Up and over

a fork in the trail

M and T went to get M’s biometrics done for the final steps of her Visa. So I woke up alone in the house… oooo

Went on a run at 10 - headed East on the Shropshire Way. Well marked until it isn’t.  I understand now why there are so many baffled looking walkers…  The trail will be marked in a lovely fashion in the middle of nowhere.  And then suddenly there’s a vague sign with no direction indicated.  There’s  a gate to one side, a road to the other and a local footpath entry a few feet away.  Where to go?  It’s hard to know. So you try it and be prepared to turn around.

Yup, got to climb this…. A couple race markers along the way added to my confusion.  Sure looks like the right way.  I think they forgot to clean up after themselves. In this photo I do think it was the right way, but I immediately went the wrong way after climbing over.

I ended up on a local footpath, they’re kind of mysterious. 

First, I went up a path full of blackberries and nettles and got bloody and stung. Then I looked over the blackberries and saw, through the turmoil, a footpath sign. It’s in the exact center of the photo.  No way I’m getting there so I turned around.

Then, I found a nice trail that went along for a good quarter mile. Then poof. I was surrounded by barbed wire fencing with a bunch of sheep looking at me. There were a couple of walkovers for footpaths but the other side was jam packed with nettles and blackberries.  OOch. Then I went back and realized the yellow sign marker I saw was a different type of sign marker and I had somehow totally missed that the Shropshire Way trail had just disappeared. dis-materialized…  gone poof.

So I pull out my phone and check Google maps, compare it to my trail map, and realize I’m way off in the bushes on some local farmer’s land. Geez.  At least I saw a deer and a bunny.

So I head back, run on the road for a while and then find where the Shropshire Way leaves the road. I run it for a while… clearly marked, yeah! and then again, a five point intersection with no arrows or signs. This way? That way?  hard to know. You just have to go and hope, knowing you may have to ... yeah, you get it.

It’s all good though. Google maps still shows my location so if I have to I can just hit roads and go back the conventional way. Also, along the way you end up with views like this after running through tunnels of green.  Quite marvelous. Hard to argue with that.

I didn’t get too far today, but my confidence level is up. I feel like I can go and not get lost. Maybe I’ll be up for a run to Bishop’s Castle in the next few days. technically it’s only a little over 5 miles… it’ll feel like 10 with the super steep hills.