Hiker Hostel

19 Feb
We left Atlanta in the morning & headed up to The Hiker Hostel in Dahlonega.  We caught the Marta train to North Springs but stopped off on the way at Sandy Springs where there was a large REI store (outdoor gear store) to pick up the few last bits we needed for the trail. A fantastic store, outdoor enthusiasts shopping heaven, so much choice & variety.
From North Springs station we were picked up by Shannon, who with her boyfriend had recently taken over managing the hostel.  We stopped off at Walmart in Dalonega for some food - we'd already bought our trail food but had nothing to eat for the rest of the day. We'd not eaten since breakfast, it was around 3pm and we were hungry =  we bought too much food just for one afternoon/evening - we must remember never to food shop on a hungry stomach!

The hostel is great and our room lovely.  We opted for a last night of comfort so chose a private room for a few extra dollars rather than bunk rooms, I think we'll have our fill of bunk rooms along the trail.
We took a short wander around the hostel grounds, we could see mountains in the distance and wondered if one was Springer Mountain where the AT starts.

We bought our 2014 AT Guide and Appalachian Trail Passport.  This year is the inaugural year for the AT passport, stamps are collected along the trail from hostels as mementos of the journey.

We met another couple of young American lads who are thru hiking whilst having dinner who started hiking Sunday, they seemed to be enjoying the trail so far.

We had a good nights sleep, probably the last one for a few days!  Breakfast was at 8am, American pancakes with maple syrup, scrambled egg, oatmeal & grits (not so keen on them!).
We backed our bags again ready for the trail and Leigh from the hostel then shuttled us to Amicalola Falls at 9.30 for the start of our hike!!!

Atlanta

17th Feb
We arrived in Atlanta about 7pm (local time) to a warm evening, 62°F/16°C.  We had a very smooth journey with British Airways, a good flight, lots of films watched, good food, even scones with clotted cream & jam - very British!

A quiet evening at Atlanta airport meant we managed to get through customs pretty quickly. The customs (& other airport) staff were all very friendly, no problems issuing us our 6 month visa.  We then hopped in a taxi to our hotel, Holiday Inn Express, Downtown Atlanta (rooms similar to UK Holiday Inns!). Again very friendly taxi driver & hotel staff.
We sorted a few bits out, checked all our gadgets charged using the American adapters we'd bought and then went to bed.  UK time it was about 2.30am, (US time 9.30pm) so we were quite tired but the time difference meant we could get a good full nights sleep and wake up, hopefully, at a reasonable US morning time helping avoid a bit of jet lag.  We did wake up during the night but managed to get back to sleep & wake about 6.30am so not bad. This was also our first night sleeping in a proper full size bed for a month - our camper van bed was very small & short!

18 Feb

Today our priority was to get an American phone number and buy our first 4 days trail food. 

Breakfast at the hotel was good, buffet style with plenty of choice.  We tried sausage,  a sort of mini egg omelette folded in half with cheese inside (I'm sure we'll learn what that's called very soon) with biscuit (like a savoury scone/cobbler).  We then tried a cinnamon pastry, all really nice.

Downtown Atlanta is not really a shopping district, more commercial but with lots of restaurants, so we got the Marta train north to Atlantic Station, a big purpose built outdoor shopping centre/cinema outlet. It reminded me of being in Disneyland Paris, the paved street setup of shops with music playing from pavement speakers, an outdoor ice rink and fairy lights on trees. A nice relaxed laid back atmosphere and very friendly people, which is what we've experienced in Downtown Atlanta too.

We managed to get our phone Sim changed and do all our trail food shopping by midday so we returned by train to drop our shopping off at the hotel. 

We then headed for the 1996 Centennial Olympic Park, a short walk from our hotel and to the World of Coca Cola which was founded in Atlanta in the 1800's. A fun tour with lots of Coco Cola memrobilia from around the world and free drink tasting of their worldwide drinks menu - there's some strange ones!

We then walked over to Atlanta Underground, an interesting old underground train station now converted to a shopping centre with shops and stalls. We were walking round in t-shirts, it was a fantastic sunny day.

Back to the hotel we sorted and packed our trail food before heading out for something to eat. Weve quite a bit of weight being added to our packs - we've no scales but at a guess 10lbs food weight between us.

We visited Max Lager's for food, Atlanta's oldest independent brewery restaurant, using a wood fired grill for cooking. I had BBQ ribs and Nigel a steak, absolutely delicious!  I'm not a beer drinker but Nigel tried two of their own brewed beers, he was in heaven - hoptastic!

Tomorrow we head north to The Hiker Hostel!

Evening view from our hotel

Our Journey Begins...

Today's the day.....

....With nervous excitement our Journey Begins!

After months of researching, planning and organising everything has all come together, smoothly with no hicup's - luckily everything worked out exactly to plan... Let's hope it continues that way.

We spent the last week catching up with friends. It was great to see you all and thank you for all your good luck wishes and support, apologies to everyone we didn't get chance to see. We'll be thinking of you all often though.

We had some family time this weekend with Nigel's parents and brother and my mum, sister, niece and nephew. We visited Nigel's sister and her family a few weeks ago on our way to the Lakes. We'll keep in touch regularly - We love you all and will miss you very much. xxx

Our trusty old blue camper van, our temporary home for the last few weeks since selling our house, got packed up and put into storage yesterday. She'll be well looked after, the guy at the storage unit said he'd start her up every month and check her oil - what good service.

We spent our last night at my mum's. Unpacked, checked we'd got everything and then re packed our backpacks, again! We're very pleased with the weight of them though, Nigel's weighing 22lbs and mine 24lbs! (minus food and water) - hmmm something wrong there?... 
...But Nigel will be carrying most of our food once we buy it.

Our poor old beautiful, faithful dog Bella, saw the backpacks being packed and thought she was going for a walk! I wish we could tell them what is going on. We'll miss her loads but she'll be well looked after by her grandma, my mums house is her second home and she already has her own routine there. Last night she didn't want to sleep with us in our room, she slept in my mums room like she always does when there!  She's a loyal dog, but a typical greedy Labrador, governed by food and soon forgets you if someone else has food, gives a fuss or takes her for a walk!

We were up early and at the bus stop for 7am to catch a bus to the train station. Mum and Bella came to see us off at the bus stop. We'll miss both of you very much - A few tears, sniff sniff. Don't worry about us mum, we'll be careful and keep safe and be in touch often.

Four train journeys later (train, tube, Heathrow express & Heathrow transit) and we're sat waiting for our boarding gate to open. We're flying from Terminal 5, Heathrow's newest British Airways dedicated terminal, very impressed, smooth process through all sections.

Next post, we'll be in Atlanta!

Days 12 - 16 - AT Training Hikes - Lake District National Park - Braithwaite

AT Training Hikes - Lake District National Park - Braithwaite   

Days 12 - 16,  Friday 31st January to Tuesday 4th February 2014

We had another change of location, and moved to a campsite in Braithwaite, a couple of miles outside of Keswick, where we finally had some TV and mobile signals again!

We had a fantastic 16 days in The Lake District managing to get out walking on 14 of those days.  The weather threw everything 'wet' at us (mist, rain, hail, sleet, snow, ice) plus strong winds which resulted in some challenging but still enjoyable days.  We didn't do particularly big mileage days or long days.  Over the fourteen days we walked 161 miles in 70 hours, 15 minutes, our total ascent 12,224m (40,104ft).  This averages 11.5 miles a day, 2.29 mph,  873m ascent, 5 hour days.  (These figures include snack breaks, toilet breaks, photography stops etc.) 

When on the AT we are aiming for our average to be 15 miles per day, walking for roughly 7 - 8 hours a day.   Although we will be carrying heavier packs and the mountains are twice as big, we hope to build on the fitness we have gained in The Lake District and not take too long to get our AT trail legs!  


We have been very impressed with our new Panasonic Lumix FT-5 camera.  We bought it because we wanted a camera we could use to record our journey come rain or shine.   It has performed well in all the wet weather thrown at it, constantly stored in my wet backpack hip-belt pocket, it has produced some great photo's. Everything we would expect from a tough, waterproof camera.


To summarise days 12 - 16:  We walked 48 miles over 5 days (11 Wainwrights).  Average 9.6 miles per day.  Average speed 2.3 mph.  Our total ascent, 3915m (12,844 ft). 

Details of each individual day are below:

Day 12 - Barf

The beautiful weather we had yesterday in Wasdale was the 'calm before the storm'- back to wet rain, sleet, snow again today with strong winds just to add to the fun. 

We walked through Braithwaite village and along a wooded path to Thornthwaite.  (We managed about half an hour again of dryness before having to put on our waterproofs when it started snowing, the snow falling at much lower levels today).  From here it was a steep uphill path through Beckstones Plantation to Barf (468m). (Nigel's joke was that if he was running a outdoor stag weekend he would take the lads for a hike up to 'Barf' the morning after the big night out!)

It was wild, wet and very windy on the fell top.

From Barf we headed to Lord's Seat (552m) where we met another bunch of hikers also battling the strong winds, which had increased to about 40mph.  We descended back into the woods for a bit of shelter from the wind, along a forest track and then a path through pretty snow covered pine trees before heading back onto the open fell again. 

Braving the sleet and strong winds again, which were now gusting about 50mph, we ventured out on to the open fells for our last peak of the day, Whinlatter (526m).  Today was definitely the wettest and coldest day so far because of the strong winds.  We quickly headed back to the shelter of the woods which apparently, according to informative signs, has a large red squirrel population,

We continued down through the woods to Whinlatter visitor centre, which surprise surprise was closed, and then road walked in the slushy snow backed to Braithwaite.

Stats: 10 miles in 4 hours 45 minutes.  Average 2mph.  Total ascent 833m.

Day 13 - Keswick

Guess what?...   ...Another very wild, wet and windy day!  Heavy rain, sleet (and snow above 200m) plus 50mph winds were forecast again for today.
We decided to do a lower level walk into Keswick for lunch and a bit of shopping.  From the campsite we walked up High Coledale to Barrow Door (446m) walking head on into the sleet and wind (not very pleasant) but we plodded on.  We need to get used to walking in all sorts of weather whether we like it or not!  We descended down Stoneycroft Gill, a very pretty valley that we only saw glimpses of every now and again - we constantly had our heads down looking at the ground a few steps in front of us, protecting our faces from the sleet and wind.   Onwards across Newlands Beck to Swinside, then along quiet lanes to Derwent Hill and then on into Keswick.
We arrived dripping wet at The Oddfellows Arms, leaving a nice puddle on the floor where we removed our waterproofs, luckily the staff didn't seem to mind!  A bargain 2 for £10 meal deal, Nigel had Giant Yorkshire Pudding with roast beef and veggies and I had Lasagne, salad and garlic bread. Warmed us up nicely.
The rain had eased slightly after lunch, so we hit the outdoor gear shops.  We invested in some Extremities 'Tuff Bags GTX' waterproof gloves each!  Very expensive but we believe, from our experiences this week getting through 2 to 3 pairs of gloves a day, lightweight waterproofness is better than wet insulation that gets heavy and takes ages to dry.  I also bought a pair of Sealskinz waterproof socks.  Nigel has been trialling a pair whilst we've been in the Lakes, he's not had wet feet at all, and rates them very highly.  We had a nice conversation with the Cotswold Outdoors shop assistant about the AT, PCT and Te Araroa trails.
A quick stop at the Co-op for some grocery resupplies then we walked the quickest route back to the campsite - along the road.  The rain had eased but the winds not, at one point we were almost blown back to Keswick!  We just made it back in time - about 10 minutes after we arrived back, the heavy rain and winds increased again, our campervan has been rocking from side to side, the wind is that strong!

Only one photo taken today as we were passing a farm, it was just too wet and miserable, but the photo sums up today - great weather for ducks!

Stats: 8.5 miles in 3 hours.  Average 2.8 mph.  Total ascent 462m.

Day 14 - Coledale Circuit

Thankfully a dry day today, albeit very windy still.  Leaving Braithwaite campsite we walked into a head wind up Coledale Beck, an easy, gradual ascent up a mine track to Force Crag Mine.

We crossed the beck and headed up a steeper path to Sail Pass.

Turning left at the top, the wind behind us now, onto the ridge path to Scar Crags (672m) and then on to Causey Pike (637m) where Nigel (not just to be romantic) held my hand to stop me blowing away!  No real gusts of wind but a constant 40mph, reaching 50mph+ at compression points.

Being a Sunday we passed lots of other hikers out on the hills today and there were great views from the top.

From Causey Pike we retraced our steps slightly before descending across High Moss, then ascending Outerside (568m), down to Barrow Door (a path intersection we passed through yesterday, but saw nothing!) and up again over Barrow (455m).  We thought we'd get into the AT spirit with a few 'PUDS' (an American trail term for 'pointless ups and downs').  Sorry Nigel, even if they are Wainwrights*, they are still PUDS!
It was then down a grassy slope back to Braithwaite - we could see home - our blue campervan down in the distance.

A great walk, quite tiring though fighting the wind all the time.

*The Wainwrights are 214 fells (hills and mountains) described in Alfred Wainwright's 7 volume guide 'Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells', visiting all Wainwrights is a common form of peak bagging.


Stats: 9.2 miles in 4 hours.  Average 2.3mph.  Total ascent 1064m.

Day 15 - High Spy Ridge

Another dry overcast day, but still very windy. We had a late start from the campsite this morning, setting off around 11am.  We took a track from the village towards Newlands Valley passing below Barrow.  The easy track up Newlands Valley, along side Newlands Beck, went on for about 7 miles, where we were heading for the col at Rigghead.  It was a head on battle against the wind again, which gradually got stronger the further up the valley we walked - the valley acted as a big wind funnel. It felt like a 3 hour resistence training session - you don't get that in the gym!

We passed some cobble stones on the path, remains of an old copper quarry.

We passed Carlisle Mountaineering Clubs club hut, no one was in so we took advantage of their porch to shelter from the wind and have a quick snack.

Not long after leaving the hut, the path started ascending up to Rigghead.

From the top of Rigghead there were nice views back down the valley and looking south towards Great End.

The wind was blowing about 40-50mph again on the top.  Our plan was to walk back along the ridge, Nigel did have a plan B to go back down a different valley.  The wind was that strong that if I hadn't got my backpacks waist & chest straps on, I think it would have blown off me!  I was all for wimping out and going the valley route, but Nigel encouraged me to continue with the ridge route, saying the winds should die down a bit once over the first and biggest peak. Nigel held onto me again to stop me blowing away until we were out of the worst of the winds - I need to perfect my balancing skills in the wind - I too easily get blown sidewards! He was right, by the time we got to the summit of High Spy (653m) we were out of the worst of the winds.  We did have a strong tail wind though for the rest of the ridge, but the ridge walk was well worth battling the wind for.

From High Spy we continued to Maiden Moor (576m), nice views of Derwentwater from there.  A bit milder the last couple of days so only a few patches of snow left on the tops.

and then on to Catbells (451m) at the end of the ridge, a very popular hill, small but perfectly formed, nice views from there too.

A steepish descent down to Stair village, along the road a short while then we rejoined a nice path along Newlands Beck to Little Braithwaite

where there was an attractive newly built slate bridge, which was rebuilt in 2010 following bad floods the year before.

It was starting to get dark, but we just had another half a mile to go down the road back to our campsite.

Stats: 14.9 miles in 6 hours.  Average 2.5mph.  Total ascent 1072m.

Day 16 - Derwent Fells

Our last morning in the lakes, another windy day and our old friends 'rain' and 'sleet' joined us again!  We took a short drive from Braithwaite up towards Newlands Pass to a parking spot at Birkrigg, normally quiet. Not today, the local hunt were out exercising their dogs on a scent trail, so there were lots of cars, locals and farmers out spectating.  
There was only time for a short walk this morning before we drove back south.  We got the road walking out of the way first, walking along a quiet lane following Keskadale Beck up the valley passing a sheep with amazing, perfect, curly horns.

Once we reached Keskadale Farm we ascended up a horrible steep, slippery grass and muddy path up onto the fells.  The view once we hit the top was worth the climb though.

We followed a path through the heather and a fresh sprinkling of snow up to Knott Rigg (554m).

From there we had great views along the ridge to where we were heading, Ard Crags (581m), and down into the valley, the sun occasionally breaking through the clouds.

From Ard Crags it was a short, sharp descent down towards Rigg Beck to the left.  (The lane we walked up on the right of the photo.)

We followed the beck on an easy track for about a mile to head back to our campervan.

Stats: 5.4 miles in 2 hours 45 minutes.  Average 1.96mph.  Total ascent 484m

Days 7 to 11 - AT Training Hikes - Lake District National Park - Wasdale

AT Training Hikes - Lake District National Park - Wasdale  

Days 7 - 11, Sunday 26th to Thursday 30th January 2014

Three great days on the high fells, each with different weather challenges, plus two rest days.

Our Gossamer Gear Mariposa backpacks we're trialling for the AT are proving very comfortable, we're very pleased with them.  We've no scales with us but have probably been carrying 20+ pounds with ease.  The ideal backpack weight we're aiming for on the AT is somewhere between 25 and 30 pounds depending on what food supplies we'll be carrying .  On top of our usual gear I've been carrying 5 litres of water each day and Nigel's been carrying a climbing rope and some tinned food cans to get used to carrying additional weight!

The cold, wet weather we've had has also been great practice for us to perfect our layering systems.

To summarise:  We walked 38.2 miles over 3 days (6 Wainwrights including Englands highest mountain).  Average 12.75 miles per day.  Average speed 2.1 mph.  Our total ascent, 3093m (10,147 ft). 

Details of each individual day are below:

 

Day 7: Zero Day

Today we planned a rest day, or 'zero' day as they call it in America (a zero walking day), which worked out well as the weather was wetter and windier than ever when we woke.  We had a lazy start and lovely cooked breakfast.  We felt sorry for all the weekend campers packing away their tents in the heavy wind and rain, that could be us in a few weeks time! 

We moved campsites today, once we got the van jump started - we had a flat battery!  We headed south via the coast over to Wasdale, South West Lakes, where we are booked into the National Trust campsite for 4 nights - new area, new walks.  We stopped off about 10 miles before the campsite in the small village of Gosforth to stock up on food supplies at the only village grocery store around, a messy little Aladdin's cave of a shop that had everything, you don't see shops like that around much anymore.

We arrived late afternoon then had a chilled evening watching dvd's.  We're in the middle of nowhere, there's been no TV signal or mobile signals at these campsites.

Day 8: Eskdale

A long hike today, we left the campsite, in the rain again, and headed up along the ridge above Wast Water to Illgill Head (609m) (often referred to as Wast Water screes) it was a long steep slog up the grassy slopes to the top. Not much to see again in the rain and mist but the rain did eventually stop for a while and the views clear a little.  We could see over to the coast and had a nice view down to Wast Water lake and Whin Rigg (535m) where we were heading to in the distance.

  

From Whin Rigg we descended down through Mitterdale Forest , the wood paths a nice change to bleak fells and on down to Eskdale Green where we thought there may be a cafe stop, but no such luck!

We crossed south of the River Esk and headed along an old bridleway alongside the river through Eskdale valley over a lovely wooden bridge by a ford continuing until we came to some stepping stones across the river.  Unfortunately for us because of the heavy rains they were impassable without getting very wet, which we weren't prepared to do.  The river level was gushing just above the stepping stones which would have been ok to cross still, but one stone was misplaced and the gap between the stones too large to jump. We turned and headed back, it was less than a mile detour to an alternative road bridge over the river. 

 We passed Dalegarth Station which was very 'closed'!  Everywhere seems to shut down in the Lakes in January.  We had the hills to ourselves again, we didn't see any other hikers out today again, just a couple of local dog walkers down by the river.

We passed through Boot, a quaint little village (the pub was actually open but we daren't go in because we still had about 4 miles to walk and were in danger of running out of daylight!)  with lovely traditional stone cottages.

From Boot we followed an old drovers path up over Eller How, Eskdale Moor and past Burnmoor Tarn in the fading light back to the campsite.  We managed to walk waterproof less for about half an hour before the heavens opened again!  We arrived just before the need for torches!

Stats: 16.6 miles in 7 hours with short breaks.  Average speed 2.37 mph.   Total ascent/descent 1086m. 

 Day 9- Scafell Pike - The highest mountain in England!

With the weather we've been having , there was never going to be a perfect day to climb Scafell Pike (978m), so we braved the rain again and headed to the summit of England's highest mountain up the tourist path.  A route Wainwright describes as 'dull' and 'a tiring and uninteresting grind'.  As we rarely get any views in the rain and mist and can only see about 3 steps in front of us with our heads down and blinkered waterproof gear on, we weren't that bothered!  A clear summers day is a bit different. 

We set off from the campsite up towards Lingmell Gill where we briefly got a clear view back over West Water and Illgill Head on the left where we were yesterday.  A gradual climb up a good path, across a stream and we were soon at the snow line, things started getting tougher from then on.

 

We continued up via Brown Tongue and over Hollow Stones rock field, the rocks were quite slippery with a thin covering of snow.  The rain turned to sleet and eventually snow and visibility got gradually worse.    The path would ordinarily be a reasonably easy and steady climb but the snow made it quite challenging, it was up to a foot deep in places requiring us to kick foot holes to progress. 

It seemed to take forever to reach the summit, we could only see about 20 feet in front of us so had no idea how much further it was.  The white snow just blended into the white snowy mist, it was quite windy so lots of snow blowing around.  Eventually we made it!  We could just about see ourselves at the top.  

We immediately turned and started descending in the same direction we came from - we wanted to get down before our footprints disappeared.  The snow was blowing around so much it had already covered some of our uphill tracks.  The weather was too miserable on top to take a selfie, so we took one on the way down. Initially it wasn't too bad going down kicking steps into the deeper snow, it got trickier and very slippery though once we hit the rockier path and rock field with wet slushy snow. 

Visibility soon improved and it wasn't too long before we were below the snow line and on solid ground again.  Once we got down to Lingmell Gill we decided we'd take the alternative route back via Wasdale Head Inn rather than heading straight back to the campervan.  We deserved a good pub meal after that climb today.  A real fire welcomed us followed by Steak and Ale Pie and Slow Cooked Belly Pork, yum yum. 

We were watched constantly whilst eating by Billy the pub dog (we felt quite at home just a different dog!) but unfortunately for Billy he had a little tag around his neck saying 'Please don't feed me - Otherwise I go home and fart a lot'.  Nigel sneaked him a bit of pork crackling!

From the pub it was about a mile back to the campsite along a level path that warned 'Path can flood - alternative route via road'.  We followed the path and of course after all the rain we've had came to a stream bed that would normally be quite dry but was now a shallow river.  We managed to wade across quickly without getting too wet and then dodge another flooded area by jumping a fence back into the campsite!

A thoroughly enjoyable but very challenging day.

Stats:  9.4 miles in 4 hours 45 mins.  Average speed 1.9mph.  Total ascent 911m

We were very pleased with our time - Wainwright says to allow 5 hours and that's not on a snowy day!

Day 10 -  Unplanned Day Off

Our campervan had a flat battery again this morning so instead of a planned day hiking we needed to sort the van out and get it back up and running again.  Nigel managed to jump start the van from our leisure battery and then we needed to take it for a drive to re charge the battery again.  We headed to Whitehaven up the coast, a northern seaside town.  It had a lovely harbour with a C2C statue marking the start of the Coast to Coast cycle route.

It turned out to be a decent day with nice views over towards Galloway.

A bit of a shame as we could have been hiking, but we enjoyed our additional rest day.  We called into a local cafe for brunch, all day breakfast, and then had a wander around the south harbour area which had many old landmarks, plaques and statues relating to the towns past mining era.  A visit to Morrisons to stock up on groceries and then we drove to St Bees where a couple of years ago we started the 'coast to coast' walk before heading back to our campsite.

Day 11 - Mosedale Horseshoe

A beautiful, clear, dry, sunny day at last!
Today we completed one of the Wasdale rounds, the Mosedale Horseshoe! We were heading for the snow capped hills in the distance.

A sedate track ascended to Black Sail Pass, turning left here brought both sunshine and hard packed snow.

A great opportunity to test our newly purchased YakTrax Pro's, which proved excellent on the easier angled slopes leading up to the summit of Pillar (892m).  Great views from the summit in all directions and looking back down to the Wasdale valley where we started.

From Pillar a steep descent over slippery rocks required care to Windy Gap.  From there the ridge continued on excellent hard neve (rock hard snow) to Scoat Fell (843m), the top covered in snow drifts.

With such good conditions and even windless sunshine, easy work was made of Red Pike (828m).

 Once off the snow an icey path descended the hillside to Dore Head. 

 We were looking for an easy descent to our campervan at Wasdale Head, instead we had the descent from hell!  A steep slippery descent down frozen scree back down to Wasdale valley.  It seemed to take forever to get down.  It did get easier and the scree looser towards the bottom.

  
 Stats: 12.2 miles in 6 hours 20 minutes.  Average 2mph.  Total ascent 1096m.
A fantastic winters day walk (until the scree!)