Sunny post-Christmas scamper.

 Santa Paws brought me some cuddly toys, some treats and a new ball so I was a really happy terrier. I had a longish run on Boxing Day and a short but very important run on 27th.  The reason this run was so special was the fact that it brought my running total to over 1000 km for 2020, so I posed in the lovely winter sunshine for some photos.  My human seemed quite excited by my achievement but for me it was just another scamper with not a hair out of place.

One of those fantastic sunny winter days when it is a pleasure to be out on the trails with my human.

I've done it! Best yearly distance ever, there's also lots of walking and scampering with the bikes to add to this.

Lots of wags and woofs,

Dexter the Trailhound!

Midwinter blog

 Well it's virtually the end of the year, and what a strange year 2020 has been.  I've missed all my friends in Wales over the last few months and I haven't been able to get out for long runs on the hills.  But I have done lots and lots of running, in fact I've done more running this year than ever!

I even did a half-marathon , I ran in Cheshire with my human and we ran virtually with my Auntie Sarah and her friend Sarah who were in Oxfordshire.  All four of us ran at the same time, it should have been the day for the a real half-marathon race but as this was cancelled we called it 'Not the Silverstone half!'  The distance was 21.17 km which I completed in 2 hours 14 minutes.  My human was able to chose a route with lots of muddy fields and tracks so not too much road, it was great fun especially when my other human came to meet us on her bike and I was able to run with both my humans for a while.  I'd been training hard for the half-marathon, so far this year I have run 1087 km and climbed 11,395 metres, and I haven't worn out my paws even a little bit, unlike my human who has worn out a pair of trail shoes and a pair of fell-shoes!  

When I'm running in lockdown I am very lucky to be able to run on a mixture of tracks , fields and some roads.  Over the last few weeks the tracks have been very wet, the picture below shows one of my favourite tracks with a little stream running where the path should be, but it was nice and sunny so that made up for the wetness.   

 I've even had to swim on one of my runs, the water across the track was up to my human's knees so I knew it was going to be a few metres of swimming for me, it did get rid of the mud for a while.

Just a couple of photos from my lockdown runs:

I'll let you know if Santa Paws brings me any presents,

Have a peaceful Christmas and a great New Year,  

Nadolig Llawen a Blwyddyn Newydd Dda,

Woofs and wags,

Dexter 

More hills and forests.

I've  had another great few weeks of running and generally being out and about on hills and in forests.  I have been out on Llyn Tegid in the canoe a few times so there was plenty to see and sniff when I was on the water.  During the last month I have not visited any new places which may sound a bit boring but it's not!  Everywhere I go I see and smell new things, my super-nose can smell thousands and thousands more scents than my human.  So every new visit to somewhere I have visited previously is exciting and interesting for me.

Moel y Garnedd hill runs now involve a bit of road running and a short distance alongside the lake and although they are short runs of around 8 km there is always a fair bit of elevation gain.  The elevation gain soon mounts up as you head away from Llyn Tegid and is usually around 200 metres.  The water in the lake moves and sparkles in a different way every time I see it.  As you ascend onto the hill the view opens up, first over the town of Bala, then the Berwyn Mountains and then over to Snowdonia and south to Cadair Idris.  If I'm lucky and there are no sheep on the hill I get to run without a lead although I don't go far from my human. 

Another great short run for me is the ascent of Moel Emoel, lying to the north of Llyn Tegid and Y Bala, although the summit is only 549 metres, it is an easy climb up the south shoulder of the hill from the lane above Llanfor.  The views from the hill are great in all directions.

   A succession of lovely views on the climb to the summit cairn on this late afternoon run. 

In the picture below you can see Llyn Tegid to the left and just a glimpse of Cadair in the centre distance. 

It was quite dry on the hills most of this month although my human and I managed to find a deep boggy bit on the descent from Aran Benllyn.  Once again the summit of Aran Benllyn was in the cloud, although the sun was trying to break through, you could just see a hazy outline of the sun.  

On the ascent and upwards into the cloud, however looking back towards LLyn Tegid lovely clear views.

Quick look around and a treat on the summit then off again...

Surprisingly it wasn't cold on the summit but we didn't linger and had a cracking fast scamper back down only delayed by extracting ourselves from the boggy bit. 

Once again the Mawddach Trail provided me with a speedy scamper whilst my humans followed on their bikes, there was a really high high tide on the day and as usual the views were stunning. As usual I did lots of loud barking when we started off, just to make sure the humans realised that I was in a hurry to get going.

High tide on the Afon Mawddach near Coed-y-garth, looking up-river.

Yet more of my favourite running, this time in Coed-y-Brenin on the MinorTaur Trail. This is a blue grade mountain bike trail and makes for an awesome scamper-fest.  There are some 18% gradients on the trail, my human can only just ride up them so slooow! 

I'm not scared of the MinorTaur !

Cracking view of Rhaeadr Mawddach after a step climb that's easy for me but my human only just managed to cycle up the hill. You can see the Mawddach is a bit narrower here than it is nearer the sea in the photo near Coed-y-garth.

Later in September I went back to Coed-y-Brenin for a run with my human, two other humans and a super-bouncy Sproker called Efy, wow that was fun.  We were out on the trail (called the Goldrush Trail) for 1 hour and 43 minutes, I did 13.5 km but I think Efy did twice that distance.  The weather forecast hadn't been brilliant but in the end it was clear and sunny.

Coed-y-brenin and Goldrush Trail - photos by Rebecca M. 

You can see from the photos what a lovely day it was, a perfect run in great company.

I went back to Cheshire with my human in October so my running is more low level running in places like Delamere Forest and around the Sandstone Trail at Alvanley and Frodsham. Even on the Sandstone Trail I get the chance to do lots of climbing, one of my favourite runs has more than 381 metres of ascent in just over 10 km.  A bonus on this run is that it is lovely soft ground to run on and super high-speed downhill bits. 

Calm and sunny in Delamere 

Autumn colours begin at Delamere (L) and the Old Pale view towards the Pennines (R).  Contrasting views of Delamere.

Finally, a couple of views of the woods at Snidley Moor, a great place for scampering with my humans.  Sometimes walking and sometimes going for a run with lots of hilly bits.

Wags and woofs, stay safe,

Dexter 🐾🐾

Real mountains again

My first decent run was the usual 12.6 km one to Is_afon and back round Llyn Tegid, it was nice to have some climbing (405 metres) to do as that is always followed by a rapid downhill run.

Things are looking better, I've got back to the hills and mountains of Gogledd Cymru (North Wales). My first walk was a scramble to the top of a hill-fort at Pared y Cefn  hir above Llynnau Cregennen (south west of Dolgellau). You can see some cloud over Penygadair in the distance but is was a dry and warm day.

 

A few days later I ventured into a new part of the Berwyn mountains with a mountain bike scamper to the Wayfarer memorial at Pen Bwlch Llandrillo, it's a very steep climb from the village and my human was struggling with that bit.

It was so funny when my human rode his bike into a really deep pool on the track, tee hee, of course I had made the sensible decision to run around the side of the track.  

From the high point at Wayfarers some epic scampering back down to descent back to the village. Overall a nice run out of 11.5 km with 492 metres of ascent, probably easier on four paws than two wheels.

I'm not sleeping in this picture, just enjoying a lovely mix of sheep-muck and gravel to roll in.

The picture below gives an idea of how remote parts of the Berwyn seem to be although only a few kilometres from the nearest village.

  

On 30th July, in fantastic weather I ran up to  Diffwys with my human. I’ve done this run before, it’s lovely starting off from above Bontddu with cracking views of the Cadair Idris ridge then up to the west ridge of Diffwys following the old drovers route on branch and an easy run to the summit.  Absolutely cracking run back down to the start point at Banc-y-Fran. It's 11.6 km and 554 metres ascent but the views and easy ground to run on make it perfect for me.  The photos show just how good the weather was for the run.

Diffwys ridge with Cadair in the distance and the Mawdach just visible.

On the summit cairn (treat time) and Barmouth bridge in the background.

The picture below shows Diffwys summit from the drovers road at Banc-y-Fran

31st July - Canoeing   This was a day off, my human did all the work today and I simply enjoyed the sun while my super nose took in the interesting smells on the lake.

I've done a few low-level runs and walks since then, however the weather has been so hot the last few days that apart from a swim in Llyn Tegid I've lazed around not doing much.

A few watery days have been spent in and on the lake, I prefer the 'on' rather than 'in' the water.  My human insists on swimming out into the lake with me then I have a swimming race back to shore with him.  I did get a chance to try a new sport, stand-up paddle-boarding.  It was OK but bit more wobbly than the canoe so I'm not too sure about it.

Woofs and wags,

Dexter.

Running and a couple of virtual races

Despite there not being any real races where I get the chance to bark at lots of other dogs I have done a couple of virtual ‘Not Park Runs’.  Nobody else runs with us and we submit the 5k time to see what position we get in the ‘race’. I have had a first place (30:07) and a second place (35:16), only one other human ran but it sounds great!

I went out for a run today on the route I’m using for the 5k Canix race on Sunday, the long grass has been cut but the path alongside the potato  fields is getting narrower and narrower each day.

Not much room for a terrier along here, even less for my human!

Lots of woofs and wags,

Dexter. 

Update!  I won, first place out of four on the Canix 5k on 12th July.

I'm still running !

I've managed to keep my human motivated and despite the lack of hills I'm averaging over 23 km of running each week and some walks as well.  There are no 'real' races to enter at the moment but we took part in a virtual running challenge on 13th June.  This was the the Hawarden Estate Trail Virtual Solo Challenge, normally held at Hawarden the event was run from your own location with the aim of covering as much distance as possible in 2 hours.  

After an early start to avoid the heat of the day I managed a very respectable 18.92 km of running, just pipped into 2nd place by a runner who managed 19.6 km!  There were only three solo runners as most of the entries ran as teams of three in a relay type race and I don't know if any other dogs took part.  I loved it and got a medal for taking part.

The run was over fields and tracks with just a few short road sections, the most difficult part of the run was where the path crosses a field of long grass, the grass was taller than a terrier so it was really hard work.  Such hard work that when I got home I had a lovely snooze...

The next challenge is a virtual 5 km CaniCross on 12th July so I'm training for that now, I hope the grass is cut before then !

Wags & Woofs,

Dexter.

 
  

A very strange time

Hello folks,

After a great start to the year with my hill-running training going well things got very, very strange.  However I did manage some interesting runs and walks before 'lock-down'.  My last walks and runs in Wales were great, I even managed to get a Trail Race in before returning to England.  At Loggerheads I managed a reasonable run in the Canix 5k Race, quite a steep climb in the first kilometre of the race but great undulating woodland paths and lots of downhill too.

  
The Loggerheads Race was part of my training for the Sea-to-Summit 22k race in April, I trained on the Mawddach Trail too.  On the trail my human rode a bike and I scampered alongside the bike, we keep the distance low when using the bike otherwise I would be exhausted (or so my human says). 

I was very lucky with the weather during my training, dry and not too hot.  I continued with some running, walking and even swimming until early March.

High tide on the Mawddach looking inland and me with the bike

Most of this was in Wales, but I did some long runs on the Sandstone Trail in Cheshire as well as some exciting walks in Delamere Forest. 

View from the Sandstone Trail looking towards Moel Fammau and on the right a picture of me with the Gruffalo in Delamere Forest.







My birthday on 16th February was great fun, I had squeaky toys and a special doggy birthday cake with a sip of Guinness.  Normally I have a long run on my birthday but the weather was grim and the day before I had the slowest and wettest Park Run ever (30m 53s).  Even with my 4-paw drive I struggled and my human was slipping a lot.  And it rained, lots!

Six years old !

Back in Wales I had a great run on Moel y Garnedd, although it was very wet underfoot and some of the boggy bits were up to my tummy the weather was dry and sunny. The photos below show the wonderful blue sky.

       

By the 19th March it was time to leave Bala for a while, but not before I had one last walk and a swim in Llyn Tegid, yes a proper swim! 

    

 Last look at the lake and swim before 'lock-down'

Because I don't live in Wales all the time I had to say 'bye-bye' to all my friends and head back to Cheshire, I didn't understand what was going on but when we got back my humans stopped going out in the car for weeks and weeks, nobody called to see me and I didn't go anywhere where I could socialise.  As I am a lucky terrier I have got a garden to play in, my humans have built an agility course with jumps and a tunnel so I do have lots of fun.  

And lots of cuddles...

It's now late May and during the last few weeks all my walks and runs have started and finished at my house, but that's OK because the walks have been been long and the runs have been interesting too, lots of things to sniff each day on the same routes but I don't mind.

Lovely old lanes on my daily exercise route with so much to sniff.

Although I haven't had any hills or mountains to exercise on my human has kept me active, sometimes my daily exercise is running on the lanes while my human cycles, this is brilliant fun.  I run beside the bike without getting tangled up, when we get to a road section (there's not much of this on the route) I have my lead on and run on the pavement.  There's always lots of water to drink from my special water-bottle and a treat (or two) during the run.

On the trail.

Wags and woofs,

Stay safe, 

Dexter 🐾