For as long as Paul Fox can remember he has loved running through the great outdoors, usually with his mad and muddy collie, “Spook”. Now, Paul, a former member of the Tavistock Section of the Dartmoor Rescue Group, offers courses on navigation, compass, map work and hillcraft skills, based on Dartmoor, so that anyone who has ever wanted to go and explore off the beaten track can learn or develop existing navigation skills so they can experience the beauty of Dartmoor and discover its many mysteries for themselves.
Monkey Feet in the Mist By Paul Fox
WHILE I was away for a week running along the three- mile long Hayle Towans beach with the occasional early morning surf, Spook had been on holidays at the kennels. When I picked him up he was giving me the look which said ‘chasing after a ball with my mates is all very well, but not quite the same as a run on the moor, so how about getting out now the drizzle has stopped?’
Dogs can be very expressive, sometimes.
Parking at High Down car park I decided to run one of my regular routes in my Vibram Treks, which I have nicknamed for obvious reasons my ‘monkey feet’. These provide grip and protection while still feeling much more like running barefoot than shod. The downside is that they look strange - not unlike running with gloves on my feet! Although I’ve had these for a few weeks I thought this
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would be a good opportunity to test the limits of their grip on that slippiest of Dartmoor surfaces - short, wet, steep grass.
First it was the run up to Brat Tor, (which is unusual on the moor in that it steepens towards the top) and then up to Great Links Tor on the sheep trod which passes to the left of the tin workings (not marked on the Ordnance Survey map). Picking through the band of clitter with its heather and bilberries and ankle-snapping
holes, the track becomes more obvious as it passes a large cairn to the right and winds past outlying outcrops to Great Links Tor.
News of improving visibility had not yet reached these parts and my plans for a sunlit shot were scuppered. A good second best was the moody, misty shot on the self- timer. It’s amazing how much ground you can cover in five seconds!
A trod passing to the right of the most westerly outcrop and winding down towards Arms Tor was to provide the first part of the grip test. After a tentative start with much test-sliding, the grip proved to be more than adequate and I was descending as fast as I do in fell- shoes. Glancing down occasionally it was noticeable how much my
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