Off Topic*: Cannock Chase - Long Route Plotting

Conrad's comment on my last post sent my mind down a short rabbit hole wondering how long one could make a single 'circuit' route on Cannock Chase, without any repetition of paths.

I confess that I didn't put much effort into finding out, and having plotted the route shown in the map snippets below, I can immediately see how it could be made longer, although I would hesitate in heading up to Slitting Mill as I'm not familiar with the paths up there and it is home to the Mountain Bike centre.

I also failed slightly on the 'no repetition' rule as there's about 200m of repeating the same path in the opposite direction. Otherwise, the route just touches itself at several crossroads, before heading off in a different direction. 

It comes in at 75km with 1400m of ascent. I reckon it could be increased by another 5-10km without much difficulty. (I couldn't fit it all on one snippet, and it would have been helpful if I'd given a bit more overlap so you could see more easily how the two snippets line up.)

 

Will one of us be going to try it out? 'Fraid not! We're both happy with circuits on the bits of the Chase we like the most, but it was an interesting (to me, at least) exercise all the same. 

(*Not sure if it's technically possible to be 'off topic' when it's my blog and has no declared topic!)

Monday to Wednesday 19-21 June – Cannock Chase

Where’s Bertie? He’s spending two nights at Tackeroo Campsite on Cannock Chase, where it costs £20 per night, unless you manage to get one of the 5-per-day ‘early bird’ pitches, which we did on Tuesday, so our stay came to £35.

Weather: Monday – sunny and warm; Tuesday – heavy rain until about 1030, giving way to drizzle then finally coming sunny in the late afternoon; Wednesday – Sunny intervals and warm.

Monday

We’re having a little holiday, in a location so close to home that it’s not just ‘day trip’ territory, but ‘We’ll just nip there for a 10k run’ territory, staying at the campsite opposite the car park we usually use, and through which our usual circuit around the Chase runs.

So close to home are we that even with a need to nip to a supermarket en-route, we left home at gone noon and arrived two minutes after the earliest arrival time of 1300. Leaving home we had a brief discussion as to route, and opted to go the way we would usually travel, even though it involves a short narrow section of road – no problem unless you meet a lorry or bus coming the other way. With weight limits on surrounding roads, it’s not often these days that lorries use that road and I reasoned that with the bus service only running one per hour, the chances of meeting a bus were, oooh, around 99% certain.

We duly met the bus at the narrowest bit of road.

With some water put into Bertie’s tank (something we would have done before leaving home, except that if we were going to pay £20 just to park somewhere for a  night, then I was jolly well going to use their water supply), it only took us a few moments to choose where to plonk Bertie. There are no marked pitches, and capacity for around 70 units. With seven units there on Monday and five on Tuesday, there was no need to consider best use of space; instead we just chose to put Bertie in the biggest patch of sunshine we could see.

Bertie in a nice big clearing, allowing the sun to reach his solar panel

Not much to report from the rest of the day. Our activity only extended to a late afternoon circuit via the Visitor Centre.

Tuesday

Today was the reason for taking a holiday so close to home. Last week we travelled to the Lakes for Mick to do a couple of long runs, but due to the high temperatures/lack of water, we postponed for a week. This week, rather than driving all the way back to the Lakes, we went for the logistically easy option of Cannock Chase: even if the temperature had been just as hot as last week, Mick could run circuits of whatever size seemed appropriate for the frequency of water refills he wanted. Clearly, we could have driven over just for the day, as we have uncountable times before, but by staying over we could call it a holiday and have an extra half an hour in bed whilst still achieving an early start.

I’d planned to join Mick for his first lap, but when I heard the rain drumming down, postponing my run seemed like a much better idea, so it was just Mick who headed out at 0715.

I then planned to join Mick for his second lap, but the rain was still drumming down when he popped by for second breakfast, so I postponed again. It’s not entirely that I’m a fair-weather runner, more the thought of how much wet stuff we would have lying around if we both got soaked.

By the time Mick was an hour through his next lap, my feet were itchy and the rain had slowed to a drizzle, so I headed out to intercept him. I only stayed with him for a couple of kilometres, cutting back to Bertie when we reached the Visitor Centre so that I could have his next set of food and drink waiting for him.

As he headed out for his final lap, I followed a minute later, but in a different direction. Figuring that our paces wouldn’t be well-matched, I opted for a different (and shorter) route. The drizzle finally stopped just as I was on my way back to Bertie. By the time Mick got back the sun was coming out.

Rain has nearly, but not quite, stopped

That's not Bertie, but some of Bertie is visible in the distance. There really is a lot of room on this site when there are only four vehicles there (as was the case when I took this snap)

It had been a successful day, with Mick covering just over 51km. Understandably, after showers, we’ve sat around for the rest of the day.

Wednesday

A gloriously sunny day and a ‘please vacate your pitch by 11am’ request, so we were up and out again by 0730, Mick for a gentle 2 hours, me for a little longer.

We set out together, but soon lost each other

I managed to take a wrong turn somewhere along the way, which is quite impressive considering how many times I’ve done this route and where I went awry (had it been in the area to the north of Penkridge Bank, I could have used the excuse that the paths currently look completely different from what we’re used to due to the bracken, but I was on the forest tracks on the south side, which look exactly as they always do), but other than adding in a bit of extra ascent, it made no difference to my objectives.

Sunshine!

Water's low 

Back at Bertie, it would have been nice to spend the rest of the day lazing around in the pleasant forest setting, but we weren’t at liberty to do that*, so everything got packed away and back home we came.  

We clearly mistimed our journey, as this time we met the once-per-hour bus a couple of hundred metres before the narrow bit of road.

A surprisingly good time was had, not so much with our circuits of the Chase (which we do quite regularly anyway and are always lovely), but staying over on site. So, whilst the campsite is undoubtedly well overpriced for what it is (facilities = tap (not for exclusive use of paying campsite guests), chemical disposal point and bin; and it’s not at all private with walkers, runners, mountain bikers and horse riders coming through at all times), we would go back, provided we could get an ‘early bird’ pitch.

(*I’m beginning to think that the NHS has invested in a ‘they’ve gone away for a week’ sensor, as it’s becoming uncanny how many times lately we’ve gone away, intending the trip to last a week, only to receive a phone call from appointments that requires us to return home. For this trip we’d packed for a week, albeit without a plan as to where we were going after Cannock Chase.)

 

Sunday - Wednesday 11-14 June - Coniston

Saturday

Everything started per plan. After witnessing the smashing of a course record at parkrun, we headed off to Halifax to see Ma-in-Law.

Sunday

We continued per plan. Bearing cakes, we travelled via Conrad in Arnside, where we’d intended to just pop by for tea and cake on our way to Coniston. “Just popping by” turned into four hours of most enjoyable chatting.

A constant stream of traffic was exiting south from the Lakes as we headed in, and we arrived in Coniston to find our desired parking spot to be free. Didn’t end up sleeping in that exact spot, mind, due to a drunk driver and fear for Erica’s body work. The spot just down the road turned out to be where we would spend the next three nights.

Monday

This is where we veered off plan, and away from the very reason for this trip to the Lakes. The plan for Monday had been that Mick was going to travel from Coniston to Braithwaite on foot, whilst I drove around, meeting him in Boot and Buttermere on the way. The forecast when we left home had been a bit on the warm side (24 degrees), but manageable. When I checked the forecasts again at bedtime on Sunday night the prediction was 30 degrees (with an overnight low of 20, so even the 5am alarm wasn’t going to give cool conditions), and whilst heat acclimatisation would be beneficial, getting heat stroke would not be. We ran through various options before deciding to take advantage of the fact that Mick has time in hand in his training plan. If he didn’t need to do silly-long distances in silly-hot heat, then he shouldn’t.

So, instead of a long linear route, Mick did two shorter routes, the first an out-and-back, the second a circuit, broken by a refreshment break in Erica. As I now didn't need to drive anywhere, I joined Mick for the first outing. During his second I nipped into Coniston and treated Erica to a new kettle, to replace her remarkably poor quality, and too small*, Regatta one.

Later there was a successful quest for ice cream, which was followed by a spell of people-watching from a bench.  

Our parking spot proved to be perfect in the weather. Under heavy tree cover, and with Erica’s sliding door discreetly open against a dry stone wall (rather than facing the road), it never got unbearably hot inside her. We even had a view of the river.

Hot day = not much clothing needed

View from Erica's sliding door

Late afternoon situation. 

Tuesday

The plan for Tuesday had been for Mick to travel from Braithwaite to Dockray on foot, and the logistics of that one would have worked out fine in the weather, save for the fact that we weren’t in Braithwaite and it made no sense to drive there. Instead we went for a circuit of The Old Man of Coniston and Dow Crags.

We were back by eleven, and gave momentary contemplation to moving to a campsite for the benefit of a shower and a service point, but the place where we were parked was so comfortable in the hot weather that we decided that the money would be better spent elsewhere.

We started with one of the village’s café’s, where it was almost unbearably hot, but the food was plentiful and good:

Look at those ridiculous doorsteps of toast in the back right corner. The teapot supplied three mugs apiece too. 

As for our evening meal, we’d left home with Erica’s cool box full to the brim, and it just about coped with keeping everything cool enough through Sunday and Monday. I’d planned to buy something in Booths in Keswick for Tuesday night, but in view of our continued residence in Coniston, their little shops had to provide instead.

The quiche was disappointing. The rest was simple but good. The accompanying alcohol-free Doom Bar and Thatcher’s cider were ice cold.

Wednesday

Mick almost got a lie-in. I’d tried to be really organised on Tuesday evening and get out everything that I’d need before going out on Wednesday morning, only to realise once the bed was out that I’d not got the teabags. To access the teabag cupboard, the bed needed to be moved. If we were to rebuild Erica there are definitely practical improvements (albeit aesthetic degradations) that we could make to her kitchen unit.

I did, however, leave Mick resting on the sofa as I headed out nice and early for a circuit of Wetherlam and Swirl How (plus a couple of little out-and-back add-ons, as it was such a fabulous day to be up there). I sent Mick a summit snap:

In return, Mick sent me a café snap:

His bacon sandwich had been much bigger some time before he took the snap. 

I got back to Erica to find that Mick had ended his café visit by buying me a piece of cake, that I failed to photograph until I’d taken my first bite:

 

With cake consumed, a quick body wash and delightful hair wash in Erica’s sink preceded our final foray into Coniston, this time to sample the Yewdale Inn’s pizza offerings.

It was a bit too hot on the heels of Mick’s brunch, but between us we managed to polish it off. 

Then it was home time. Such a shame to have to drive away from the hills in such fantastic weather conditions, but an appointment called.

Conclusion

Whilst we didn’t fulfil the original objective of the trip, we had a far nicer and much more relaxed time with how things panned out. Surprising how enjoyable it can be to park in a side road and kip in your car for three days straight!

(*Can a kettle reasonably be advertised as having a volume of 1 litre when that volume is only achieved by filling it to the lid, which is an impossibility due to the position of the spout? The new kettle advertises itself as 1.4 litres and I’m confident that we’ll be able to fit two mugs of water in it. It’s not been tried yet, as it needed water boiling and discarding prior to first use, and we didn’t have the water to spare for that.)