Tag search dogs

Feeling like a Dogsbody for the weekend?

trailhobo_tina Leave a comment

Thinking of a great way to spend a November weekend? How about hours spent lying in a bivvy bag (very possibly in wind, rain, sleet or snow) on a slippy hillside, soggy gully or dark forest, keeping still and hidden until the jingling of bells provides imminent warning that you are likely to get a foot in the face from a wet dog eager to receive their prize for finding you! Or following someone who has offered to show you their puppies! Sounds a tad mad? Or like your best idea of fun? Well that is a regular weekend for the awesome ‘Dogsbodies’ who voluntarily enjoy nothing more than donning the camo’ salopettes (not compulsory!) and burrowing into the bracken for Search Dog training sessions.

The view from my Dogsbody high hide in the Brecon Beacons this weekend

I have just spent a fantastic weekend in the Brecon Beacons where the Mountain Rescue Search Dogs England team joined up with the Search and Rescue Dog Association Wales for an intense weekend of training with dogs and handlers being put through their paces from early learning in puppy class to the anxious assessment ‘exams’ for those ready to qualify as Operational Search Dog teams.

The new recruits soon grow into their roles

The weather generously provided practise conditions of almost every type often challenging for trainers, handlers and dogsbodies alike but the dogs, as always, take it completely in their stride and training is just all a brilliant game of winning their favourite toy.

The Dogsbodies, affectionately known as ‘bodies’ provide an essential part in training, giving the dog teams a target to search for as the dogs follow ‘air scent’ to learn how to find people lost, missing or injured in the outdoors. The handlers role is to coordinate the search, working with their dog to cover huge search areas efficiently, assessing wind conditions and terrain to cover the ground in a way that maximises the dogs opportunity to pick up a scent quickly. It’s very much a team effort and the bond and relationship between dog and handler is all important, ultimately defining their success as a team.

Always time for a spot of larking about – AKA all important team building!

But back to those ‘bodies’! Many volunteers are friends or partners of Mountain Rescue team members but others do it for ‘fun’ and the brilliant camaraderie amongst the teams make for a great social side too. On the quieter side, hiding in the hills and forests is also a great way to see wildlife and nature literally up close (and sometimes other, more bizarre goings on?!) in a way that you would not on a usual day in the hills. Wrapped up in a sleeping bag and cosy in your bivvy it’s a treat to just be still and soak in the scenery. At various intervals, of course, a dog will find you and then you get to play a few minutes of ‘catch’ , ‘fetch’ or ‘tug of war’ with a very excited dog. With dogs in earlier stages of training the body’s role can be much more interactive with considerable leaping up and down and running about required!

The dogs goes bonkers for their favourite toys at the ‘reward’ playtime

The teams can never have too many ‘bodies’ so if you are over 18 and this sounds like a way you might enjoy spending a soggy Saturday morning google your local Mountain Rescue Team or Lowland Rescue Team to find Search Dog teams near you who’ll give you the scoop (not literally – that is not part of the job description!). There are no specific skills required – you don’t even need a particular proclivity to camouflage wear! – just competence in the outdoors and it’s definitely important to love dogs as you may be inflicted with plenty of spaniel trampling or collie kisses. A sense of humour is a good strength! If you can only join in occasionally that’s fine too. You’ll be contributing to mountain safety and the wonderful tradition of #MountainRescue we should all be very proud of. Click here for more info about getting involved.

Training can be challenging and physical but all set in stunning locations

How often do you take the time to just lie down and watch the clouds go by?

Celebrating a successful weekend – Philippa and Search Dog George pass their assessments.

The dogs are all pets first and part of their handlers family. One of the wonderful things about being a dogsbody is seeing them progress from their first ‘sit-stay’ as adorable pups to qualification day as a confident, reliable team being placed on the Operational list ready for potentially life-saving call out duty. This weekend saw handler Philippa Lewis and Search Dog George of SARDA South Wales pass their assessment to Operational grade and handler Tony High of Teesdale and Weardale Search and Mountain Rescue Team and Search Dog Chief complete the journey to qualify to Operational grade. Chief and Tony are strong characters with an equally strong bond and are sure to be a very successful team as the real work now begins.

Congrats to Tony High and Search Dog Chief passing their assessments this weekend to become an Operational Search Dog team.

It’s a real privilege for me to join in with these training meets and it also reminds me why I am fundraising for these dedicated and committed individuals and their teams. Mountain Rescue members already give so much of their lives voluntarily to provide a safer environment in the outdoors for all of us and really do save lives in many environments and scenarios as well as providing regular and invaluable assistance to the emergency services.

Follow regular updates to my 1000 MOUNTAIN CHALLENGE here 👍🏃‍♀️⛰

There are currently close to 60 Search Dogs either on the callout list or coming through training and it costs £35,000 a year to train and keep all these volunteer dog teams in action.*

A £2 donation can keep a team in action today so please visit the

RunningtheSummits VirginMoneyGiving Page or the RunningtheSummits JustGiving Page

and become part of the family🐾🐶🐾

Thanks for reading and Happy Trails😊👣

Follow regular updates to my 1000 MOUNTAIN CHALLENGE here 👍🏃‍♀️⛰

Photos are my own or courtesy of MRSDA England and SARDA South Wales * figures from MRSDA England

251 Mountains – The “Wahoo” post

trailhobo_tina Leave a comment

You wait soooo long for a new post, then two come along together! So much has happened since I last wrote that I didn’t know where to start or what to write about to update this highly neglected blog site so I ended up with two posts – two sides of an adventure coin if you will – to fully celebrate passing the 250 mountain mark and 25% completion of the Running the Summits challenge. If too much wahoo’ing and air punching is not your bag check out 251 Mountains – The Zen post 🌱- it also has cake👍

Talking about bags there are now 251 in the proverbial summit bagging backpack. 749 mountains still seems like a very long way to go, and it is, but reaching another milestone is always a good time for a little pat on the back and check list run down –

  • Feet still attached? check✔
  • Knees still operational? check’ish✔
  • Shoes still in one piece – gaffa tape assisted bandaging allowed? check✔
  • Flapjack stores still brimming? check✔…..hang on, might need to double check….back in a minute…🍰

Before this challenge grew into 1000 Mountains (i.e. after too much wine and chocolate was consumed in one sitting resulting in a state of falsely percieved super hero omnipotence sparking the ‘here’s a great idea’ moment!) it was set to be a challenge to run the mountains of England to prove to the doubters that ‘yes we do have mountains in England’! Using the initial criteria, that meant 180 Mountains. Sounded like a great adventure indeed. But then, after the aforementioned loss of absolute sense moment, it got A LOT BIGGER. Changing the criteria to include those lumpy places classified as Hewitts, Nuttalls, Marilyns and Wainwrights also doubled the number in England. If you want to ‘get your anorak on’ about how all these classifications work and the wonderfully lovely art of hill-bagging there’s a whole other post about it HERE (don’t forget to come back though👍)

Still only part way through the English and Welsh Mountains there is still Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man’s single but lovely mountain yet to visit. Not to mention all the people who run, bike, hike, walk the dog, work and live in those majestic places yet to meet. I have already been lucky to meet so many extraordinary, kind and fascinating people simply because of my journey into the high places of Britain.

Physically so far, including my moment of madness ‘Virtual Everest’ by elevated treadmill and a brief ‘holiday’ to climb Mount Toubkal for New Years this challenge has had me climbing a vertical elevation gain of almost 70,000 metres , more than seven times the height of Everest, which makes it close to a miracle that my knees are even still attached to my body and haven’t fled in anger to a warmer, flatter place…….like Peterborough (if Peterborough was in southern Spain!) 

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Meeting inspiring everyday runners, adventurers, mountaineers and athletic legends

Tough at times, taking on this challenge has also given me a real “GET OUT OF BED“📣 🛌 alarm every morning for those times when otherwise I probably would not have got up in the cold, pre dawn to spend the day in the pouring rain and wind squelching through boggy miles of bog drenched bog!…….and that’s a GOOD thing😁, because those ‘type 2 fun’ days are some of the most memorable (though not always ‘wished to be repeated’) days.

Since I began this whole running adventure challenge shenanigans another world has opened up to me too which has resulted in me doing things I would never have imagined (aside from running, running up mountains and…..er, running!) . Meeting lots of adventurey folk like those above, being mesmerised by incredible stories of relative derring do, public speaking, writing for magazines, becoming nifty with crampons and ice axe ( there’s a whole dance routine video to prove it!), tasting 20 different flavours of flapjack, running with Joss Naylor for goodness sake! – all things I still can’t believe have happened. I can only share the notion to always be open to new opportunities….and GRAB THEM, because you never know where it might take you.

One of those ‘so glad I got out of bed early’ days!

I have also been lucky to meet and spend more time with some incredible Mountain Rescue Team members and witness Search Dogs trainees progress further through their training. They are now becoming so much more than adorably cute puppy faces as they advance through the various stages of training on their way to becoming qualified, registered Search Dogs fully skilled to work with their handlers to help the team save lives.

It’s always hard to find words to describe how amazing these teams are

Talking of which…. ( aha – you say- here we go) – although I have reached 25% of my mountain challenge target we are still a long way from reaching 25% of the fundraising target ( nearly 20% short as it happens – facepalm emoji!)

So if you have a few shiny coins rattling around in your winter coat lining/ down the back of the sofa/ car door cup holder/ you get the idea,

dig ’em out and sling’em int’ bucket RIGHT HERE – GO ON!, GIVE IT A CLICK😉 👍 You know you are epic!

It’s also really easy to donate by text too…. just text TOPS50 followed by an amount to 70070 . Thank You❤

Happy trails😊👣🐾

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First 100 Mountains in the Bag!

trailhobo_tina 4 Comments

After just 18 days officially in the hills traildog Patch and I reached the first milestone (or summitstone) of 100 ‘bagged’ Mountains.

Yes, before you ask, my knees were killing me but after 20 VERTiCAL KILOMETRES (OK, just 19.98 vertical km) it’s hardly surprising! This is shaping up to be quite the adventure which has led me already to meet some amazing new people, run with far more talented runners than myself, spend a day in the fells with a lakeland legend, learn new skills, hang out with super cool Mountain Rescue folk, play chew toy tug of war with Search Dogs in training and really push myself outside my comfort zone. Whew…..what’ll the next 900 bring? Certainly plenty of flapjack!

I have definitely discovered that this challenge will make the 3PeAksRun seem like an absolute stroll in the park. There are many British mountains that are popular ‘honeypot’ summits but it is eye opening just how many others are so rarely visited.

This presents a variety of daily challenges on pathless terrain testing my navigation skills and even on open access land the odd fence or wall that needs to be negotiated without upsetting any farmers or causing any damage ( getting over a dry stone wall is not to be encouraged or even condoned and requires extremely deft movement and yogi master level flexibility in order to avoid tilting a single stone out of place – don’t tell anyone that this ever happened because obviously it didn’t!) And then, don’t even get me started on PEAT HAGS and the good old moorland BOG – two of my particular favourites. On drier, rockier ground there have been some hair raising scrambles and tentative descents which have tested my nerve and the grip of my trail shoes to their sticky limit.

I was very lucky to spend many of those days during the long summer high pressures scooting around over Lake District ridges. Hot enough to invite refreshing river dips at the end of a sweaty run which was such a treat for someone generally a bit wussy about leaping into chilly UK waters! Exceptional views and the navigational confidence of clear skies and miles of perfect visibility made for a uniquely precious time on those fells, the memories of which I am sure I will be channelling many times through the coming late autumn clag and winter chill.

It’s been wonderful to meet other trail runners in their respective back yards to share some summits and pick up some local trail lore and there was that great Kinder ‘downfall’ when the hours we spent picking our way across the Kinder plateau in search of the highest point, Kinder Scout, resulted in a no less impressive but relatively irrelevant discovery of Crowden Head instead. Ooops!

One of the most memorable days didn’t even involve a mountain summit but a fast crossing of the Lake District from Wasdale Head to Brathay, just outside Ambleside with the very nimble fell running legend, Joss Naylor MBE. Joss was tackling a 30 mile run/walk to raise money for the Brathay Trust and many other runners were along to support him. Though no summits were visited on this outing the cumulative elevation for the day was equivalent to climbing three mountains. Joss’ strength, speed and agility over rough terrain and at 82 years of age was truly inspirational. He looks as young, fit and strong now as he did when he ran his 60 lakeland summits at 60 years of age twenty two years ago to the day. To quote his own words, the day was absolutely “magic”.

After 43 consecutive days back at work I suspect it will be quite a different scene when I get back in the hills next week.

The long days and dry trails will be gone and I expect far more of the runs will be shrouded in low cloud, with plentiful drizzle at best. But the advantage of spending so much time in the hills is the increased opportunity of being out in those fleeting yet superlative moments – cloud inversions , crisp frosty mornings and the first dusting of snow under an azure winter’s sky….very poetic.  So, packing my toasty gore tex trail shoes and fleecy buff….bring on the winter season!

Happy trails..👣🐾


Super Support from the Queens of Flapjack!

trailhobo_tina Leave a comment

Lactation-Flapjacks

WARNING: this post contains copious amounts of made-up adjectives, excessive exclamation marks and gratuitous flapjack photography!!

I am totally flapperjacked to announce the wonderful squishy hearted folk at Flapjackery are as super amazing as their scrumilicious flapjacks and will be supporting me in my Running the Summits quest.  As many of you know,  flapjack is my go-to fuel of choice so I am very excited to be powered by some the absolutely finest flapjack in the country, nay,  the world! ( I have tested a LOT of flapjack…..(Ellen Cattanach and Val Allport- your homemade flapjacks are still totally brilliant!))

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I discovered my new gurus at the inaugural National Running Show at the NEC in January (tickets are now on sale for 2019!) , but heartbreakingly never got to taste their oatilicious wares as no sooner had the show opened than the entire weekend’s stash of gooey, chewy, flapjack goodness had been snaffled by avid runner fans of the mighty oat! But Flapjackery were not to be beaten, travelling a late night round trip from Birmingham to Tavistock on the edge of Dartmoor back to their kitchen to stock up with a new batch for runners at the second day of the show where remarkably, once again, just a few oaty crumbs remained by the time I made it through the crowds to their stand!

 

Discovering that runners would happily wade their way through a soggy 10k bog run to get their hands on these proper lush treats, Flapjackery recently had a record weekend fuelling runners and visitors at the 2018 London Marathon Expo.

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Flapjackery founders Carol and Sally, both passionate about flapjack (totally understandable!)  took an idea 6 years ago and really ran with it. In their own words…

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We take the humble oat and raise it to a luxury level by adding top quality ingredients and a dash of madness to create our range of luxury Devon flapjacks in interesting flavours in huge chunky pieces, with a range suitable for vegans and lactose intolerant now available. British oats, locally sourced West Country butter and fairtrade brown sugar are some of the reasons our flapjacks taste so good.

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What’s not to love? – good, wholesome, nutritious and lovingly made ‘real food’ fuel – perfect for outdoor adventures!

I will be chomping away on a piece of Flapjackery heaven on every mountain summit, I’d love you to join me though I’m not sure if I’ll be willing to share😁

artisan-flapjacks

Now, if you are thinking…

‘Where can I get my hands on these flapjacks of irresistibleness?’

as…obviously, you must be,

check out the Flapjackery website. You can try these uberlush treats for yourself by ordering online or they may be attending a show or exhibition near you soon!

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But don’t just take my word for it…reviews of Flapjackery flapjacks are full of words like    ‘WOW’  ‘AMAZING’  ‘GORGEOUS’  ‘IRRESISTIBLE’.

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Sorry, but I am all out of mouth watering flapjack photos for now but listen out for the next adventure on this Mountain climbing, downhill windmilling arms, running madness challenge as the time gets closer to start…..Running the Summits!

 

P.S. SSShhhhhh…..nobody tell Patch about the flapjack!

 

My #RunningtheSummits Challenge is raising funds for the Mountain Rescue Teams of England and Wales, The Search & Rescue Dog Association England and Fix the Fells. Please support their incredible, selfless work via my fundraising page at VirginMoneyGiving.com

 

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