61 - Competition puzzle resolved,Geocaching, and proper walking

I have now had a reply from the Ordnance Survey about the object attached to one of their trig points (see my posts 57 & 58).

Thank you for your email

I have had confirmation that this is an orienteering punch.
However this 'addition' is nothing to do with Ordnance Survey and it is
likely we would have to remove it should we (or any other surveyor) wish
to set equipment on the Trig Pillar.
Thank you for informing us however there is no further information we
can give.



Kind regards



Lesley Flood
Customer Service Adviser
Customer Service Centre, Ordnance Survey
Room C454, Romsey Road, SOUTHAMPTON, United Kingdom, SO16 4GU
Phone: +44 (0) 8456 05 05 05
Fax: +44 (0) 23 8079 2615
I wouldn't want to carry many of those things around in my rucksack if I was an orienteering marshall.
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GEOCACHING
This  pursuit is becoming  addictive. You may notice the  logo on my blog which  automatically records the number of caches I have visited  after I have recorded them on the Geocache site. So far I have found sixteen, one of which required two visits due to my ignorance of the affairs of the band called Oasis and something to do with "Wunderwall", knowledge of which was required to interpret the clue about the location. The solution was gleaned from my daughter Jill who was appalled and amused at this gap in my education, and I was forced to listen to the song! Looking at profiles of other geocachers I see some who have found several thousand caches!

Here are some Geocache pics:

                                 





       






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PROPER WALKING
In the last couple of days I  printed off sheets from Memory Map with the route marked  for my proposed walk from Lowestoft to St Bees Head which I intend to do after walking in France during May and June. The print off runs to fifty three pages of A4, and this gives some enlargement of the 1:50000 map. I will probably post half of these ahead to save weight, although they are not too heavy, and certainly much better than carrying all the maps.

60 - Horseplay

I went off Geocaching with my daughter this afternoon. I am sure everybody will be amused to follow our video on YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdhhGmDi7Ek

59 - More trig points from OS Sheet 91 - Appleby-in-Westmorland

A very cold clear blue sky day. I was accompanied by Pete and Jake the dog.
1. Nettle Hill (Crosby Garrett Fell) 382m - NY 716 078
The ascent was from the road north of Newbiggin-on-Lune - NY 693 065. A very agreeable walk over cropped turf and approximately a six kilometer round trip. Great views of the northern Pennines with lots of snow on Cross Fell.

   

Above and below:  Nettle Hill  and distant Cross Fell with snow 

                                                                          

On the way down we broke some ice on a little pond so that Jake could have a drink

2. Struttforth Hill 184m - NY 742 124
On the way to this one we visited and found the Geocache - Musgrave Nano

This trig was off the public footpath which leads to Soulby and involved negotiating two barbed wire fences - all a bit naughty, but there was no nearby farm where we could have asked permission.

3. Heights 216m - NY 702 148 

Ascent was from Brow Foot up a track leading to a house. The map shows an interconnecting public footpath between this house and another to the south east, but a gate was barring the way and there was no indication of right of way. A man was working there on a felled tree and we spoke to him. At first he was very prickly, but after a certain amount of diplomacy, and no mention of our rights to the public footpath by us, he came round and then seemed to want to talk for the rest of the afternoon. He advised us to call at the adjacent house to ask for permission to go to the trig which we did.
On approaching the trig in the corner of a field we noticed that muck spreading activity had been carried out close to the trig, then we realised we could hear the tractor coming back with another full load. Pete urged me to hurry and get my photos before the tractor returned with the threat of us being covered with you know what.

Looking north to Dufton Fell

You can just see the tractor approaching down the side of the wall and a worried Pete hoping I am going to complete the mission in time.

58 - Competition follow up

I emailed  British Orienteering about the trig point object - here is the reply:

Conrad

I have been in touch with the local orienteering club and regional development officer. Neither have any knowledge as to why an orienteering punch is attached to the trig point. One suggestion is that it may be linked to fell races (3 peaks?)or some LDWA challenge.
Regards

Celia Watkinson
Regional Development Officer
British Orienteering
Email: celia@britishorienteering.org.uk
Tel: 0117 9688627

I have now sent a query to Ordnance Survey. I will post the result as and when I receive a reply. The last time I tried to get some information from the OS I did not get a reply.

I've just got onto Geocaching, but more of that later.

57 - Competition

This post poses two puzzles for my followers – there are no prizes for identifying the two items, but I may get less sleepless nights worrying about what they are if somebody out there can provide answers.

I was given a metal detector as a birthday present back in December and have only just got round to using it. The first trial was on the  pebbly beach near home with my daughter Jill. We found a small piece of metal which I am nearly sure is copper or brass. It is curved and on its inner surface has what appears to be a very fine thread. The piece itself appears to be a fragment of something larger.

The next item was found a couple of years ago, and those in the know will instantly recognise the top of a trigpoint. But what is the strange object attached to a sealed  sort of karabiner fixed to a metal bar embedded in the concrete of the trig? It may not be too evident in the pic but there are some sharp spikes sticking upwards on the end of the bottom arm.

The location of the trig was near Calf Holes above Horton in Ribblesdale GR – SD 804 778.

I look forward to some answers!

56 - To trust the map or not?

On Mick and Gayle’s last post http://www.gayleybird.blogspot.com/ they discovered a footpath had changed on the map – they were using an older map and found the change updated on a newer version when they got home.

With route and location finding I have found  the map is usually correct. On my last trig points outing (see my Post 55) this was not true. I had difficulty finding the trig at Kelleth NY 664 067 because it was  against a high drystone wall and only visible from the side of the wall we were not on. I was trying to position myself in relation to a mature, deciduous wood that must have been there for over fifty years and measuring perhaps 200m x 200m. This wood turned out to be south-east of the trig and is not shown on the 1:50000 or on the 1:25000 maps although woods to the north of similar size are.

If I can’t make things fit, especially if hot and bothered, or if I’m being blown off my feet by the wind I try to find somewhere to sit down and think it all out carefully. It is so easy to convince yourself that you have made things fit when you haven’t, but if the map is wrong you are unfortunately thrown back onto your, hopefully, vast store of experience.

I have been playing with my Memory Map 2800. Following a footpath on the map there is sometimes a discrepancy between the GPS cursor on the map and the footpath on the map, despite the fact that you know for certain you are on the path. I am not sure whether this is down to inaccurate plotting of the path by the OS or to the vagaries of GPS.

55 - More trig points from OS Sheet 91 - Appleby-in-Westmorland

Thursday 21st January 2009

A pleasant outing with Pete - only a few remnants of the recent snow left.

The first trig was Bretherdale Head (NY 582 053) overlooking the pretty valley of Bretherdale which I have seen before but must be worth another visit.

There was no drama so this is mainly a pictorial report.

We finished off with sandwich and chips in The Black Swan at Ravenstonedale - very agreeable. This is a good venue - they serve this kind of food through the afternoon.

1- Bretherdale Head - 338 m - NY 582 053 
   

East from Bretherdale Head

 

Pretty Bretherdale - the trig is up the slope to the right

2 - Kelleth - 307 m - NY 664 058
Looking south to northern end of The Howgills

Kelleth

3 - Wether Hill - 385 m - NY 750 041
Looking south to Wild Boar Fell

Mallerstang Edge in background

 

Zoom to Wild Boar

On the descent

These three trigs now bring the total visited to nine out of forty nine. I have booked five nights on Wild Rose Caravan Site near Appleby from 11th to 15th April and along with Pete I hope to visit the more northerly ones which are a fairly long drive from my home. Very soon after that trip I hope to backpack the previously mentioned Dales High Way.