Up to the Erme Pits

Time for the weekly long run and as the military were bombing the north moor I planned a 20 miler in the southern bit.

It's been a while since I ran down the Erme Valley so setting off from Princetown at 8:30 it was off down the motorway to Plym Ford and then following the Abbot's Way to Broad Rock. The cool and crispy conditions were perfect and the vis was HD sharp. In 3D too, which was a bonus.

Dropping down to Erme Pits it was time for a bit of pixie dust (not two like last time in case I was seized by another rant) and we followed the left bank at first along a smooth swift grassy track which merged into a bouldery boggy tussock-fest before opening out into more runable terrain.

A bit more bog and boulders later, past a cracking wild swimming spot (return visit in the summer) and it was time for the climb up the edge of Piles Copse and on to Sharp Tor.

From here it was a swift, if a bit boring, sprint up the Puffing Billy Track, the trackbed which served the Red Lake and Left Lake china clay works, before dropping down a nice runable track following Red Lake to its confluence with the Erme.
From here we were on very familiar ground, following the Blacklane Brook to Cater's Beam post, Fox Tor, Little Fox Tor, Headless Cross, Nun's Cross and back to Princetown at 13:00.