Hi All,
Anyone interested can view my Blog on my recent Dales Way walk.
http://dalesway87miler.blogspot.com/
Dave.

Sounds like a good trip.Its probably a good idea to do the walk from Windermere to Ilkley as you get the stiles out of the way at the start.

We're having a crack at this at the end of October. Weather looks like it might be a bit dodgy. I give us a 50/50 chance. Gonna be setting off at midnight from Ilkley. Would like to do a 32 hour but would be happy with a 36-40 hour... or even jst finishing

Hi Mickey, best of luck to you.
Only problem, apart from fitness etc, setting off at midnight at this time of year is on a 32 hours schedule, you are going to have to walk through around 16 hours (half of it) in darkness.
The pace always drops during the night however how much you try not to.
I hope you succeed anyway.
I list one of my schedules, when I finished in exactly 32 hours.. Note the slowing down after Gearstones. All Dentdale was walked at night.

Stage. Total. Miles.
Ilkley to Burnsall - - - - - 3hrs 40min.....3hrs 4omin ...13.00
Burnsall to Kettlewell - - - 2hrs 55min.....6hrs 35min ... 9.50
Kettlewell to Yockenthwaite - 2hrs 35min.....9hrs 10min ... 7.00
Yocknthwaite to Cam Houses - -2hrs 17min.....11hrs 27min... 6.50
Cam Houses to Gearstones - - -1hr 30min......12hrs 57min... 4.00
Gearstones to Lea Yeat - - - -2hrs 03min.....15hs .... ... 6.00
Lea Yeat to Dent - - - - - - -2hrs ... .....17hrs .... ... 5.00
Dent to Sedburgh - - - - - - -2hrs 35min.....19hrs 35min .. 6.00
Sedburgh to Crook o Lune br - 3hrs 04min.....22hrs 39min .. 7.00
Crook o Lune br to Burneside -4hrs 51min.....27hrs 30min .. 10.0
Burneside to Bowness (end) - -4hrs 30min.....32hrs ..... .. 10.0
Total -32hrs ... Total.84

Dave.

Hi Dave, thanks for the advice it was very useful. I managed to finish the walk in a time of about 33 1/2 hours. We ended up setting off at 6am to give us as much day walking as possible. Unfortunately 2 members of the team had to drop out at Burnsall as a girl was having hip and back problems from her backpack so her and her boyfriend left, this slowed us down considerably so we were somewhat behind schedule. We had a quick cup of coffee in Grassington and pushed onto Kettlewell making up for some of the lost time. We arrived in Buckden about 4:15pm and had a bit of a rest and a meal.

From there we continued onto Oughtershaw setting a good pace. We had recce'd this part of the route the previous week and decided that rather than take the path to Cam Houses we would push on a bit up the road and take the Roman Road to Cold Kell Gate, then to Gavel Gap and follow the Ribble Way to Newby Head. We subsequently got to the Sportsman's about 10:30pm where we rested for about 45 minutes.

From there we decided that we would road walk up to Sedburgh as the path was extremely boggy and slippery under foot. We had a short rest in Dent for a brew on the Jetboil and then continued onto Sedburgh arriving about 5:30am. Unfortunately another member of the team was now suffering severely from sleep deprivation as she had only had about 3 hours the previous night and had to drop out, my friend Mark elected to stay with her and get her safely to Ambleside.

I was now on my own and headed on, I made good time to Beckfoot/Lowgill. From here I found progress extremely difficult. The signage for this section up to Burnside I found quite patchy and ambiguous, this combined with having been awake for over 24 hours made navigation and matching what was on the map to the ground very difficult and I was constantly having to backtrack to get back on route. It was also very hard underfoot as the fields were incredibly boggy especially round gates and stiles and to cap it all off it began to rain heavily.

Thankfully the signage seemed to improve after Burneside and I eventually got to the end about 3:30pm. I actually did this stage much faster than I expected as the weather was so bad I didn't bother stopping.

In retrospect I think that my main mistake was in not eating enough. The slow rate of progress at the beginning made us want to push on through rather than stop at the larger villages to eat. If we had made better time I would have had eaten at Grassington, Buckden and hopefully made the Sportsman's in time for a meal to see us through the night. As it was our only major meal was in Buckden, the rest of the time we were eating sandwiches, flapjack etc. on the move. I would not have wanted to be too much ahead of our time up to Sedburgh as the route from Beckfoot to Burneside would have been almost impossible in the dark with my mental faculties as they were.

Kit wise I think I got it about right. This consisted of:
Deuter Speed Lite 15l pack.
Montane Atomic DT Stretch jacket. Very light and water proof
Montane Atomic DT pants as above very light and waterproof
North Face micro fleece
Montane base layer t-shirt
Montane Terra pants, highly wind and water resistant and quick drying.
Hat, Gloves and Buff
Gaitors, thermals pants and spare socks. I didn't need these so would probably leave out next time.
2.5l bladder, 0.75l flask and 0.5l water for Jetboil.
Food, camera and phone.

I have to give a special mention to my boots which were I think the major factor in finishing. I normally wear a pair of Scarpa Trek GTX boots when hiking. However, on the previous 40 mile recce of the route I was finding it very tiring trying to keep a faster than normal pace. I decided to take a gamble and bought a pair of Inov-8 Roclite 288s. These are the lightest gore-tex boots you can buy. I had read mixed reviews of these in terms of for support so decided to doctor them up by removing the factory supplied innersoles and inserted a pair of green superfeet and the innersoles from my Raichle All-Degree Lite GTX boots. I was worried about the water resistance so had packed a spare pair of Seal Skinz socks.

I needn't have worried though as they preformed brilliantly, they are extremely light so walking was much easier, they gave enough ankle support and the extra padding in the innersoles meant that even the road walking sections gave my feet no trouble. I sometimes suffer from pressure blisters but got none on this trip. The boots got over topped a number of times in some of the muddier fields but the water only went down the ankle a couple of cms and not down to the sole. They also let my feet breathe amazingly well and were 100% waterproof. At the end of the walk they were caked in mud so I stood in a stream to clean them off and my feet stayed dry.

I think we may try this trip again but better rested before hand and eating more when going through the towns as it would be nice for everyone to finish.

Mick

That's really interesting, Mick.
I found the signage is at its worst where you had problems, and the path thereabouts was not much used. I suppose it would be best to start at Bowness instead of Ilkley, so that you navigate that section when still fresh. I think Slogger knows the route well enough to have no problems with route-finding.
Glad to get a good report on the footwear, because I'm needing something new. I always put Sorbothane and Supafeet in my boots - makes the shop people wonder what I'm fiddling about at when trying on a possible purchase!

Mick,
Very well done.
It is more difficult doing these 'Non Stoppers' when in the company of others as theirs and your own bad patches seldom coincide.
I only ever tried one over 45 mile with company and that just happened to be the Dales Way. He is a very strong Fell Runner but hadn't doen any walking that year. Negoiatibng those stiles on the approach to Kettlewell, his Hamstring muscle cramped badly and caused a slight strain. To thast point we were 1hr 40min ahead of a 3mph schedule. However the paced then dropped away drastically, which was frustrating because because I was on top form at the time and felt i could have bettered my best time of 29hr 15min. We ended up with 30hr 30min, which was good enough considering everything.
I think you will go faster next time, as you probably know these things take a few goes and you learn a bit more each time.
regarding wearing boots, yes you are quite correct about blisters.
I mean doing that sort of mileage is just asking for blisters, but I too have never suffered them when wearing boots. I do get really bad pressure blisters after about 40 mile or so, but only attempting to maintain 3mph throughout, and wearing walking shoes. If I slow the pace from the start then I am okay.
Other good non stoppers to try:
Ribble Way 72 miles.
Cumbria Way 75 miles.
Pendle Way 45 miles.
I also think Hadrians Wall Path would go at 84 miles.
Be careful it becomes addictive!
Dave.

I love reading these threads, its not my thing at all but really facinating. Especially enjoy hearing about you guys doing the routes in one go while I take 5 days lol
All the best
Les

Round two pencilled in for Friday 25th November. Think there will be just the two of us this time. Same plan of a 6am set off, hopefully this time we will make the Sportsman's in time to get something to eat. I've decided to amend the Sedburgh to Burneside section as the fields were pretty boggy last time. This time we're going to follow the A684 out of Sedbergh over the M6 and head over Docker Fell to pick up the route again just short of Burneside. We're hoping for around a 30 hour crossing.

Planned stops are:
Burnsall - quick cuppa
Grassington - grab something from the chippy if it's open
If chippy is closed then eat in Kettlewell/Buckden
Dent Head - should make sportsmans in time for food.
Something for breakfast at either Stavely or may detour to Plantation Bridge service station.

Good luck Mickey.
Personally I always follow the main route, except for once when doing it over 8 days with my wife and we went via the source of the river Ribble after Cam Houses.
I usually set off from Ilkley at 9am, restock food and drink in Grassington and then finally after the last restock in Kettlewell, carry enough to get me through to Bowness as everwhere theron is closed at the time I pass through.
Bowness comes at around 3-5pm the next day. Then follows a footsore trod down to the pub at the bottom, a good meal, few pints of Guinness, taxi to rail station and home.
I usually fall asleep during along soak in the bath and then one of the best nights sleep ever!
Dave.