Kirklees Way #4: Dewsbury to Clayton West 23/08/14

Self at Dewsbury

August has been going well so far, so I think this is a cue to go against the clock again, not because I'm feeling like i should be going at a healthier clip, but more because I've got a hot date in the late afternoon (or that's how I've been teasing it on Facebook, more prosaically it's a barbecue at my supervisor's house in Garforth, scheduled in whilst we can still claim Summer is in the air). I've realistically got one bus ride from my destination that will get me home in time, and that's due at 2pm, so a very early start is in order, rolling through Dewsbury town centre as the low sun glowers down into my eyes, long before the citizens emerge to hit the shops and the only people about are busy setting up the urban beach around the town hall for August bank holiday weekend. One thing to ponder at this early hour, however, regarding the statue of two figures in the town hall square, notionally titled 'The Good Samaritan', it actually looks like someone tending their drunk friend after a heavy chundering session and ought to be titled something like 'I think that's the last of it' or 'That curry was a really bad idea'. Also, I'm not the only person on the internet to have made this observation, so look it up, but anyway, I think I'm starting to digress, so onward...

Kirklees Way #4: Dewsbury to Clayton West  12.6 miles

Kirklees Way #3: Oakenshaw to Dewsbury 16/08/14

Self at Oakenshaw

On my wanderings this year, I have already discovered just how extensive Kirklees district seems to be, spreading into areas that i would have placed within other sections of West Yorkshire if you had directed me to do so. The start of today is within territory that I would have considered as being the outer suburban fringe of Bradford, and the course of today will lead us ridiculously close to home, and that shouldn't really come as a surprise as Morley sits at the bottom left corner of Leeds district, I clearly cannot get the my mind to accept the that the Dewsbury / Batley / Cleckmondegde agglomeration is a component of the same district as Huddersfield and all the rural land and the moors to the south. It comes so close to home, like the Leeds Country Way, that it could be met within a 10 minute of a bus ride from my flat, but after checking the route profile, there's really no way of breaking up the route to start from Howden Clough Road and get a satisfactory division of the route into five or six legs, as one day always turns out to be far too long, and so, we just come close to home for a while on part of a longer loop, and even when we will be finding paths previously walked, it'll also be good to find that there might still be some virgin territory right on my doorstep.

Kirklees Way #3: Oakenshaw to Dewsbury  11.1 miles

Kirklees Way #2: Birchencliffe to Oakenshaw 09/08/14

Self at Birchencliffe

This is not a particularly original thought, but following circular trails is not usually a good way of getting from A to B and today is not going to be any sort of deviation from that idea, following a long s-curve for 14+ miles when a rapid dash along the M62 would have the whole day done in less than 9 miles. still, we should have learned that it's all about the journey and if I'd wanted to get places quickly I would have taken up jogging by now. It's also good feeling to be back onto the trail on a Saturday, this being my first trip out on the first day of the weekend in four weeks, it makes me feel like I'm getting myself back in order and taking charge of my walking life again, after all I did say that hitting a long trail was the best way to getting yourself focused once more. Also Saturday travel is the way to do it after all, no need to worry about irregular trains or getting stuck at remote bus stops, I can get from my front door to my start point on Halifax Road in just over an hour, and getting an early start means that the ride from Huddersfield today took less time than the trip in the opposite direction a week ago, despite being uphill all the way.

Kirklees Way #2  Birchencliffe to Oakenshaw  14.7 miles

Kirklees Way #1: Marsden to Birchencliffe 03/08/14

Self at Marsden

August has to count, it's that simple, Summer has proved to be more climatically unpredictable than previous years and my motivation drop has had me having to reschedule most of the later part of the year, and what better way to focus yourself than to embark on a long trail, making sure that each coming weekend has another portion to draw you out, and so the Kirklees Way drops onto my schedule because I had wanted to see this district's high land and byways during the height of summer, rather than risking a conclusion during the seasonal turns of Autumn. Of course, I'd hoped to be on this 72 mile trail a month ago, and to be half way round by now, but there's not much point in further lamenting the failures of July, and we should instead look forward to this long tour of this district of marked contrasts, where the moors, towns and agricultural fields both pile up in close proximity and also spread out to provide a terrain that is both remote and crowded at the same time. Additionally, I'm on to Sunday walking again, not because I want to but because a Saturday that provides weather and moods that are distinctly uninspiring means my start has to get shunted so I can make hay whilst the sun shines, and with the trains landing right, the ride to Marsden is only 20 minutes longer via the crappy Sunday service on the Huddersfield Line, and I also get the bonus of a ride into platform 2 as well, the one that never seems to get used.

Kirklees Way #1: Marsden to Birchencliffe  12.2 miles

Morley to Leeds (x4) 27/07/14

Back at the top of the year, I had high hopes for the second half of my walking season, feeling like I could safely aim for 500 miles on the year and also manage to fit in all my major targets and have some weeks to spare as my 40th approached, but a month on and I'm feeling like the wheels have been spinning for the last few weeks with little progress being made. July isn't quite the time to declare the season beyond redemption, but it's looking unlikely that I will be able to fit in both of the Kirklees Way and Wakefield Way before November as it will take a total of 12 trips to complete them, and that would be three whole months of my schedule. I had really been hopeful to be half way around the Kirklees Way by now, but tiredness at the end of June and wanting to fit the the Tour de France at the start of the month lost me two weekends, with my weekend after my trip down country being a non-starter as the heatwave had had me turning into Freddie Flakeout and rain coming down on the Saturday was not the inspiring change I'd hoped for. Then my trip for yesterday failed as I made out early to catch the train to Marsden only for my plan to be scuppered by its non-appearance due to a lack of available train crew, the first time I've heard that be announced by the tannoy, by the way, and missing my connection up the line would mean a trip of over two hours before I could get going and a longer stretch of walking in the hottest part of the day, so I am shortly heading home to sulk. Still, heatwave feels over by Sunday morning, and July needs a conclusion, before moving on to hopefully make August count, and the reserve list has another route to the city on it...

Morley to Leeds, via Beeston Royds and Whitehall Road  6.9 miles

Cossington Mill to Kilby Bridge 16/07/14

First summer break from work, and down country to enjoy my parents' hospitality, I need a walk that doesn't look too challenging as the season starts to warm up significantly, and as my Old Country walks so far have kept me well away from the City of Leicester, it's time to make amends for that and to plot a path along a stretch of  the Grand Union Canal. As canal companies go, this one isn't particularly old, having only been founded in 1932, but actually being an agglomeration of several older canals, notably the Regent's canal and the Grand Junction, established to attempt to stay in business as the days of the canals passed in the 20th century, and to continue to provide a link between London and Birmingham, and the East Midlands into this century. The so called Leicester Line, the longest and most significant branch from the main route, reaches from Norton Junction, Northamptonshire, to Ratcliffe on Soar, on the Nottinghamshire border, where it feeds into the River Trent, and along the way it passes all the way through the city of my birth. There probably isn't a better way to traverse the city during this season, one that keeps away from the roads that can be walked once the season turns, and gives me some countryside to enjoy whilst the hot season comes down upon us.

Cossington Mill to Kilby Bridge, via the Grand Union Canal path  16.2 miles

Wakefield to Barnsley 12/07/14

So why walk to Barnsley, I keep promising it but it keeps on dropping from my schedule, so why does it need to be done? Well, I've never wandered that far into South Yorkshire in all my travels and only know the town from my rides through on the railway to Sheffield, and more pertinently, there's a canal walk to follow, one which I missed out on my travels in 2012 because a disused canal surely couldn't be as interesting as the six active waterways in West Yorkshire? As this year has taken a much greater interest in the trails of industry around the county, this seems as good a time as any to dive into the heart of coal country to see what's left of a canal that history seems to have completely forgotten, finally getting this off the slate of unwalked routes before the summer gets much older. Anyway the Barnsley Canal is too important a canal to ignore anyway, opened in 1799 and travelling 16 miles between Wakefield and Barugh, it was a booming route through much of the 19th century before the railways dominated the transportation of coal, providing a key link between the waterways of the Aire - Calder basin and the Dearne - Dove - Don basin to the south. It enjoyed a good 150 years of service before closure came in 1953, finally done in by declining traffic and the problem that has blighted South Yorkshire ever since the commencement of deep mining, subsidence, now a channel that has retreated far into the landscape, only to be rediscovered by the most intrepid of explorers.

Wakefield to Barnsley, via the Barnsley Canal and the Trans Pennine Trail  14.3 miles