Priceless Cosy Times


4 or 5 mile walks may not seem like much for practicing for 6 months of 15 to 20 mile days in much harsher conditions but we get flickers of what it might be like and we are never happier as a family than when we are out on our little Trails.

This week we headed up the back of Dyserth, a town most famous for its waterfall.  The wood we walked through was typical of woods around this area of North Wales.  An abandoned quarry, so taken over by nature, that the only real human evidence of the industry that toiled there were half dozen sets of bore holes, each of which would have taken a strength and patience to make any miles walked feel easy in comparison.

Austin dawdled behind in a world of zombies and killer robots, Samantha raced ahead in a PCT world of water shortage and bear attacks.  I walked in the middle wishing I had a long rope to pull them to me so we could walk together.  But they were happy so I have no grumbles.  At the top of Cwm Mountain, which felt like the highest place around until you hit Snowdonia, the wind was enough to lean into and woke me up after my sleep at lunchtime.  We had to get past a less recently abandoned quarry (we had improvised the second half of the walk to stay in the woods and get to the summit) but went the wrong way to start with and got cut off by thick gorse bushes.  Austin played golf with a metal hook he found at the start and carried the whole way, using sheep dung or stones for golf balls. Samantha used a stick Austin had found for the steep sections and looked like a professional.  She was beautiful.

We double backed and started down the other side.  It was one of the steepest descents I’ve ever done and my expensive walking boots took to slipping again (I may have worn them out, I keep forgetting to check, they have done a thousand miles this year.) It was a breeze for Austin and ‘four legs good, two legs bad’ Blue (our Weinerama) but Samantha and I took it gingerly.  I love the team work and support we give each other. Turning back was considered but finishing that section was a high and thousands of feet descents of the Trail didn’t feel so impossible.

Samantha also had to carry the bag.  I mean I insist.  She’s in training.  I mean wait, she insists, I haven’t carried a bag on a walk in weeks.  It’s not so bad this PCT training!

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