We were due to join the club in Blaenau Ffestiniog, but the forecast was awful and we couldn't face yet another weekend of walking up wet Welsh hills, so decided instead to walk up some wet Lancastrian hills.
The Bowland Challenge has been running for about 5 years now, and YAC have entered one or two teams every year (except last year when it was cancelled due to access problems). Rather embarrassingly, after finishing 2nd in the first event, we have won it every year since.
It's a sort of cross between a score orienteering event and a treasure hunt. There are somewhere between 70 and 100 controls worth between 2 and 20 points each, and you have 10 hours to score as many points as possible. With this number of checkpoints it's not possible to put control markers out, so instead there are grid references with associated "clues" with multiple choice answers, things like "during whose reign was the post box built?" or "what is the number of the trig point?". And to add a bit of complication, there is a designated "lunch" spot part way round which you have to visit, and you also have to say what time you'll get there. Too late and you lose points, too early and you can't set off again until the appointed time.
We decided on a long anti-clockwise loop, with a lunch stop at Langden Castle in the heart of the Bowland Forest (it sounds romantic but is actually just an old barn used as a shooting lodge). In the morning we stayed mostly high, in near-constant wind and rain, we were so wet it was actually good fun (apart from one section through continuous peat bogs). We walked most of it but were forced to run down the last valley to avoid being late for our lunch stop, which we made with a couple of minutes to spare.
After lunch, most of the route was unfortunately along roads – the organisers had had to cancel the intended checkpoints on the hills as the grouse were late fledging and the landowner didn't want them disturbed before they're shot next month. But the scenery through the Trough of Bowland was good anyway, and better still it stopped raining, with even some sunshine at times. We failed to find a couple of the checkpoints but rather than waste time looking, we just ploughed on, again walking throughout until forced to run the last half mile to return to the event centre a minute early.
We covered about 32 miles with 1200m ascent, and managed to win again. If only the winners from the first event would show up again, or maybe some proper fell runners, and return us to our rightful place as also-rans!
Great organisation as usual, I'd recommend the event to anyone wanting something a bit different.
Our route here.
More information about The Bowland Challenge.