Planning Replenishment

Failing to prepare is preparing to fail! I made the decision as part of the planning process to visit all eight of the replen sites, to ensure the areas would be safe and suitable to stash these essential 3 days of supplies. I was very fortunate to be accompanied by Alan Hinkes for the entire day as we drove around 60% of the outer route. Once again, he came into his own by selecting key areas that I had planned with buildings and people that he knew that may help.

Sure enough we spoke to the owners of Lowthaite B&B, Tine and Jim, who agreed to store a replen bucket for Day 19 in their barn and take water from the small stream on their land. Eddy, the landlord of The Pheasant Inn helped with Day 22 and Eddie from the Cumbrian Scout Group also agreed to assist with Day 5. I also need to say thanks to Paul from the YHA for also agreeing to help at both Langdale and Patterdale YHA (Day 11 and 17), even though the latter is now up for sale!

I don’t believe in obstacles, so the lack of water at both Day 12 and 13 meant I spent almost 30km walking parts of both routes armed with 2x water cache in my bergan to find suitable places to stash 3 litres of fluids at each site. In order for me to remain safe on the mountain I need to be able to mix High5 powder into my water bottles, delivering a constant supply of much needed carbs and electrolytes which I use to keep my blood sugars up during each day. Over the years completing 17x Ironman events and other ultra-events like the BattleBack1000 and the Enduro7, this has proven to be my lifeblood!

Finally at the end of the week I parked up to the north of Keswick and completed a full dry run of Day 1 (29kms and 8x Wainwrights) setting off at 0600hrs. At the end of a long, wet, boggy day I kicked into admin routine. This is not just about setting up your tent and getting out of the elements, it would be too easy to go into hexy mong mode. This means filtering fresh water, cooking arctic rations, looking after my feet, getting a dhobie and switching into wet and dry routine. Once I had eaten twice, injected and popped pills, all that remained was to change the map folds and go over the route in my head for the next day until I could visualise the terrain along the journey.

0500hrs and back into start up routine. Pack kit, eat scran, drink coffee, inject, pop pills, square away feet and back into wet rig. Once the tent was stowed away and my bergan was packed, I filtered some more water before setting off for the 25km journey back, covering most of Day 25 including 5 Wainwrights. It was a great feeling to summit Catbells which will be my last summit of all 214 Wainwrights before heading down the ridge line making my way to Moot Hall.

It’s hard to believe in less than 3 weeks I will be attempting to walk the entirety of all 7 of Alfred Wainwrights books in one sitting... nervous excitement!