We often run in these woods during the winter so I had confidently expected my armchair planning to be OK.  However, when I tried to test run a long leg by a 'winter' route', I despondently gave up half way due to the undergrowth.  After some more thought and some very useful comments from Alastair, I hope you enjoyed what we ended up with.

On the technical courses, I tried to run you through the few pleasant deciduous areas and to give enough route choice between them for you to dodge the grot.  The first two controls on the Blue and Green courses should really have been higher on that large spur to tempt at least some people to take the high route, but I didn't have the heart to force you into the deeper undergrowth up there.  On the penultimate leg, many of you did exactly what the map told you to do – run back through the car park – rather than the higher route I had expected due to my over familiarity with the area.

For the Red and Purple courses, I tried to join up some of the view points to give you a pleasant run and a tour of the local archaeological remnants.  The start was above the drainage outlet from a matrix of disused ironstone mines that run under the moor towards Gribdale.  Control #139 was on top of a fairly ancient burial mound that was robbed out by the greedy Victorians to produce the rocky bell-pit shape.  The open spur at #140 was spoil from one of the many one-man-and-a-dog jet mines that run along the contour where the main forest track is nowadays.  I threw in views over Roseberry, to the sea and to High Cliff for good measure.

Thanks to Alastair for sorting the maps and to Jenny for putting out controls.

Paul Thornton
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