E2: Leak to Alton

A muddy day with some good canal sections and a pub for lunch.

Yesterday afternoon I began to experience a little pain from my ankle rubbing against my boot. Nothing that caused me to stop, however on arriving at my lodging I found a burst blister. In the shower it was exceedingly painful when contacted by water. This morning I protected it with a dressing. I was particularly stiff on getting up, having difficulty on the stairs. The exercises my body reluctantly performed loosened me up a little. On a longer trip I might have taken a rest day at this point, but I only had 2 1/2 days walking left so it was not worthwhile. 

As there is no food available at my accommodation tonight and nothing else is near, this morning I needed to buy something to eat this evening. Being Sunday I had to wait until 10 am for the shops to open. I passed the time pleasantly in a coffee shop by the market square of Leek.

The day's hike began with a walk over hillside through the Ladderedge Country Park. After that there was a long section on the towpath of the Caldon Canal, flat easy walking. A few narrow boats were moored, one or two with wood smoke drifting from their stove pipes showing they were occupied by invisible people inside. I passed old, red brick mill buildings and the remains of lime kilns, signs of the area's industrial activity in an earlier century. A few people were out, accompanied by their dogs for a Sunday stroll. Rain and strong winds were forecast, however in the sheltered valley there was little wind and the rain, although persistent, was mainly light.

The lighted windows of the canalside Red Lion Inn looked warm and inviting so I stopped for lunch, siting by a log fire. The pork and apple sauce bap I ordered was huge! With the rain outside I made my coke last as long as possible. When I did leave I found "Footpath closed" signs on the towpath. There being no alternative route I just kept going and found no problem with the towpath. The canal ran parallel with an old railway line. Earlier a steam train had pulled several carriages down the line, and this afternoon it pulled them back again. A heritage line offering people a Sunday outing.

Eventually, the path left the canal, climbing steeply up the side of the wooded valley. Once at the top it continued through fields, soft and muddy with the rain. As I crossed from one field to another I found myself ankle deep in a muddy slurry with the threat of sinking further if I did not find a way through a couple of strings of barbed wire. Having crawled under the wire I realised that the path actually went over a stile further down the field, largely hidden by the hedge and not strictly where the map showed it to be. 

I followed the Staffordshire Way back down into the valley of the meandering River Churnet. The canal had stopped at a wharf further upstream. After a few muddy sections the path climbed into woodland. When it subsequently descended I admired the rounded pebbles which formed its base as it made a passage through rhododendrons and tall pine trees. I speculated that the pebbles were produced by erosion of sandstones of the Permian period. I had been seeing red sandstone typical of the time in road and track cuttings and used in buildings and bridges.

I turned off the Staffordshire Way to reach the accommodation I had booked. This involved a climb up a side valley. The last part was the steepest. Steps had been made but a large tree had fallen across them bring down another tree in the understorey. With difficulty I made my way around them following another person's footsteps which had made deep holes in the wet, black soil.

On finally reaching the Inn, my boots were caked in a thick layer of mud. I left them by the door of the Inn with my trekking pole which was in a similarity encrusted state. I had been wearing my waterproof trousers and these were also filthy forcing me to wash them before I could put them down anywhere. On removing the dressing on my ankle to shower, I saw that it had been bleeding. The shower was in some way compromised, the knob pointing at the wrong things and I had difficulty in obtaining more then luke warm water.