The great thing about the Xmas break is all the day light available and time to play!
Ten am sharp in the school Christmas holidays brings the Walton Chasers runs, including on Christmas morning. Even though it started 200 metres from our house on Christmas day, we still managed to miss the alloted time and I had to really hammer it to chase down the pack and get them to wait for Cath and her dad. Its was a good sized group, ranging in age from 18 to 65 and ability from national level fell runner to occasional orienteer. We spent a great hour running through Brocton Coppice and Sherbrook Valley in the cold morning sunshine, back in time to gorge ourselves on Turkey, trimmings and playing with our presents.
I went out on the mountain bike on Boxing Day and managed to avoid the crowds mostly. The Chase was very busy, but, as normal, as soon as you got away from the car parks and major tracks it was deserted.
I finally got Holly out with her tag on Saturday morning, although it was bitterly cold. After dropping her home I went out for another hours blast with instructions to pick up a loaf of bread on the way home. I came up with the great idea of elastic banding it to my map board to carry it home although I’m sure I looked completely daft.
With Sunday came a houseful of old friends from uni. In the 90’s we used to be part of a group of about 60 friends that met up for New Years partys in various Outdoor centres every year for a week or so of outdoors combined with social. Four of them joined us for a big walk on the Chase (about 12 miles) combined with various tea shop stops. There was far too much whiskey and Risk playing that night (after the obligatory curry), though not before a quick hours blast in the early evening darkness on the mountain bikes. I had my Orienteering Mila Headtorch ziptied to my helmet, battery and all, and after about 30 mins my neck was so sore from the weight I had to swap it for a Silva LX Fraser had with him for the remainder of the ride.
I was a good test of the old halogen technology of the Mila against the LED of the Silva, as both used identical batteries. The Mila had a much better spread, but the light was very yellow compared to the tight white beam of the Silva. I don’t think there was a lot in it, and I suppose a combination of both would be ideal. I know you can spend as much as £700 on a bike lighting system and with the massive advances in LED technology over the last couple of years new lights are always coming to market. I would like to try the new Silva Alpha when it comes out in January which promises to be the panacea but for the time being I think I carry on using the Mila but with the battery in its bag on my back !
