There isn’t a lot to say about the hiking on the third day of my trek. When I woke up I thought the challenge might be over and as you’ll see when you read on this was a thought that I had a few times throughout the day.
What is Stafford2Snowdon?
In June 2024 I took on a huge hiking challenge, Stafford2Snowdon. A nice little one hundred and eighty mile trek crossing through the English and Welsh countryside, including a combined elevation gain of 28,000. I took it on to raise funds for Mind, and some awareness of mental health issues.
The Route
The route for day three was going to be pretty simple. Another day on canal paths following the Lllangollen Canal all the way to, well, Llangollen.
My body had other plans though. Leather boots are not my choice for long hikes anymore, once they are wet, well they won’t be drying out soon and after yesterdays wet day I had gained some new blisters. The on on my heel was growing and becoming more painful too.
So far I had completed 55 miles of the challenge, my legs were feeling this too. So I knew I needed to switch gear and as I waited beside the canal, this narrow boat named the Andrew made it clear the challenge had to go on.
A helpful drop off and pick up
I knew I needed to change my load out and my footwear. Luckily I had some support waiting in the form of my brother holding all my spare kit. I had set off from the campsite early and completed 7 miles down the canal path, before needing to take a long break.
I got met just outside of Ellesmere, where I switched into my trail runners.
Upon checking the route for the day I spotted that the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct had been closed the day before due to an incident and some maintenance needed.
Completing my route for the day now was near impossible as the detour this added would have been 12 miles on top of an already long day.
The tough decision
Bearing this in mind and considering my injuries I was nursing with my feet, I made the decision to sign off the rest of the day. I wanted to make sure that I could get to the end of this hike, so a rest and refuel afternoon was a way of guaranteeing this.
It was a morale boost seeing my brother, and I will forever be grateful for his help throughout this challenge. I was able to switch out to my smaller backpack. Massively reducing the amount of gear I was carrying and although I’m not sure what the weight of my pack was at this point it was clearly going to be considerably lighter going forward.
For the first time during this challenge I was able to get a very early night, and it meant that I would be starting the next day full of energy and ready to go for the Welsh section of the challenge.