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| Arnside Viaduct with Arnside Knott on the left |
As a walking enthusiast, living in Arnside, circumnavigating the bay is an obvious route. Walks are similar to rock climbs: one looks for an elegant line incorporating interesting features, and above all, with a walk, avoiding return by the outward route. After living here for nearly eleven years I finally accomplished this outing yesterday. The statistics recorded on my Memory Map Adventurer 2800 GPS were:
Total distance: exactly 17 miles
Average speed whilst walking: 3.49mph (I did stop for about ten minutes with a flask of coffee and some nibbles)
Time taken: 5.5 hours
Average speed including stop: 3.09 mph - (my own calculation).
Arranging a circular walk can have logistical problems, and difficulties also arise with a linear walk. On occasions I have dropped my bike off at one end then driven to the start and cycled back to the car afterwards. Yesterday the train was a satisfying solution. In contrast with 5.5 hours walking the return train journey over Arnside Viaduct took just 6 minutes.
Would I recommend the walk? Well, I would give it about 7.5 out of 10 - it rarely rises more than 33ft above sea level and is therefore flat and good for fit geriatrics who are capable of distance but not ascent. There are some inspiring views over the water, and marine bird life is abundant, but there is too much tarmac for a higher score.
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| The route is shown as a red line with blue waypoint dots |
I seem to recall that you were planning this walk as a test for your Inov8 boots. What was the verdict?
ReplyDeleteGayle -you are correct. I am going to do a post with a review which will most likely appear sometime tomorrow. That will make the information more generally available to anybody else who may be interested.
ReplyDeleteI am looking forward to the start of your east to west and I hope I will be able to come out and find you when you get a bit nearer my part of the world.
does the trace on the map imply you drove to/from Arnside station? (!)
ReplyDeleteI reckon 3.49mph is pretty fast when considering hedges, fences, mudflats etc.
Must try it myself one of these days!
Gimmer - I walked from home to the station and vice versa, but only measured the walk from and to the station where I started the GPS recording. I did get off track a couple of times wasting ten minutes or so, but the GPS just records that as part of the total route, so I suppose if I hadn't wandered I would have finished in less time.
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