Call off the Search & Rescue teams!

Posted on October 6, 2015 by thecurvyhiker

I’m not missing, and those hard-working SAR heroes have much more important things to do!

Six months have passed since my last blog post, and for this I sincerely apologise. I’m self-employed, and my work is mostly seasonal. Summer is the main ‘busy’ time for my business, but I had all the right intentions to post a blog or two, in between the busiest times, but alas it (obviously) didn’t happen.

There have been a few highs and lows along the way. Our first event of the summer season was also the wettest event I’ve ever attended. Biblical amounts of rain – non-stop, relentless heavy rain for a solid 36 hours – but fortunately the event wasn’t a complete washout for my business. The weather that weekend did herald the trend of the summer though. I think I can count on one hand, and still have fingers left over, the number of events we did this summer that weren’t affected by rain. However, despite the unsettled summer weather my business enjoyed the best summer we’ve had since I was a fledgling start-up, culminating in a successful weekend at the biggest event we’ve ever done.

With regards to getting out hiking over the summer, well sadly that was big fat zero. My poor, neglected walking boots are sulking in the bottom of the wardrobe, feeling distinctly unloved. As a matter of fact, I didn’t get much waking done at all, not even my daily walks around the local lanes. I had a small surgical procedure done in June, fortunately during a 2 week break from business commitments, but not being a great ‘stay-at-home’ patient I only gave myself 2 days at home to recover before I was itching to get out walking the lanes again. However, that was too early and caused complications, making my GP force me to promise not to walk for at least a month. My business wasn’t really affected, mainly due to having a wonderful group of supportive friends that attend the same events, who helped me with all the heavy lifting that needed to be done. But the walking fell by the wayside. By the time I was ‘allowed’ to walk again, the summer events were in full swing, and when you’re only home for 2-3 days each week I found it really hard to get back into my daily walking routine again. I’ve gained a stone in weight since June, and I am kicking myself. However, now the summer is over, and I’ve a small break before the busy Christmas period kicks in, I’m working really hard to rebuild my daily walking routine, and get rid of that hateful gained weight that I had worked so hard to lose in the first place. The walking target of 550 miles in 2015 that I set myself is completely out of the window, but I’m setting myself monthly distance targets on Runkeeper, and hoping to slowly build my miles back up again. I can’t believe how unfit I have become by not walking these last 3 months, distances and pace that I found easy before are now a struggle and I’m a red-faced puffing mess as I stagger around my local lanes each morning, but that only makes me more determined to get back to where I was.

It as not my intention to end this post on a sad note, but I wasn’t sure of the best place to position this. Sadly, over the summer we lost one of our canine walking companions. Millie has always had a few health issues, mostly stemming from a dose of pleurisy she suffered as a young dog, leaving scarring on her lungs. In later years she developed a form of colitis which took careful management of her diet to keep under control. But despite all that she was always a happy, lively dog, and bright as a button. At the beginning of the summer she was showing early signs of congestive heart failure, which was made more complicated due to the lung scarring. Our vet was wonderful, and his ‘magic injections’ helped to quickly clear the fluid from her lungs and heart when she was struggling. I took her away for a sneaky camping weekend in early August, and on the day we were leaving to go home I noticed one of her back legs was hanging limp, she was dragging it around like it was a rag-doll. The vet feared that she may be showing signs of Degenerative Myelopathy, but that we would watch and wait and see what happens. He gave her a different magic injection, to stimulate the nerves, and she was walking around on all four legs within a very short amount of time. But I wondered just how much more this little girl could withstand. I was away at an event in Roscommon, the event was disaster from a business point of view, but it was a lovely event in a beautiful part of the country. On the final night a few of us were discussing whether to stay on for an extra night, just because. The rain arrived the following morning, so we scrapped our plans and all headed off home. I got home to find Millie in her bed gasping for air, the husband looking concerned. I took her temperature and it was through the roof. The vet started her straight away on strong antibiotics and a magic injection to clear her lungs. But it didn’t work. Her breathing never improved. I took her temperature hourly, and it just kept dropping. Initially we took that as a good sign. However, it hit the minimum temperature for a healthy dog and kept dropping. It dropped 7°C in just 5 hours. She was going into shock. We went back to our vet’s house at 11pm that night, and he gave her more stuff (forgive me if I wasn’t concentrating too well at the time on what he was giving her, we thought we were taking her on her final journey at the time, so we we’re relieved when our vet told us not to give up on her just yet). He told us if she could get through the night to get the 2nd antibiotic into her in the morning then she had a fighting chance. I stayed up with her, I couldn’t bring myself to go to bed, but she died in my lap just after 3am.
Run free little bear ❤

Millie – Lachtnafrankee trig point

Millie

April 2013 – Knockbarron Woods – Millie in her ‘Amradillo’ jacket.

April 2013 – Knockbarron Woods – Millie in the woods

One of the steeper ‘ups’

April 2013 – Knockbarron Woods

Millie with a 5wk old Great Dane puppy she’d reared from 1 day old.

Starting the descent…

The first of many…

This way! Come on!

I have to sign off there for now, but not for another 6 months, I promise. I just have to go and hug my dogs.

550 miles in 2015 – February update

Posted on March 9, 2015 by thecurvyhiker

February wasn’t a great month of walking for me. Niggling hip pain and atrocious weather slowed me down considerably. Torn between walking on the sore hip, or resting it, and not really knowing what to do for the best, I walked some days, and rested on others.
Some days I found that walking on it seemed to ease it. After 5 minutes or so, it would be warmed up, I’d feel a lot more supple, and the rest of the day would be relatively pain-free. Other days, walking appeared to ease the pain at the time, but I’d be completely hobbling by the evening and sleepless with pain through the night. On mornings where I woke up with a sore hip, and seeing storm conditions outside, the decision to stay indoors with painkillers and a hot water bottle instead was made much easier!

As a result, I only managed to get 38.9 miles under my belt during February, when I was aiming for 46+ miles. I’m frustrated, but being within touching distance of 39 miles is still a good chunk of mileage towards my end of year goal. Added to January’s sub-target total of 41.6 miles, I now need a total of 469.5 miles to reach my target for 2015. In the following 10 months of 2015 I need to average 47 miles/month to reach it. Roll on spring, and some more settled weather!

I was always of the conviction that my hip pain was a muscle/soft tissue issue, and not a hip-joint issue. I cannot describe how I came to this conclusion, it just didn’t ‘feel’ like a joint issue. I know I probably should have gone to my GP, and I would be the first to suggest this to a friend complaining of the same, but I think that my ‘take each day as I find it’ attitude with this hip has worked somewhat. I know I can barely feel a twinge now. I can walk a few miles, and not feel increased pain in the evening, and I think it’s finally sorting itself out. I dare say my GP may perhaps have been able to fix it more quickly, but perhaps she might also have simply said rest it and take painkillers. The last few days have been mostly pain-free, for the first time in over 6 weeks! Hopefully I can get back on track and hit my monthly targets now 🙂

Woodland path

3 Reasons for hip pain in the active adult

Slippery when frozen!

Posted on March 3, 2015 by thecurvyhiker

Golden Grove Woods – Glasderry Wood – Golden Grove Woods
18th January 2015

Golden Grove woods, near Roscrea (also, confusingly called Orange Wood Hill by Coillte) is somewhere I’ve brought the dogs to for walks on numerous occasions in the past, including one interesting bikejoring session involving Dolly and Dee, 2 bicycles, too much speed, loose gravel, a lack of brakes and a lot of swearing (mostly at ourselves, occasionally at loose dogs, but definitely not at our own dogs!). We concluded on that occasion, that due to the popularity of the place, resulting in the high number of loose dogs running about, it is not really a very suitable bikejoring location, unless you go very early in the morning, before all the locals bring their dogs out. What can I say, we were relatively new to the sport in those days, and now choose our bikejoring locations with a lot more care, knowledge and forethought.

The woods themselves are described on the Coillte Outdoors website as “part of an old woodland site […] reputed to be the site where the last act of cannibalism took place in this country, hence the name Cnoc na Meas or the Hill of the Banquet.” And despite the popularity of the area, it is (nearly) always an enjoyable and peaceful walk (except when hooligans <blush> are racing through the woods on bicycles being pulled at speed by dogs!). In the spring the bluebells take over, and it truly looks like a blue carpet has been laid down all through out the wooded area.

We hadn’t really had much chance to get out for a decent long walk in a good while, and whilst Golden Grove offers a pleasant, but short, loop walk, involving forest tracks and local lanes, I wanted a little more than that. I wanted a good leg-stretcher, so we decided to extend the well-used loop, by diverting to Glasderry Woods halfway around. I was told of a farm track that would bring you out to the road that led to Glasderry Woods, and a quick look at the OSI Discovery Map No 53 confirmed the existence of the farm track.

It was a bitterly cold day, we had woken up to a crisp white hoar frost. However, the sun was out and the breeze was slight. It was a beautiful day for a walk. From the car park we set off downhill on the road, turning right onto a gravel track a the top of the first rise. At the end of this gravel track you would usually turn right, along a lone, which would bring you along to the entrance barrier at the top of the woods, with the final section of the unofficial loop bringing you gently down to the car park through the lovely old woodlands. However, this time, once the gravel track brought us to the lane at the end, we went straight ahead, onto a muddier farm track, which would eventually bring us onto the lanes near Glasderry Woods.

Frost and ice still evident in the shaded areas

Straight on…at the T-junction!

The lanes brought us through mainly uninspiring flat farmland. Perhaps that’s a little ungenerous. Flat farmland, is…well it’s flat farmland. Fields, hedges, barns, flat. This is not a walk route to give you breathtaking views across the Irish countryside, or hill ascent personal challenges, but by combining Golden Grove with Glasderry Woods, you get a pleasant walk covering a respectable distance, and a picnic area at around the halfway point if you’re so inclined. You get a lake to walk around, and a lovely woodlands stroll to finish off your outing. Perhaps many people like walking on rural lanes, with hedges you can’t see over, but I found myself checking my map on more than one occasion, sure that we’d ended up on the wrong road, because the lanes seemed endless and I was getting bored. I did chuckle when we passed a tumble-down cottage, with a toilet roll sitting on the windowsill. I didn’t even want to think about why it might be there, but it had clearly been there a long time, as the ivy was beginning to grow over it. Fortunately Poison Ivy doesn’t grow in Ireland, so if you are caught short, this toilet roll will still be perfectly safe to use, if a little damp!

After what felt like a hundred miles of lanes and hedges, we arrived at the car park entrance to Glasderry Woods. For some reason Coillte has closed the car park to vehicles, but a couple of cars were parked in the entrance way, and we could hear a dog bark by the lake, so we carefully picked our way across the cattle grid, and went into the woods. Glasderry Woods is home to Lough Roe, also known as Gloster Pond, or even Glasderry Pond (why do these places often have more than one name? #confusing ). The lake (as I shall refer to it from know on) is an artificial lake and, according to the Coillte Outdoors website, was “created for the [nearby] estate to ensure a plentiful supply of water for the domestic needs, the gardens and recreational needs of the Lloyd family who lived in nearby Gloster House“. When I first came here with my dogs many years ago it wasn’t easy to walk all the way around the lake, unless you had thigh waders, a long stick to test the depth of the sticky mud and exceptional balance (perhaps aided by your long stick?) so that you didn’t fall into the aforementioned mud after you’d lost one of your boots in the mud suck (yes, I was that woman!). However, since then a lot of work has been done, presumably by Coillte, to make the worst sections of the path on the far-side of the lake much more walker-friendly, with a bridge and hard-packed gravel pathways. Some recent work in controlling the invasion of rhododendrons was evident too.

The lake was still frozen solid, so with much childish giggling, we spent a short while skipping pebbles across the frozen surface of the lake, and delighting in the singing and twittering sounds that the ice rewarded us with.

There are several interesting features in and around Glasderry Woods. and I really would love to know more about both the history of the place, the estate it served and also about the various stone features (bridges, walls etc) you come across as you walk around. I couldn’t see any evidence of maintenance works being done to the car park area, so I don’t why the car park would be closed? I hope it is opened again soon as I’ve always found Glasderry Woods to be a peaceful place to bring the dogs, bring a picnic, and just chill out for a while down by the lake.

Carpark closed 😦

Frozen Lough Roe

Stone bridge

The downside to Glasderry Woods is that it doesn’t take very long to walk all the way around, and all too soon we were back on the lanes heading back towards Golden Grove. To add a little excitement to our return journey Dolly slipped badly on a frozen puddle as she jumped back on to the road from a hedge bank. We didn’t see exactly what she did, but it resulted in a very lame dog who hobbled slowly the rest of the way back to the car. No obvious injury or cuts, so we concluded it must be a twist or sprain. We did attempt to carry her, not wanting her to limp all the way home, but she’s very heavy and didn’t take too kindly to being carried. We weighed up whether one of us should stay here with her, whilst the other went to fetch the car, or whether we should just press on. We decided to carry on and see how she was. Trying to keep a sore dog warm, whilst waiting on the side of the road on such a bitterly cold day was going to be a last resort. She was happy to keep moving, albeit a little more slowly. Then, perhaps in sympathy with Dolly, I also slipped on an icy bit of road surface. At the time it didn’t feel too bad, my hip felt a little sore and twisted, but I was still mobile and felt able to carry on. In hindsight I think Dolly and I should have just stayed there as previously planned, whilst the husband went to get the car and come to our rescue. I was unable to stand up or walk about by bed time that evening, and Dolly just curled up in her bed, looking miserable, for the rest of the day! However, we pressed on, Dolly and I on 3 paws and 1 leg, with the husband trying to ignore the grumbling of his increasingly sore wife; and all our spirits lifted as we came to the final section of the walk, down through Golden Grove woods.

Tyre swing

The top entrance to Golden Grove woods

Is this where the cannibals cooked? j/k!

According to Runkeeper, the entire circuit was 6.2 miles (although those lanes make it feel much longer!), which is almost exactly 10km. I made a mental note that it would be a very handy 10km loop if you were training to run a 10k race…I hasten to add that is not something I’ll be doing any time soon!

Dolly was absolutely right as rain after a couple of days of rest. It’s taken me a while longer, and my hip is still sore 😦 My brother-in-law gave me a pair of slip-on ice grippers for Christmas…perhaps I should have worn them! I wonder if they make something similar for dogs?

Keeper Hill is a keeper

Posted on September 10, 2014 by thecurvyhiker

Within a few short days of arriving in Ireland, we took a trip down to Limerick to pick up a few furniture bits for our new lodgings, and I will never forget driving down the Nenagh bypass (now incorporated into the M7) and gazing at the hills to our left, with a road map in my lap, trying to identify the landmarks of this new land we were calling home. As I stared towards what I deduced (correctly) were the Silvermines, the clouds lifted and the summit Keeper Hill appeared behind them in all its glory. I probably should add here that I was doing all my gazing and landmark research from the safety of the passenger seat, whilst the husband (or “the boyfriend”, as he was known back then) dutifully kept his eyes on the road ahead. I remember saying that I wanted to go up there one day, which elicited a fairly non-committal grunt from the driver’s seat. I can hardly blame him for his lack of enthusiasm or belief in my vow; at the time I was even heavier than I am now, was struggling with an undiagnosed thyroid issue, and would have very definitely been the last to be picked for a ‘Lets All Go Up Keeper Hill’ team!

Earlier last year, during a day out in the Silvermines, I was to recall that car journey and that vow, and spending the day with Keeper Hill in full view only served to strengthen my resolve.

But now I can proudly say that I’ve done it! I’ve walked up to the summit of Keeper Hill, I’ve seen what can be seen, and it was worth every single step!

Many times over the past year, when planning where we were going to walk next, I’d jokingly said “Let’s go up Keeper”, but I’d realistically known in my heart I wasn’t ready, but this time I said it, and I meant it! The weather forecast was good, and I felt good too. The distance felt do-able, and I knew that if I just remained determined, I’d get there. In hindsight, during the planning phase I’d made a fairly important rookie mistake, but I’m here, typing this up, having seen the views from the summit, so it wasn’t a truly terrible blunder, more an error of judgement, a miscalculation if you like! More about that later, but in the meantime, kudos to anyone who can guess what my slight oversight might have been!

We parked up, took the almost obligatory map-board photo, and double checked the route and the distance. This pic nearly always makes it on to my blog posts, but also acts as a quick route checking facility during the walk, being easier and faster to look at my phone than dragging the map out of my rucksack.

We followed the red route.

Can you guess what my rookie mistake might have been?

Immediately out of the car park we headed up hill, and continued heading up hill. After a mile or so of steady ascent I was delighted that the husband was the first one to take the opportunity to ~~stop for a breather~~ check his boots and adjust his laces. It gave me the chance to think about how many stops we’d have already taken by now if I’d tried this route a year ago. We took this opportunity to offer water to Dolly too.

Dog Water Stop

Memorial plaque

Rest stop

Just keep heading up!

At one point we passed a highly coloured chalybeate stream, the vivid orange colouration indicating the iron rich nature of the water emerging from this spring.

Chalybeate stream, rich in iron.

We got to the point in the trail where it was decision time. We had agreed that we would see how I felt at this point. One option was to carry straight on, and remain on the Ballyhourigan Woods loop, which would take us around Ballyhourigan woods, and bring us gently back down the hill to the car park. Or, we could turn left, and carry on towards the summit of Keeper Hill. All felt good, and from here the flanks of Keeper Hill didn’t look too scary, and so we turned left and enjoyed a very short, but sweet, downhill section, before resuming an uphill trek.

Doesn’t look THAT daunting!

Decision point!

The trail took us upwards, always upwards, but also around the south-west flank of Keeper Hill and would ultimately leave the Slieve Felim Way to take us straight up the southern side. We passed a few piles of small trees in brown paper sacks, which I assume were baby trees waiting to be planted? And hopefully not dumped by some tree-clearing fly-tipper! I can’t imagine fly-tippers would take the time and care to place each small tree into individual sacks. The views up Keeper Hill actually seemed to get more daunting as we progressed, but all felt good with my legs, feet and lungs, and so we kept going. It did help immensely the glorious views both upwards and down into the valleys certainly contributed to keeping my spirits lifted, and my legs moving.

Shortcut?

Further than I though!

Bridge

Baby trees, or tidy fly-tipper?

The “Spout”

Freestyle dog-watering

Valley views

This particular waterfall stood out to us, and we can only guess that this the ‘Spout’ as described in the Trail Description. Alas, there was very little water around but we both decided that we’d love to come up here after heavy rain and see the waterfall in full spate.

The Spout – Keeper Hill

The trail was fairly level as it wound around the side of the hill, and a lovely, but short, downhill section provided welcome relief to my tired legs. But all too soon we left the Slieve Felim Way, and the incline got steeper. I found I needed to stop to ~~rest~~ take in the views around us more often, and I was starting to flag. I found Keeper Hill to be quite deceptive. The incline reduces toward the top making the summit constantly appear to be just over the next ridge. When you felt you were nearly there, you’d get to the top of that rise and find yet another uphill stretch in front of you. In a moment of almost perfect timing we met a lovely lady coming down from the summit, who congratulated me on getting this far, assured me that it wasn’t far to the top now, and that it would all be worth it. There is nothing so good as an encouraging word to help you pick yourself up and re-focus, so whomever you were, thank you!

You knew you were finally getting to the top when the gentle breeze, which had turned into a stronger breeze, ultimately developed into a persistent wind. Even on a beautiful clear, sunny day, the strength of the wind surprised me. The first visual thing to greet us were the telecommunications masts and associated outbuildings, fencing etc, but I tried to ignore those as I took in the glorious views all around us. We found our way to the trig point, and I scrambled over the boulders to pose for the almost obligatory Trig pic. I can’t describe the feeling of being on top of a mountain that you’ve wanted to go up for so very long. Keeper might not be one of Ireland’s ‘biggies’, but at 694 metres (2,277 ft), it’s a creditable No.57 in the Irish Highest Hundred List, the highest point in North Tipperary, and is a mountain that has captivated me ever since I first moved to this country. Standing atop of it was a massive achievement for me, and I’ll admit I was grinning like a loon. A sweaty, red-faced loon, but a loon nonetheless!

Keeper Hill – views from the summit

Keeper Hill – Trig point memorial plaques.

The photo of me, using the trig point to stay upright, partly due to the strong wind and partly due to my wobbly legs, is in my opinion hideous, so that particular photo remains for my eyes only, but here’s a slighty arty pic of the husband enjoying the views down over the Silvermines from the summit!

Keeper Hill summit

We found a small spot, out of the wind, to sit down, absorb the views and enjoy a well-earned cup of tea. We shared a packet of wine gums with Dolly, and celebrated with a ‘Summit’ Snickers bar. I checked my phone to see our progress on the Runkeeper app, and at this point, after a little bit of head-scratching, it dawned on me that I had made a bit of a silly rookie mistake! Did you guess what it might have been? I have been so used to doing looped routes and trails, that when I checked the trail distance for this route, I thought that an 8.2km (5.1 miles) route, incorporating the summit of Keeper Hill would be an admirable hike for someone of my size and fitness level. It never occurred to me that, this being a linear route, the 8.2km was the distance in one direction. It had occurred to me a few times, on our way up, that we had walked quite a way to get to the summit but just put it down to my mind playing tricks on me during the sections where I struggled the most. Oh boy! That made getting to this summit feel even better! Although I was a little deflated to see one of those mad hill runners, looking fresh as a daisy, sprint up to the trig point, touch it, and then sprint back downhill again. I try not to let them make me feel inadequate, and firmly remind myself to walk my own miles, and not to judge myself against how others do theirs! But deep down I’ll confess I feel a little jealous of anyone with the fitness levels, and strength of mind, to do something as insane as hill/fell running.

5 miles up meant 5 miles back down, and so we started our descent. I’m always surprised to find that going downhill is almost as hard work as going up, although it always seems to go quicker. I discovered that the joy of an uphill linear trail is being able to enjoy the views even more on the way down, because you’re no longer concentrating on keeping up enough motivation to get to the top! However, my legs were getting decidedly wobbly by the time the car park came into view, and for the first time ever my feet were really sore. However, the achievement and memory of sitting with a cup of tea on top of my favourite mountain, combined with (mostly) coping admirably with the unexpected and unplanned distance that we’d covered, meant that I was still smiling as I finally dropped my rucksack into the back of the car and filled a water bowl for Dolly.

The DOMS hit me by about Tuesday, and Dolly certainly preferred her comfy bed to her daily walk for a couple of days…but Keeper Hill was absolutely worth every step, and I’m lucky that it is relatively local to me. I can’t wait to do it again!