I’ll be honest this almost didn’t happen…
After waking up at 3.30am with the worst cricked neck ever & little sleep thereafter I almost swerved it but after an insanely hot shower & some pain killers I was going.
I’m a cyclist by ‘trade’ but have been trying to vary my activities over the last months to increase general fitness, strength & as I read, bone density.
So, a monthly hike to help body & mind has been in place with a couple of ‘old school’ friends, literally.
We’ve known each other since high school & our formative years are the 1980’s, discovering Electro, Breakdance, Hip Hop, Skateboarding, Graffiti, Blackburn warehouses, Rave (a word I’m not completely comfortable with to be honest but it’s apt) & the Hacienda…alongside all the usual discoveries between 11 & 18 years old, what an era, it was the best.
Now life is more ‘serious’ it’s good to get away from it for a few hours, walk & talk, it’s like therapy but better.
We reach our start point around 9.30am, somewhere southeast of Buxton deep in the Peaks National Park, put a bit of kit on & off we go.
My choice of jacket is the Paramo Velez Evolution Hybrid.
The forecast was mixed initially, turned out to be glorious spring day bright sunshine easterly wind & 5 – 10 degrees, so testing the directional garment’s claim to be able to move liquid, not just vapour! From 9.30am until 7.00pm I did not take the jacket off, including journey home in the car & at no point was I too hot, too cold or in any way anything but completely comfortable, just with Rapha Merino base layer under. Like a second skin, incredible.
We hiked & put the world to rights, which in this day & age takes some doing. Sat on a bench in the middle of what felt like nowhere & ate homemade sandwiches on excellent sourdough, it was like Last of the Summer Wine but cool as…
We do about 12 miles up hill & down vale, over Long Dale (where I got the thank God I made the effort feeling) & across Gratton moor with a view of Minninglow (Google it) & end up at The Bulls Head in Monyash near Bakewell, to see how well we could move a bit of liquid & bag of crisps, enlightened, happy & well grounded.
Written by Alex Morris (Carhartt WIP) & Photography by Andrew McGee @coffee_can_pinholes
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