The Dales Way #4: Far Gearstones to Millthrop 25/05/13

Self at Far Gearstones

Onward to the Spring Jollies then, not feeling a huge amount of physical and mental enthusiasm after too many tiring weeks of work, but I'm looking forward to the whole clan, all seven of us, getting together again after we all had such a good time back in October, and there's plenty in the far North-west for all of us to enjoy, and weather projections are looking good too! So many cares are to be left behind, and bags can be sent on with my parents as we take a Friday-Friday let, and I can ride light up to Ribblehead on Saturday morning to resume the Dales Way, which encompasses three of my four walking targets for the week, as I wander into the unknown once again. It also looks like this is going to be the first time that I encounter the Yorkshire Dales in what could be described as 'good weather', so that'll add an extra layer of challenge to this day that has already had two extra miles added to it with my choice of start and finish points, as I bid to get to Sedbergh in 7 hours. The adventure starts here then, and what's the last tune on my iPod before alighting the train? 'Magical Mystery Tour' by The Beatles, and I think that feels like a good omen.

Walking to Windermere: The Dales Way #4:
     (Ribblehead &) Far Gearstones to Millthrop (& Sedbergh).  16.5 miles

So hop off the train at Ribblehead at 10.10am, slightly late, and am immediately delayed further by trying to get around a very large walking party out to memorialise their deceased friend on Ingleborough, and difficulty is had getting a phone signal so as to advertise to my folks the start of my walking day, and then it's off into the heat of late Spring as only two other people leave the throng at the station to head up Blea Moor Road. A nice steady start is essential after too many days out of walking practise, and the road is more challenging going up than it was going down three weeks prior, and Whernside soon retreats from view as I press on past Gearstones Moor, which was once the site of a major sheep fair in the days before the railways, before arriving at Far Gearstones Farm to start my next stretch of the Dales Way, at least I will after I've extricated myself from the ditch that I'd slumped into when photographing myself by the farm's name board.


Black Rake Road & Wold Fell

10.50am is my Dales Way start time, and a cooling breeze is welcome as I start up to the track to Winshaw farm, hidden away in its own little depression, invisible from the road and sheltered from the wind, with its own special aspect down to Ingleborough, and beyond there we lead out onto some very damp reeds and marsh before hitting the ascent up to the edge of Gayle Moor and the knees and lungs soon feel very out of practise in the morning heat, but I can content myself with the knowledge that this is the only notable ascent of the day. The path appears to hang on the edge of the moor, above the wall and along the the 400 metre contour, but the guide book offers no warning that three becks need to be crossed and that each has steep banks to negotiate, so I'm feeling it pretty hard with only 2 miles on the day's clock. Past High Gayle farm, a better track is met as Black Rake road leads us to the upper reaches of Ribblesdale and avoiding the bog at Stoops Moss, giving us dry going all the way, aside from one bizarre moment where it disappears completely into churned up mud for about 20 metres. The view forward to Widdale and Wold Fell is new to me, with the familiar hills receding as Ingleborough disappears soon enough, and Pen-y-ghent lingers in the distance all the way to the Newby Gate road, and it feels good to have a hard surface under the feet again as the road leads us out of Ribblesdale (having only had about three hours of Dales Way in it, after almost three days in Wharfedale) and over into Dentdale and also, we leave North Yorkshire and head into the county of Cumbria, where the remainder of my jollies will be spent.


Dent Head Viaduct

This road walk is going to last a while, so care needs to be taken to avoid traffic as the hill is crested over into Dentdale, and the uplands of Rise Hill and Baugh Fell make themselves apparent, and a sneaky and brief view of the Howgills is had before the descent starts past Blea Moor plantation and the first notable railway feature of the way can be observed looming out of the landscape. That's the 10-arched beauty that is Dent Head viaduct, gently curving high above the beck, and offering one of the best views in the dales as the Settle & Carlisle line crosses it, and we'll see it tiny in the landscape from above, and then looming and massive as the road descends to cross the River Dee below it. You don't get the special view into Dentdale from the road, and I'm in too much of a hurry to loiter to see the train over the viaduct, but there's some welcome shade to be had beneath the many trees along the riverside as I continue down the road, as sign indicate we are entering Cowgill, which I know is still a couple of miles distant. Regain the path walked in March, and that bit of prior route knowledge brings me to the conveniently located picnic area past Bridge End house, where lunch can be taken by the river among the daffodils and roaming sheep. Then it's to the road again, having once again failed to get a phone signal, and continue by the river, running far less forcefully over the slabs of limestone in the warmer weather, rolling through Stonehouses and noting a lot of cyclists out on some sort of orienteering excursion, and joining the untrammelled road beyond, on the other side of the river, a look back can be had at Arten Gill viaduct, probably my favourite on the S&C. Even in this heat, it's good to know I can still do a 20 minute mile, between the markers indicating 11 and 10 miles to Sedbergh.


Dentdale

Great Knoutberry Hill replaces Wold Fell as our accompanying hill as the road is paced and the rural idyll is enjoyed, and the Sportman's Inn is passed, the first pub on the trail since Hubberholme, and I ponder trying to use their phone but instead press on to Lea Yeat bridge and spot the phone box on the edge of Cowgill, and it's here that I learn that the 60p minimum call charge is not enough to leave even one sentence of information on my Mum's mobile. Feeling ripped off, I return to the trail, and leave the road to meet the riverside path as we hit our westward stretch and in due course we are lead onto the campsite at Ewegales Farm, already filling up with Half Term campers, some of whom have set up across the path, so I'll breezily wander through their encampments, knowing that I have right of way. Join the back road that leads to Dent village, still some miles distant from the station high up on the hillside, and the farmer at Ewegales Farm observes that this is a day to be savoured rather than worked as he sits out in his garden. Leaving the road, the dales way starts to get complicated as it rises to pass along the footpaths around various farmsteads, and I feel cheated of my woodland walk as I find that both the plantations that the trail lead through have been completely felled and I am denied the carpet of bluebells that I felt I was due. Still the views of Dentdale are excellent, illustrating the pattern of settlement dating to the Viking era, with farms at the spring line and not the river valley, looking a lot like Garsdale in fact. Ahead are the looming and under-acknowledged hills of Great Coum and Middleton Fell (Lancashire's County top!) and the path continues up farm tracks and over pastures on it's merry way as I discover that old farm machinery is never sold, it's just left to pass into the landscape and as the road is eventually rejoined I find many dead moles hung out on the wire fence, and I hope that is the result of 'pest' control rather than someone trying to make their own moleskins.

Dent village

Descend toward the riverside, traversing the beck via the mini ravine that is Lenny's Leap and cross the Dee at Nelly bridge, built by airmen in 1967 as a training exercise, according to the plaque, and the river seems to have gone very quiet indeed. It looks shallow and almost motionless, which means that it must have disappeared into a watersink somewhere after Cowgill, and it doesn't become an active river again until a feeder stream revives it. Cross back over the Dee at Tommy bridge and get a rather confusing field walk to take us over to the crossing of Deepdale Beck by Bridge End farm. This is the beck that flows down from the valley between Whernside and Great Coum, and a look back illustrates the rarely seen side of the former hill and its broad apron, which we have been walking around without really noticing. This beck also does the disappearing trick, and somewhere along the stretch that I was walking too, but I failed to notice where as I felt the need to pick up the pace to get to my planned rest stop at Church Bridge, so the confluence with the Dee is passed and people start to reappear on the paths after a while of seeing no one, which means that Dent is nearby, and the tower of St Andrew's church soon makes itself apparent. It's much further to the bridge than I'd have expected, as my legs are really starting to tire, and I finally get enough signal to receive a phone call, but as it's 3.15pm when I finally arrive, there's no time to wander up into Dent village to enjoy its cobbled streets and whitewashed stone buildings, I'll have to press on through the far-too-narrow squeeze stiles back to the riverbank, as I've still got 5 miles to go.


The River Dee

Push on and take my last looks back up toward the top of Dentdale, with Great Knoutberry and the railway station already hidden from view, and the massive buttress of Whernside looking like a tempting walking target, and head on down the riverbank as the rough face of Middleton Fell, known as Combe Scar makes itself the geographical feature of note whilst the western end of Rise hill is largely obscured from view by trees. The feeling is that the moorland is now well behind us, and we're into a much more agrarian landscape, all a bit more farmed and cared-for, and the riverside path down here is a nicely forgiving surface, not treating my legs too harshly after so many miles, but I'd be happier without all these gates to traverse as they all need to be opened with two hands, but then again, the squeeze stiles are even less fun, the one at Barth Bridge clearly having been designed for very small people indeed. Actually 'The Network of Gates' is part of a public art feature along here, made up of small plaques on the gateposts, but if it hadn't been mentioned in my guide book, I'd never have noticed it. Depart the riverbank near Ellers farm to rejoin Dentdale's back road, and only one car needs to be dodged as progress is made below the rough edge of Combe Scar, whilst the sight of Helms Knott indicates the edge of the upland that I will have to traverse out of Dentdale. It's along here that I feel like I might be about to hit the wall, but arriving at Brackensgill farm has me feeling that the last stretch is imminent. Descend to cross the Dee for the last time, and it looks for a moment that you are going to have to ford the river, until you spot the footbridge hidden just up the bank, and wet going can be had instead when you find the track up to the main road is a virtual stream, and from there the last ascent of the day starts along the walled lane around the grounds of Gate manor, leading up to Gap farm, and the legs do not feel happy with going up at this late stage in the day.

Sedbergh & the Howgills

At Gap Wood, the route guide gets vague for the first time, and I ascend through the trees to finally enjoy a carpet of Bluebells before I realise that I have wandered off piste, and it's here that I get another phone call, and I assure my Mum that I really am only 40 minutes out from Sedbergh. So return to the original path and find that the 'path division after a gate' is way further on than I'd read it to be, and the farm track leads around the rise of the hillside until it finally crests to offer the view over towards Sedbergh and the Howgills, and judging by the number of people out here soaking up the sunshine, this is one of the locally appreciated viewpoints. Our track descends off the hillside down to the village of Millthrop looking as about as desirable as is possible in this late afternoon sunshine, and if I'd paused to take in the surrounding here, I might well have suffered a quaint overload. Follow the roads down to the bridge over the River Rawthey, and crossing over brings us to the end of the Dales way stretch for the day, but I'm going to press on up Loftus Hill to go an extra half mile into the town to link up last Spring's wanderings to this year's escapade. So take a look back to the high hills which buttress Garsdale and Mallerstang, and pass the Cafe that was the last point of call a year ago, and being half an hour behind schedule mean there are no watering options in the town's many hostelries, and I go up Main Street to find my folks waiting in the same spot that they were 51 weeks ago. Time of arrival is 5.30pm, a half hour late on my origina ETA but exactly 40 minutes from my phone call, and the drive to our holiday house can start, all the way to, yes, Bowness-on-Windermere, So I might be arriving at my ultimate destination several days too early, but I'll be able to get a small amount of route knowledge along the way before I wander into the unknown.

To Be Continued...


1,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 623.9 miles
(2013 total: 158.6 miles)