t need to do that this time. Lovely day but a bit of wind blowing at the top and still some snow on the ground in places.
Track over the top, after Gregs Hut, is a lot better than last time, not as boggy so managed to right quite a lot of it but still had a couple of tumbles (in the same place that I fell last time but not as dramatic).
Once over the top it’s a really fast downhill through to Kirkland. Previously I have turned left here and up the road to the radar station, over the top and back round the Carrigill but this time I wanted to try going the other way as google earth showed a nice downhill that runs for about 4 miles. The climb to the top was steep and it was a bikes on the back job until we managed to get on the top and that’s when it all went wrong.
GPS mapping was playing up and I had lines all over the place on the screen, no paper map, 2 options to take and we took the wrong one, which had us walking about 4 miles through knee deep heather until we finally made it to the A686 road. At this point we were both knackered and decided the best thing was to head down the road back to Carrigill.
Looking at the map I can see were we went wrong. Never mind. I am planning to do it again and this time will following the right path and hopefully a great down hill.
