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.
It took me nine days to complete the challenge, but lets start at a the beginning and I’ll tell you all about day one as I trekked from Stafford to the small village of Audlem.
Brisk to start, maybe too brisk
The first day of the challenge was a big one, thirty two miles in the end it was pretty good not to be starting on my own with my brother joining for my first day.
Starting from the location of the old Common Station along the Isabel Trail in Stafford. The easy going footpaths were pretty quick underfoot. I had filled myself with caffeine and energy and set off with a brisk start.
Pacing has something that has always been one of my issues when out hiking. Giving it my all and then losing the battle to fatigue part way through the day. Unfortunately it is a lesson that I still haven’t fully learned. Maintaining a steady pace of three and a half miles an hour for most of the morning, but that depleted rapidly as we reached into the later afternoon. With very little in the tank for the final few miles in the evening.
Wild Canal Paths
I had checked out some sections of the canal paths earlier in the spring. I had not quite apprehended how overgrown they would have become during the spring months. This lead to quite a few issues. Although the paths were always quite easy to follow. The long grass that surrounded them meant that my legs (and feet) got an absolute soaking even on a dry sunny day.
A detour by road
Due to some of the canal paths being closed, due to collapsing. I knew that this detour might have been coming up but the long and narrow roads were not the best for walking down.
Still this took us through the beautiful town of Market Drayton before rejoining the canal path on the opposite side.
A slow last five miles
Those last five miles along the canal seemed to take forever. I was already thinking about whether I could lose any weight in my bag. Along with considering earlier start times to make sure that I arrived at camp with time to sort food.
Still the promise of a pub further down the canal and a cold pint did help to keep me going.
A Guinness, a chippy & bed
It was a very long first day, and maybe a mistake to take a pitstop about half a mile before reaching camp.
I managed to get to the campsite just in time where with the help of my sister-in-law, I was met with a fish supper, which I demolished half of very quickly then I decided to get myself ready for bed and wished her and my brother on there way back home. Then I demolished what was left and pretty swiftly fell asleep.
I was noticing some blistering already, which was not a good sign, with little hope of drying my boots out for the next day. I just hoped that a good night sleep would be enough to power me through the next 24 miles and the got ready to put on what would be the first of many compeed blisters patches.