BB1741 : A Bevy and a Blether

Saturday 30th December 2017

If it were not the festive season, I would probably be ashamed to publish today’s stats.  But as it is, then I think we can be forgiven!  Ian and his sons, George and Harry were back up north on their seasonal visit.  Martin S, Tony and I met up with them at Sizergh Castle café to await the cessation of murk and mizzle so that we could be on our way.  Although we met at 11, it was not until about 12:20 that we felt sufficiently motivated to jump into two of the three cars and it was 12:53 by the time we actually started walking.  It was surprisingly slippery in the Scout Scar car park and I was beginning to wonder if I should have brought spikes.

The remarkable thing was that Tony, the mandatory noon time luncher, had said absolutely nothing about eating.  He made up for that shortly afterwards.  “Are we stopping at the Mushroom for lunch, boys?” he pleaded.

Although the rain had stopped, it was still gloomy and, more importantly, there was a strong and very cold wind, so we deliberately marched on past the Mushroom shelter without saying anything.

It was quite some time, a record 13:40 before he really felt the pangs.  It is a measure of how well he has been trained that when I told him that it was too cold to stop and that he would have to eat on the hoof, he actually agreed.

It was amusing to see that despite Ian’s boys now being of mature years, they still pested each other (to be fair to George, Harry was generally the instigator) just like our Jamie and Emma used to do.

We progressed along the scar; it really was blowing hard.  It was difficult to keep on one's feet.

Comitibus : Don, Ian, Martin, Tony, Harry, George  

At Helsington Church we briefly took shelter to admire Marion de Saumarez' remarkable war memorial painting.  

I was surprised that Martin, a keen mountain biker, had never been on the road down to Holeslack Farm.  Today would not have been a good one to ride down.  It was a good job it wasn't freezing as the steep track was a river.  5 degrees colder and it would have been lethal.  My greater fear, however, was hunger.  It was now my turn to prove that I could multitask by walking and eating at the same time.

Tony’s car, fortunately, was still to be seen in the Sizergh Castle car park but that was not our final destination.  That was the Strickland Arms where we rounded off the BOOTboys year in traditional fashion with a bevy and a blether.

Happy New Year!

Don, Saturday 30th December 2017

A Bevy or a Blether of BOOTboys

The competition is now closed.  All the votes for the best collective noun to describe the BOOTboys. have been counted and I can now reveal the outcome.  

Of the 24 suggestions, 15 received a modicum of support. Somewhat cruelly I thought, Blunder, Grump and Smell all had a mention.  However two nominations stood out well in front in terms of popularity.

In second place, nominated by Robin, was A Bevy of BOOTboys.  Bevy has a nice double entendre- a group in close association (Dictionay.com gives an example of "boisterous sailors") or, as recorded in the Urban Dictionary, a term used in the northern regions of Britain for alcoholic drink .  Personally I think it is a corruption of "beverage".

However, the clear favourite, another word used in the northern regions and which aptly sums up the random and often nonsensical chatter that only ceases when the paths get rather steep, is a Blethering of BOOTboys.

So, I can now reveal the winner.  Step forward and receive your prize- Martin C. And can you keep your acceptance speech short, please.  No blethering.

The Lingy Hut

Bryan's postponement of his Lingy Hut visit only lasted 24 hours.  However he must have been bitterly disappointed.  As you can see, you can see!  And there is no snow.  So perhaps not the miserable, challenging conditions he had hoped for hence no need to stay the night!

Bryan was also able to get out in the sunshine on Thursday 28th, lucky man.  Here he is with Liz on the top of Helvellyn.

BOOTboys

If you want to join
The BOOTboys
Inter-Galactic
Fan Club
let us know and
you will receive
automatic notification
of new BOOTboys reports

Click on
to contact us.

For the Index pages
of our various outings
click on the relevant
link below:

The photos & maps
on these pages
will normally retain
reasonable quality
if you expand
your screen
to view them.

Kendal Walking Festival

Click  for info

Statto 2017

Martin C sent me an email very recently with the announcement that the average human walks 900 miles per year and drinks 22 gallons of beer which means that the average human achieves 41 miles per gallon.

In comparison, the total distance walked by all BOOTboys combined in 2017 was 1,742 miles which when divided by the a total number of qualifying Boydays (180) suggests we should each be supping 2 pints per outing.  Fair enough.  Tony thinks it should be more.

The number of qualifying outings (40) is a little down on recent years which is mainly due to the bad weather in the final quarter.  At the three-quarter stage we were absolutely on par.

Total mileage of BOOTboys outings was 394 with 93,039 feet climbed.  The average walk was 9.9 miles and 2,326 feet climbed which is in line with recent years.  Total number of participants was 28 giving an average number of 4.5.  

Just as I had finished computing the stats, I received a message from Bryan about his:  1,009 miles and 282,492 feet (a quarter of which were abroad in Cuba and Pakistan).  This was his best year since he started keeping records.

This made me feel quite inadequate but he kindly pointed out that we were way ahead of the national averages for walks lasting more than 20 minutes.  According to Government statistics, the average annual distance covered by a 65 to 69 year old is 184 miles and 123 miles for those who are 70 or over.  

Eight of us have beaten those figures on BOOTboys outings alone, never mind our other activities.  So it's not just blether and bevy!

Map shown: OS 1:50k

BOOTboys routes are put online in gpx format which should work with most mapping software.
You can follow our route in detail by downloading BB1741 .
 To discover which Wainwright top was visited on which BB outing or for the totals of the mileages and heightages
see the Excel file: BB Log.  You can navigate to the required report via the Home Page

Photos have been gleaned from many sources although mostly from me and other BOOTboys. Likewise written comment.
I apologise if I have failed to acknowledge properly the source or infringed copyright.
Please let me know and I will do my best to put things right.
Unless stated otherwise, please feel free to download the material if you wish.
A reference back to this website would be appreciated.

BOOTboys 2017

E-mail addresses on this web site are protected by Email Riddler

Spam Trawlers will be further frustrated by  Spam Blocker: help fight spam e-mail!

 BOOTboys^© is a Lakeland Enterprise production brought to you by

Comitibus Communications^©