Stockton-on-Tees (2)

Walk Details:
Date: 8/7/2006
Total ascent: 0m/ 0ft
Total distance walked: 0 miles
Walk difficulty: 0/10
Enjoyment rating: 0/10
Best bits: Not getting out and walking along the verge of a lethal road.
Worst bits: Um... there’ll always be that slight niggling doubt on this one...
Walkers: Anth, Jim
Car Parking: The nearest safe parking may well be the picnic site at NZ 402 245.

Top details:
Name: Thorpe Larches
County top number: 132 of 205
Grid reference: NZ 39075 25725 (from www.hill-bagging.co.uk)
Height above sea level: 80m/ 263ft
How nice was the top? 0/10
Views: 0.5/10
Description/Notes: The highest point in Stockton-on-Tees is either at Thorpe Larches or at Boy Hill (see separate report). The highest point at Thorpe Larches is indeterminate, but is probably at a corner of the A177.

The Walk:

Our morale was low after Whelley Hill. Thorpe Larches appeared to be a nice simple roadside top that would get our appetite for high-speed bagging up and running again. It was not to be the case. The road in question was the very fast and busy A177, and there was nowhere we could safely park for a long distance either side of the top – it would also have been very dangerous walking back along the verge to reach the place where the county top was.

We took the car back down the same stretch of road again (we’d had to drive a long distance before we could even turn around!), this time with the GPS switched on. We compared the readings against the ones we’d taken earlier today on the other potential top for Stockton, at Boy Hill. The ones we were getting here were at least a metre lower.

Normally we wouldn’t even countenance the merest suggestion of a drive-by bagging, but in this instance we decided to. It would be dangerous to walk to, it would be a long and miserable walk, it appeared not to be the highest point in the unitary authority anyway, and frankly we had other (and hopefully better) tops to bag today. It would do for us.