Tohunga: Day 1 Hike

Tent Pitching

So we'd practised the skills, planned the route and today (May 9th) was the day of the first hike.  This year though we had to put up our tents before we set off.  

Once the tents were up we had to have our bags checked - to make sure we were carrying the correct equipment for a full day hiking.  (We did apart from the fingerless gloves - not much use for protecting your fingers from the elements on a mountain!).  Once the gear was checked we had to orientate our maps and then set off.

Waiting for the gear check

The route had actually changed a bit from the one we route planned, because there had been loads of rain the night before (thankfully not on the competition like 2014) we couldn't cross Cogden Beck because it was more raging torrent then beck.  We left Grinton in high sprints, the first section of walk was through the village and then through small fields with lots of stiles over the dry stone walls.  Most of this section was a steady trek uphill out of the Swale valley.  

After the checkpoint we were on a bridleway in open moorland traversing the side of the valley.  We could the villages of Grinton, Reeth and Helaugh below. Once past Reeth we dropped back down the valley to the riverside (checkpoint on the way down), then over the suspension bridge and almost into Reeth.  This was a cruel part of the walk we'd climbed up and way from the campsite, come back down and towards the campsite - then instead of being able to go to camp we had to walk away from it again!

The path followed the opposite side of the river across fields (and even more stiles) full of sheep and lambs - not sure what they thought of all the scouts wandering by!

The next checkpoint was the village of Helaugh (he-law, he-laff, he-low - we still don't know how to pronounce it).  From the village we climbed the steepest road in the world, thankfully it wasn't too far.  Then back onto the moorland.  We had to be mindful here of nesting grouse and make sure we stuck to the footpaths.  This was the worse bot for navigation - there were so few points to reference.  When we got to Skellgate lane (not a lane - but a small sort of cobbled path which was uncomfortable walking for weary feet), we knew it was the home straight.  The lane took us down to Reeth (checkpoint).  We headed through the village, looked longingly at the ice-cream shop and continued over Reeth Bridge and then back across the valley fields to our campsite in Grinton.

Setting Off