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When? Started: 1993 Who? Started with staff and friends from U H S, Chester. Organiser: Martyn Harris We walk every Wednesday and Saturdays, New Years day and May Day. How many walk? Walks take place as long as there are at least 2 wanting to walk on that day. More walk on a Wednesday than on a Saturday. Most ever: 29. Current group size walking: 2-7 in mid-week and 2-4 on Saturday. Where do we walk? Saturday: Anywhere in North and Mid-Wales, Peak District, Shropshire and the Long Mynd and as far North as the Trough of Bowland. Thursday: Anywhere within about 40 miles of Chester. Type of walk: Distance: 6 – 14 miles (but usually under 10 miles). Climb: up to 4000’ (but usually very much less!). People involved on walks in 2024:- Martyn Harris, Fran Murphy, Sue and Michel Pelissier, Mike Dodd, David Savage,, Ed Meads, Nigel and Elaine Taylor, Winston Feather.

Thursday 1 October 2020

St. Cwyfan's Trail Wednesday 30th September 2020

St. Cwyfan's Trail. 
A mighty Oak tree s has fallen.
Standing infront f our many challenges of the day (except for stiles).
Moel y Parc above the maize?
Lunch time - we all said we had had lunch in worse spots!




The Clwydian Hills before the group split up.
Is this the start of Flintshire wine to come?
On the way to St. Cwyfan's - silence is not an option!
St. Cwyfan's Church at Llangwyfan.
Foulk Jones's Grave.
Distance: 9.4 miles. Climb: 770'.
Time: 5 hours 34 mintutes. On the move walking average: 2.1 m.p.h. Overall walk average: 1.7 m.p.h.
Group: Martyn, Nigel, Roger and Fran.
As this was likely to be the last Harris Hikers full group walk in Wales for some time, everyone that could made the effort to to walk, even though all weather forecast suggested we were very likely to get wet at any time. The best of the weather was in the morning, when wearing waterproofs wasn't really necessary. However the rain did start just before lunch, but we did manage to find a little shelter under a tree, using discarded building blocks/stone to sit on.
This was a varied walk, at times with post along the path with red markers, but no explanation why they were ther. In the afternoon the red markers had been replaced by blue, again with no explanation. 
Distant views were not brilliant, but we did get reasonable views of the Clwydian Hills, including Moel y Parc and Penycloddiau.  The Mynydd Marian and the hills behnd Llanddulas could also be seen.
Stiles all morning had been a challenge to us all, and a double stile near Y Wern defeated half of the group who had to divert using an alternatve path before rejoining the others before heading towards Llangwyfan.
We all visited St. Cwyfan's Church to see the grave of a Foulk Jones who had lived in three different centuries.
All of the stiles but one from St. Cwyfan's Church had been replqaced by new galvanised gates, a delightful and pleasing contrast to our earlier experiences. 
We tried to take a short cut just after Wern-fawr wood, but came unstuck, but spotted another path that allowed us to link with the original route.
By the time we were approaching Llandyrnog, it was raining again, so a change of cothes in the car was very welcome.
Birds seen or heard today were few and far between, but included: House sparrow, Common blackbird, Woodpigeon, Common buzzard, Common pheasant, Carrion crow, Jackdaw, Rook, European robin and Starling.
We arrived back at the car, having had an enjoyable walk despite its challenges with hardly ever any silence and as prescribed for health benefits much laughter!
Only half of the group were abe to head for the Blue Bell at Halkyn and enjoy a superb pint of J W Lees bitter before heading home.

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