R*n 745: Nether Kellet

A little poem to begin.

She set out with intention;
Thought she knew the way to go
But as she wandered clumsily
The winds of change did blow.
They took her like a feather
And she floated on their breeze
Soaring so far above the forest
She could hardly see the trees.
At first, she was astounded
Just how far she went each day
But eventually she realised
She'd completely lost her way.

Ms Moem

Our 1:30 start seemed about right to avoid the rambo group due to start at 2:00 and Antiseptic and I set of with every intention of walking a brisk wimp trail, though late advice from the hares recommended taking the first of the two rambo options for sheer delight.  So resolved, we found the first marks just outside the car park and headed into Nether Kellet.  It quickly became evident that the hares' warnings about the marks being sparse were right "on the mark" (see what I did there) as the first two checks were very long-spaced to the first blobs.  The latter was on the right of the road opposite a left junction but we carried on in the absence of a check or any indication to cross to the left.  Half a mile later we realised we were wrong and backtracked, then found the markings up the left junction on closer inspection.

This was the first of our many back-tracks today.  Over the hill and down to the Nether-Over road, along and up the path through the woods past the Kellet quarry to a check with options right, down to a gate and finishing at a quarry viewpoint (no marks found) and straight on, down the lane another half a mile before the first blob.  We got it right eventually!

So back to NK and we eventually found the tucked-away chalk arrow pointing down the Carnforth road to a stile leading over the M6 footbridge.  After crossing the stile we encountered STT following the trail the opposite way.  After he regaled us with tales of various hashers going wrong and missing out bits of trail we directed him back to NK and we continued somewhat bemused.  Over the M6 bridge and our bemusement took an upturn when we encountered aforementioned rambo group following the trail in the wrong direction.

At this point we had done 4.5 miles and still no rambo split, but the rambo group set us straight by recommending the rambo loop through the disused quarry woods, which we executed (charming diversion adding a further mile) and out via the way we went in.  An arrow took us left but we found no markings at the gate in the field corner so. as we knew the ground from yore we continued off-trail to on-in blobless, only to encounter trail again in 300m at a stile on the left.  So we just followed the in trail home.  I guess our short cut must have missed the second rambo split but, as we weren't going to take it anyway, all's well that ends well, finishing at precisely the same time as what was left of the backwards rambos.

What a great trail and stonking winter frosty sunshine to burn off the Christmas dinners.  Well done you inexperienced hares, though make sure you buy that huge flour rucksack for next time.