Dove Dale - 11/10/2010

The Dolomites (sorry, no, it's the last sun hitting the top of the Tissington Spires)

After racing at the weekend it was nice to be able to fit in a longish run early on in the week, taking advantage of the drive back from Newark to stop off at one of my favourite haunts, the Dove Dale car park near Thorpe north of Ashbourne.

This time I decided to make a round trip of the session, starting off up Dove Dale as far as Milldale, then via a short road section to the Alsop car park on the Tissington Trail. The trail returns to Thorpe where a path leads over the Thorpe Cloud col with surprising little ascent back to the stepping stones near the Dove Dale car park. For good measure I threw in an ascent of Thorpe Cloud at the start and end of the route.

Mostly felt pretty good on this, although I wouldn't recommend the path parallel to the road climbing out of Milldale. In shorts, this is a very nettley hell with quite a bit of mud too. At the top of the steep section the road forks. Stay right and then take the path across the field past a huge tree and barn to reach a crossing of the A515 Asbourne-Buxton road right opposite the Alsop car park on the Tissington Trail.

Barn and tree on the field crossing near Alsop car park

The run down the trail was generally fast, and the only bit of navigation required was checking the point I had to leave the road (just before the Peveril of the Peak Hotel).

I ran the entire ascent of Thorpe Cloud at the start (first time I've done this), although not quite at racing speed (0.6 miles, 385', 10:03). On the way back I hiked it, but it was the only section I didn't run.

Sunset and moon across Dove Dale, 6.30pm

The entire route was 11.2 miles, 1,400' of ascent and 2 hours 8 minutes.