An antiquarian, inventor and pioneer photographer, Alfred Watkins was a born and bred Herefordian who knew the county's roads and byways like the back of his hand. On June 30 1921 Watkins had an extraordinary revelation. As he stood on a Herefordshire hillside, it came to him that straight lines of sight criss-crossed the landscape, connecting ancient and spiritual sites. He christened them ley lines and regarded them as we might imagine a Neolithic Sat Nav – straight tracks enabling our ancestors to situate themselves in the landscape and navigate through it.

Tallulah Gorge is a 2 mile long, 800 foot deep gorge in the northeast Georgia mountains. This route uses parts of 6 trails, and an off-trail section, to complete a loop that descends 800 feet into the gorge, wades across the Talullah River and climbs back up to the starting point. The route is short at approximately 1.5 miles, but it includes a suspension bridge, descending 1099 stairs, a shallow river crossing and a 1/4 mile of scrambling up a boulder field, so it packs a lot of fun and amazing views in a short distance.

I went through multiple different possibilities regarding a backcountry 100 miler through Cedar Mesa and the Bears Ears area. This became the one I was most stoked about, and now that I’ve done it, I absolutely love it. I picked a course with good access for crew and a good mix of roads and canyons so I don’t have to be out there 3 days. I wanted the course to be somewhat easy to repeat for anyone that is interested, so I kept it mostly on established trails that will be hard(er) to get lost on.