The Cleveland Hike is a competition that takes place on the North Yorkshire Moors every year and it's been going for over 40 years! It is open to all comers even though its origins are from the Boys Brigade. Over the years we have had teams from BB, Scouts, Sea Scouts, Army Youth, ATC, Schools, business, private entries, etc, etc. We've had teams come scross from Ireland & Scandinavia as well as England, Scotland and Wales. At one time we had to cap the entries at 120 teams because of the logistics of managing them all. Nowadays we get around 40-50 teams.
Thereare 3 age groups as follows. Expedition teams can be 3 people under the age of 13 accompanied by at least one adult. The core teams are aged between 12 and 19 (3 boys OR 3 girls in a team). Then we have the veterans (often people who competed when they were younger but are now to old for the core team category but love the event so much that they want to continue). the vets can be mixed sex teams of 3 people (they are adults after all!).
The event takes place ALWAYS over the last weekend in June and ALWAYS finishes at Danby. (I think there was only one or two years in the history that we didn't finish at Danby.) The teams have to be totally self-sufficient in that they carry tent, sleeping bags, food, cooking equipment, etc, etc with them at all times. So it's not for the faint-hearted! The teams are told where to turn up for the start on the Saturday morning and at the start their kit is checked by Cleveland Search and Rescue people. Safiety is the highest priority so teams cannot take part unless they pass the kit check. Saturday is a hike of around 18-20 miles broken in sections between 6 checkpoints. Each section has a time limit for maximum points and at the checkpoint the team may be faced with an incident such as a quiz, a skills challenge or something like that for extra points. The teams camp over on the Saturday night and their campcraft is assessed for extra points too. On the Sunday they walk around 12 miles and end up at Danby where hot food is provided. Again checkpoints and incidents break up the walk. The teams only ever know thw grid reference of the 'next' checkpoint so they must be good at map reading!
This is a tough event but great fun and there are loads of awards at the end, some specifically for BB teams but others for non-BB, expedition & veteran teams. Usually a team has a support group with them who provide transport to and from the event and also encourage (without physically helping) their team over the weekend. Checkpoints are usually accessible by road so team support people can drive to checkpoints, checkup on how their teams are doing and watch the incidents.
It's a fantastic event so if you think you're good enough then get your entry form in!! The hike website is
http://www.geocities.com/clevelandhike/ [nofollow]