Shoulder of Mutton

Now thats a hill!!

We upped the distance last week-end and surprisingly seemed to do ok despite some pretty awful conditions.

We decided to walk from Alton to Petersfield along the "Hangars Way" the day began gloomy and rainy as we met at DT's house at 05:30am! DT as usual was fully prepared and ready to go equipped with the latest fell running shoes, bladder complete with re-hydration packs, Ron Hill performance socks and a sparkly pair of new trainers, at this point MJ pointed out that it was raining and likely to be rather soggy underfoot at which point DT went back in the house changed into a pair of boots, the oldest socks he could find, forgot to pick-up his re-hydration pack, food, blister cream etc and left completely unprepared for a 20 mile hike.

The initial section was taken at a scorching pace only getting lost once, however things began to go awry upon our exit from Selborne, despite making it clear to all that i had experieneced navigational "issues" on a previous transit, MJ adamently refused to consult either his OS map (Granted he had dropped it in a puddle and at the same time managed to tread on it) or his wrist mounted GPS system and as a direct result of my advice to "Head for the tree line" we consequently ended up at Newton Valence (approx 3 miles the wrong way) i am not too sure where i managed to glean this advice, i guess it was either Skiing or a scene from apocalypse now.. needless to say the recriminations were scathing only ceasing when we got to a clearing from which we could see the beatiful village of Hawkley with it's glorious Inn.

We had a quick chat and devised a cunning plan that managed to create a route equidistance to our originally planned route BUT and its a big BUT ended up back the aforesaid Hawkley Inn! enabling a quick pint before being picked up by the support crew. We set-pff with renewed vigour and romped up the shoulder of mutton hill and down past the poets stone into Steep at which point we completed an immedaite U-turn and headed back-up the same hill ending our 20 miler at the pub manging two pints of real ale and lager for the boy.

Lessons learned.

1. Dont change footware at the last moment - DT
2. Take Food - DT
3. Dont listen to BK for directions - All
4. Learn how the bloody GPS works - MJ
5. Try in all cases to end training at a pub - All
6. MJs Sharan is not as smelly as the Disco - BK
7. If its muddy keep away from DT
8. One of us drinks lager....

This week-end we take on sections two and three. Keep giving!