Wednesday

The Dog Rambler E-diary

top 28
December 2011
Walk Dogs on walk

A trip around Saulton Wood

Length

6 miles

Archie, Dylan, Finlay, Gina, Lucas, Solo, Tim

Post Christmas and it was time for a brisk walk to work off some of that excess. Not sure if the dogs needed it as much as me, although their Dog Rambler Christmas crackers may have contributed. Still feeling a little bloated I knew the wind would blow the cobwebs out. With some of the walk made all the brisker by the scouring wind bending the trees and rushing unhindered along paths and tracks it almost blew out more than cobwebs. The dogs whined and wagged tails and could not wait to get out the car. Their semipatience was rewarded and they rushed out heading in a range of directions from the car sheltered in the trees surrounding Saulton Wood car park. A few quick calls had us all heading in the right direction. Through a gate and onto a muddy track leading through the eastern edge of the woods. A swathe of blue sky above promised much despite the howl of the wind putting the trees to a stern test. Debris round about where some had previously failed such a test. Bloated from Christmas we may be but that was never going to stop Gina getting into the middle of the fun. She soon had Archie and Tim in her grasp and it was not long before Lucas too was under her spell. Her valiant efforts had less success with Dylan and Solo. But

all her running about with her entourage did mean Finlay could not get far ahead. He soon gave up and joined the throng but not yet ready to join the chase. The trees complained bitterly as the wind twisted and bent them. Shafts of sunlight breaking through the gaps in the cloud struck the ground like arrows before being ripped away by the movement of the trees. Then as we left the wood to follow some paths along the edges of fields the sky dimmed. Angry convulsions rippled across its face. It grew darker and the clouds became one all encompassing mass of blackened blue. Then the rain came and the wind blew harder. The rain came in horizontally across the open fields. We had no shelter. Like thousands of tiny spitfires they bulleted into us hard and painful and above all very cold. Tim dug a hole in the grass and buried himself. Dylan began to follow suit. It was useless. It would not protect us. We had to press on. We left Tim who looked forlornly at our retreating bodies into the mist like opaqueness of the rain. He left his cubbyhole and raced on after us. There was no chasing about by Gina no longer orchestrating the fun. Instead head down and turned slightly against the incessantness of the rain she plodded hard faced with Archie, Solo and Finlay. Lucas hid behind me but I could provide little cover for him. Thankfully the shapes of the trees in the wood began to loom large. A beacon of safety our unlight lighthouse. Of course the rain subsided and eased to a drizzle before we got there. Still we were back in the trees and protected from the still howling wind. Some previous casualties of the high winds before Christmas, half covered the track. Reminding us that the creaks and groans from the trees could mean more. The tracks now muddier than before we had left the wood sucked hard at the dogs paws and my boots. It slowed them down a little with Gina coming back to check on my progress. A few more squelching steps and we were back onto a main track leading to the car park. Wet, bedraggled and a little cold we jumped in the car and quickly steamed it up. Nick

Photo slideshow from the walk

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Thursday

The Dog Rambler E-diary

top 29
December 2011
Walk Dogs on walk

Around Gore Glen

Length

6 miles

Cyrano, Dylan, Finlay, Gustave, Lucas, Solo, Tim

A wintry grip on the weather again today sent us scurrying for the sheltered clutches of the trees of the Gore Glen. Tall and slim swaying in the high breeze catching and breaking its hearty attempts to blow down into the narrow glen. The stinging rain did find a way through dripping from the branches and rolling down the creased trunks. Like yesterday the swathe of blue sky suddenly lost to the unseen arrival of the blackish purple mass of cloud. It looked like snow but fell as rain. Better prepared today I was fully waterproofed up. No protection against the sucking mud along some of the path. The dogs soon gathering it up on their legs and in their coats.

Tim looked resigned to another day in the wet and cold. It transpired not to be as bad as yesterday. Lucas, Dylan and Solo also on their second post Christmas walk took it easy today. Still some Christmas pudding to work off they could not get back the speed of yesterday. No such trouble for Finlay, also out on his second walk in two days, the sight of the river acting like a drug on him. On Cyrano too. And like a pair of estranged brothers they were reunited in their search of easy ways into the river. Solo lifting himself from his half slumber as the sound of their fun and the calling of the water over the rocks reached his ears. He lumbered off after Cyrano and Finlay in search of the river. When the river was not close by the dogs made do with sticks. Here it was Gustave who fresh faced and full of life was first in to try and prise sticks from the jaws of Cyrano, Solo and Tim. Finlay once again also appearing with a stick which Gustave made a lunge for. There were plenty about as once again the recent wind had stripped branches from the trees. Just ahead where the path traverses high up on the side of the glen a tree lay prone across the path. I had forgotten about it from last time out. Now a bit of a groove cut through its useless branches, now pathetic limbs grasping at the air, where other feet had trod cracking and breaking some of the thinker branches and twigs. Still we had to tread carefully and climb over the smooth trunk jammed hard against the path. The dogs scrambled and pushed through the obstacle. Pulled and heaved themselves up onto the trunk slipping and gripping against its wet surface. Tim lost his and slid backwards with a yelp into the clutches of the branches. At the second attempt he got over and we made our way back downwards toward the river and a flat grassed area of the glen. A hard choice between racing each other over the grass and plunging into the icy turning water of the river. They split into two groups, divided by their first love water or chasing. They came back together and ran then plunged back into the river at an old ford. On this went until we turned making our way back to the closing in sides of the glen cutting a deeper scar into the earth. Followed by the approaching rain again we reached the sanctuary of the trees. Which once again offered up sticks for the dogs. By now Dylan and Lucas had run themselves out and were walking along behind avoiding the fencing with sticks up ahead. The rain came and went and was heading back once more as we climbed out of the glen

and put on one final turn of speed to beat it to the car. Nick

Photo slideshow from the walk

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