Red Tarn from Glenridding and back over Birkhouse Moor

the nice run from The Hole in the Wall down and up again to Birkhouse Moor

The nights are drawing out!  Mountain Run, a local company offering guided fell running, navigation and other outdoorsy things have put up some running routes on their blog.  I quite liked the look of the Birkhouse Moor route, Mountain Run say that the whole route is runnable and I could see that being the case but at the moment, I'm not quite up to running all of the climbs.

7 miles all around, we took a slight wrong turn, taking a track along the south of the beck rather than the one just below it

I was running tonight with Jonathan and Stephen.  An early wrong turn meant trudging across newly felled trees but we soon got back onto the track.  Once on the main track, by the bridge, the navigation was very easy.  Jonathan did a marathon on Sunday so I was thinking it would be an easy paced run.  It mostly was but Stephen was pushing up the hills where the path winds up to Red Tarn.

From the tarn, the running gets much easier, there is a nice flat/slightly downhill section to the Hole in the Wall, the famous point where the paths cross, and then a nice run over to Birkhouse Moor, just leaving the main path for a little bit to bag the summit.  We ran back to the path and then took a more direct route down to the start of the steep pitched winding path which heads back to Glenridding.

Catstycam - overshadowed by Helvellyn, it's a good height and a great fell in its own right

up at Red Tarn, we had considered continuing over Helvellyn by the edges but fading daylight, heavy cloud and low energy made it an easy call not to bother

At the Hole in the Wall - nice running here

Stephen and I on Birkhouse Moor

back to Glenridding

pretty happy with this on a work night