Calderdale Way #4: Heptonstall to Illingworth 13/10/12

Self in Heptonstall

The morning looks like the Autumn might be coming on hard, suggestions of fog up on the hillsides as I ride out into Calderdale, and I wonder if this might be the day when the local weather catches up with me, or maybe the first occasion of getting lost on a misty moor side. Anyway, arrive via the train in Hebden Bridge and there's no way on Earth that I'll be walking up to Heptonstall, as that is one unnecessary ascent too many, and I love the fact that the bus service E, my chariot to the hills, waits at the railway station to check that any passengers wanting the service will have time to catch it. I'm one of two patrons for it, and it's a slow grind up the hill, but still entirely preferable to hoofing it, I do seriously wonder about the walkers that we pass on the way up...

Calderdale Way #4: Heptonstall to Illingworth.  9.6 miles

Calderdale Way #3: Todmorden to Heptonstall 06/10/12

Self in Todmorden

Having mostly shaken off my bout of what I think must have been Fresher's Flu, I return to the trail, assuming that a walk of just over 9 miles shouldn't be all that strenuous. I ought to know better of course, as the rote guide warns of this being the hardest section of the walk and I know that one of the paths I'll be ascending is one of the most brutal gradients I've ever attempted and that there really are no easy paths in Calderdale. So out comes my new stick, to aid me on the ascents and descents, and feeling hopeful for another good day on the trail as the morning sunshine blazes through and the sting of a cool Autumn morning greets me as I arrive in Todmorden, ready to hit the apex of the Calderdale Way, and to start on the eastward stretch.

Calderdale Way #3: Todmorden to Heptonstall.  9.3 miles


Rumination: Disappointments

All my plans for walking through summer and winter had been mutable and subject to change, depending on weather and mood, but one was going to happen no matter what, and that was hitting Wild Boar Fell on 29th September. On my first trip up to Carlisle in February 2011, I saw this huge mountain that I'd never previously accounted for, and then read about it on my reading about the Eden Valley for the summer holiday, and it seemed such a tempting and under-visited walking target. However its size and lack of tracks meant it wasn't one I felt I could do without guidance, so it fell into 2012's walk schedule and I looked forward to it after seeing it snow covered in February and falling in love with Mallerstang in March, and I waited on the FOSCL group attempting it again. It came up on 7th July, but I didn't fancy it in early summer, and then the next walk was mid-week, so last time in the year was September 29th, and it was going to be a triumphant conclusion to my Dales trips and nothing was going to prevent me going...

Calderdale Way #2: Ripponden to Todmorden 22/09/12

Self in Ripponden

After all that talk of the End of Summer over the last few weeks, the Summer has now passed and we can move into Autumn. I know that the year always seems to descend quickly but the chill in the morning air is palpable and there's mist hanging over the Calder as I ride out through Mirfield, so now Autumn is here and I hope it remains as walkable as the last few weeks have been. I need to bus out to Ripponden from Sowerby Bridge, and I catch the 531, the minibus that bounces along the back roads as it's the first one to show up and it's always a good idea to make the local buses feel needed, so I can an early look at the field I'll be walking as we bounce through Mill Bank and Soyland, and the day looks as clear and bright as you could want, and the paths look inviting too. So off the bus and I'm ready to walk.

Calderdale Way #2: Ripponden to Todmorden.  10.5 miles

Calderdale Way #1: Brighouse to Ripponden 15/09/12

Self in Brighouse

The end of Summer is upon us and despite it being 'the wettest ever', for me it has been just fine, all those weekends of walking and only took two brief dousings, with only one weekend being ruined by the weather. The coming Autumn is an unknown of course, and projections of 'indian summer' and 'constant rain' are heard, and I'm going to go with my instinct that it will be nice enough to complete my Autumn plan of taking on my second long circular walk, namely the Calderdale Way. I may joke that the weather is always grim in Calderdale, based on past experience, but it has been good to me this year, and I'm going to thumb my nose to the fates of weather and hope for five more good days to get down the 50 miles of this trail, so let's head out to join this trail at the closest point to home.

Calderdale Way #1: Brighouse to Ripponden.  10.4 miles


Egerton to Rivington Park 08/09/12

Over to Bolton again for the end of my late summer break, mostly to get together with the family to celebrate my parents' 45th wedding anniversary, and with dinner out on the slate for Sunday, I've still got a Saturday to use to my own ends. Fortunately, with my Mum being away on other business for the day, and Dr G's 7-seater car being in the garage with all manner of mechanical difficulties, we only have My Sister's 4 seat road-bug as available transport, so if a trip to Witton Park is due for my nieces, at least two of us are left to our own devices by default. So that's as good a reason as any for My Sis to come walking with me for the afternoon, and having viewed a most uninviting morning, the day turns to a blazing hot afternoon, so this must be time for an assault on Winter Hill.

Egerton to Rivington Park, via Winter Hill.  7.9 miles

Cooper Bridge to Standedge 05/09/12

Catching the 220 bus from Morley to Cooper Bridge seems a much more sensible trip than riding the train to Mirfield and having a couple of miles of extra walking, even though the bus is something of a dawdlebug and wanders all over the Spen Valley en route to Huddersfield. What I hadn't realised is that September coming on means that the school term has started up again, and the service is crawling with children. Kids everywhere, and it's just as horrifying as it was when I was a youngster, and just to add to the ridiculousness, many are travelling from Queen Street to Bruntcliffe college, less than half a mile! Madness, all of it madness, and getting some downtime on the ride into darkest Kirklees is necessary to let the PTS of school memories pass away.

Cooper Bridge to Standedge, via the Huddersfield Broad & Narrow Canal paths. 12.4 miles

Mytholmroyd to Summit 01/09/12

The relief that comes with a week of being NIW is huge, especially when you have been able to relax some and refocus your interest in walking for the remainder of the year, plans are set out and targets are chosen and my head is back into the place that wants to walk. Still, I almost didn't get out as I'd got Lorna-ed the previous evening: getting hauled out for post work drinks against my better judgement. I know I mostly avoid using names here but some social interactions do need to be named after their progenitors, like getting Banner-ed: persuaded to stay out for more drinks when you really should be going home. Not really anything to do with walking, but a small insight into my world, and the reason that I got out an hour later than I had planned to.

Mytholmroyd to Summit, via the Rochdale Canal path.  10.7 miles

Rumination: Aches and Pains

I keep this blog for tales of walking, it does not exist for any other purpose. The days of everyone thinking that a blog should cover every single fragment of detail from people's everyday lives has thankfully passed, and I will endeavour to keep away from adding details from the rest of my life here (that was for my Livejournal account, and I haven't logged into that for years!) However, sometimes the rest of my life interferes with my walking, and causes disruptions to my plans and that is what I'll be talking about today, so I apologise in advance for griping about my work and the physical toll it took on me over the summer. For a brief hiatus, I will talk about something other than walking, and if you are not interested, there are plenty more walks to come before the end of my first walking season!

Mirfield to Sowerby Bridge 18/08/12

An important thing to do when walking is to trust your map and to hold the idea that what the page states is where you should be going. The map is your friend and your helpful guide and you must believe in it and what it tells you, but sometimes it is wrong and will lead you astray, lead you into potentially dangerous places and you will wonder why the map misled you. Then you will realise that the map has one major limitation, it is only as good as the person reading it and the flaw is not with the map, it is with the interpretation of it, and you led yourself into peril and can be the only one to blame for your actions. If you are wondering how this relates to river and canal walking, read on...

Mirfield to Sowerby Bridge, via the Calder & Hebble Navigation path. 12.9 miles.

Wakefield to Mirfield 11/08/12

I've been resident in West Yorkshire for nearly 19 years now, and I'm amazed that I can still find areas near to Leeds that are still completely terra incognita to me, and that is the case today. Despite having taken all sorts of routes across the county over the years, my only interaction with the lands between Wakefield and Dewsbury has been tearing up and down the M1. I would have ridden that way taking the train from Morley to Wakefield via Mirfield but failure of the trains to run to time means that I have to go the long way round, via Leeds, before I can venture into the unknown.

Wakefield to Mirfield, via the Calder & Hebble Navigation path.  11.6 miles

Castleford to Wakefield 04/08/12

New Shoes: Does anyone else do the skit of discovering that somebody has new footwear and going 'Noo Shoos! Noo Shoos!' repeatedly? I do, and have no idea why! But it's new boots day for me, and having made no attempt of any kind to break them in, let's hope they're not going to rub me up, I'd worried that they might pinch a bit when I bought them, but today they felt a bit on the roomy side, so I hope my feet don't slide all around inside them. They're as comfy as you could want though, and it's going to be nice to be able to wade through puddles and not worry about leakage, and maybe I should take good care of them too, like scrubbing them occasionally and not letting them get them all scuffed up, I might finally look like a proper walker! So, let's hit the trail and get these new All-Leather babies dirty!

Castleford to Wakefield, via the Aire & Calder Navigation path. 9.8 miles

Settle to Ribblehead 28/07/12

This day's walk came about as I had a rejiggering of my walk schedule, as I had intended to join the FOSCL group for a walk from Dent to Ribblehead in August but changed my plan to attending this one as I figured that it would get in more useful territory for future reference, and would also start to stitch together my Dales walks with my other wanderings closer to home. It was first competitive day of the London Olympics too, and I had no real desire to veg away in front of the TV with that. Not that I'm one of those natural complainers who were all 'Boo! Waste of Taxpayer's Money!' before the thing had even gotten started, I'd consider myself more 'sporting disengaged' and had no desire to get suckered in like I did with the Beijing Olympics when I had a lot of time to fill between episodes of painting during 2008's flat redecorating.

Settle to Ribblehead. 14.7 miles