Any other cachers doing Trailwalker this weekend?

[+lordelph]

Myself, Peter "House of Boo", WelshAngel and SirClimbsalot are doing the 62 mile Trailwalker challenge this weekend as team "Four King Hell". We're being aided by Andybug along with LadyElph and Jo "House of Boo" too, who will be resupplying us at each checkpoint!

 

You can follow our exploits and send us messages on Saturday and Sunday at http://trailwalker.dixo.net/live-tracker. Morale boosting messages most welcome, especially if you spot we're approaching an easy cache!

 

I know of one other cacher, Alboy, doing it - he too has a tracking page for his team up at http://alsangels.dixo.net/live-tracker

 

Are there any other cachers attempting this?

[+Simply Paul]

I'm glad you've highlighted this- I've put some money Pete's way as a thanks for the work he did on my movie. It's going to be quite an adventure. Will you be doing much caching enroute?

 

The same weekend I'm doing a mere 20 miles in 9 hours so have some idea of what's involved. You guys are crazy! The very best of luck with it and I hope you all get to the end in one piece.

[+lordelph]

We won't be doing any caching which takes us "off piste", but if an easy "walk by" pops up on our PDAs we'll bag it!

 

Peter suggested we try to find a cache at the end in Brighton and set a record for "furthest distance walked for a single cache"!

[+third-degree-witch]

heard nothing about it...would have liked to have done it

[+wheelybarrow]

Good luck to you all - hope that the weather is kind to you.

[+lordelph]

heard nothing about it...would have liked to have done it

 

There's always next year....remains to be seen if I'll be up for doing it though!

[+Alboy]

Thanks to Paul for his very neat little updating system and ironing out my incompetence in using it! I too shall be blogging my way round providing my blackberry battery lasts the distance.

 

If someone wants to set a cache at Brighton racecourse I'll certainly do it once (if!) I get there!

 

Forecast looks OK if a little windy (and it's very exposed on the South Downs so it might be a factor)

 

I am looking forward to my emotions after 45 miles, it's pitch black and has been for a few hours and there's a blooming great hill in front of us...

[+Simply Paul]

I've cycled London to Brighton and know just the evil great hill you're thinking of. I suggest you have something about your person with which to reward yourself for getting to the top. For me, it was a bicycle to roll all the way into Brighton on

[+Stuey]

Good luck. That's a heck of a distance! I had been planning on walking the Channel to Channel (English Channel to Bristol Channel). It's 50 miles and we were planning on doing it in 24 hours. We've cancelled it now though because I managed to injure my back and have been out of training for a few months.

 

I hope you have excellent walking weather and that you enjoy the challenge!

[+keehotee]

Good luck.

 

I'll be sunning myself on Dartmoor somewhere (???) otherwise I'm sure I'd have kept you company (or something)(ahem....)

[+The Blorenges]

I'll be around a pc over the weekend so I'll follow your Tracker with interest. I'll be with you in spirit, as it were!

 

MrsB

[+SidAndBob]

Good luck to all of you. I think you're mad - but good luck anyway.

 

Note to self: Get shares in Radox very quickly.

[+Papakas]

Good luck chaps! I'd have been tempted to tab a few miles with you but for Basingstokes Big Wheel on Sunday. Also blown out my plans to go all night caching with SP! No, I'm going to have to force myself to lounge around home on Saturday!

[+alma]

good luck to you all.your all mad

[The Red Kite]

Best of luck to you all. Hope the weather stays dry for the adventure.

[+The Blorenges]

They're on their way - and the Tracker's working well and SMS message are getting through to them

 

If anyone sends them one through the link on the site, just remember to mention your name in it.

 

http://trailwalker.dixo.net/live-tracker/

 

MrsB

[The Red Kite]

OOOH are they lost>> they are waaay off their red line

[+rutson]

Looks like they're taking a short-cut to me ;-)

[+SidAndBob]

Just the final push to go. A fantastic effort!

[+The Blorenges]

... but one man down, unhappily - Bad luck, Lord Elph.

 

The other three are still doing well, this must be the toughtest part, the last few miles.

 

Keep going, Guys and Gal! Good Luck!

 

MrsB

 

(Do you think they heard that? )

[The Red Kite]

Congratulations on completing in 28 hours. Well done all of you

 

LordElph I hope your ankle is not giving you too much grief.

 

Looking forward to hearing all about your expedition at some piratey thing next weekend

[+Simply Paul]

Having been pretty-much floored by less than 20 miles overnight on the 19th/20th too, I'm really feeling for these guys! Amazing that 3/4 of the team crossed the line in 28h 17m and I hope Paul managed to get to the end too- Full report here please, when you have the strength to type!

[+Alboy]

Al's Angels finished in 28 hrs and 19 minutes. It's a long, long, long time to be walking! But we stuck at it and managed to get our weakest link to the finish, so whilst we didn't set as good a time as we wanted, we got there in the end.

 

I'm sure I speak for all teams when I say it is an amazing event, and an experience no one who does it will forget.

 

I'm not yet sure what happened to Paul yet, I was texting him from time to time as we went round but he fell off the radar towards the end? But regardless, anyone who even starts this event deserves huge credit.

 

Actually, I've just read his blog so I know. You have my respect for getting to 7 with a twisted ankle. Much of the trail is flint stone in a chalk base and it really strains your ankles. It was a really really tough part of the course, there's a big long hill between 6 and 7 and at night it was absolutely freezing in the wind on the exposed ridge. I had a fleece and a winter jacket on over my top and I was struggling to generate enough heat to keep warm. I passed one shivering girl wrapped in her emergency blanket and waiting to be picked up, and loads of others were suffering as well.

 

We had the same issue at that point, one member of our team was really suffering and we had to tell her that we couldn't continue with her going that pace. I've so much respect for her that on the next stage she really dug deep and eventually made it to the end.

 

It would be good to see more cachers go for it next year!

[+lordelph]

I'm lying in a tent at the Piratemania campsite, spending a week recovering!

 

I'd been training all year for this, and having to drop out with an injury I'd never had before was bitterly disappointing.

 

It was fantastic experience though with such euphoric highs and just-leave-me-here-to-die lows. Our entire team and support crew did brilliantly, and Pete's determination to reach the end with blisters the size of space hoppers was admirable. We raised over £3000 for Oxfam and the Gurkha Welfare Trust, thankyou to everyone sponsored us, that was double our original target!

 

Thanks also for all the messages, they kept us smiling.

 

While on the trail, I could not imagine wanting to put myself through it twice. When the pain has gone and my toenails have grown back, I just might do that.

[+Happy Humphrey]

Well done, and sympathies to LordElph. I can relate to this type of walk: a few people in this office enter the annual IOM Parish Walk every year (that's 85 miles around the island in under 24 hours - rather tiring I believe).

 

Some of them even complete it (someone managed it twice non-stop in less than 48 hours ). Might be one to consider next June?

[+House Of Boo]

85 miles? Is it very hilly? If its for a good cause and theres a tacky medal at the end of it count me in*! Whose with me???

 

Peter (House Of Boo)

 

*DISCLAIMER - This statement has been made whilst still in the madness of post-trailwalker fever and may not hold up to the test of time!

[+Happy Humphrey]

Is it very hilly? If its for a good cause and theres a tacky medal at the end of it count me in*! Whose with me???

Naw...it's all flat. Except for a few hills in the south and west, and a couple in the east. But nothing major, not more than 1200 feet of ascent anyway. Most of the hills in the north are minor bumps, and it's all along the roads so no real problem to hardened walkers like you.

There's plenty of chance to raise money for good causes (should I have said that?... probably not), and shedloads of caches along the way. You have 11 months to train. Medals are suitably tacky.

 

Details.

 

If there are some cachers thinking of attempting it next June, there could be an Event arranged and perhaps a series of caches (one at each parish church). I'll offer water along the way from the comfort of my Bentley. I'll call the ambulance for Lord Elph as well.

 

I won't be attempting the walk though!