Menston to Harewood via Otley Chevin 19/05/12

Leeds does not want for urban parks, but it does lack a good country park. I've already said that Golden Acre is under-sized and lacks wildness, and the likes of Temple Newsam and Roundhay have scale but seem too well tamed. My hometown, Leicester, has Bradgate Park, a former country estate in the heart of Charnwood Forest's Granite Country, that has hills and rocks and miles of trails amongst the bracken, and is also one of the most popular free outdoor attractions in the whole country, and yet Leeds, a city of many hills, really wants for something similar. So for today, we'll be heading for probably the wildest place in the entirety of Leeds District, Otley Chevin and its Forest Park, as it's a place that can't really be ignored in this young walking career.

Active May: Day Four

Menston to Harewood via Otley Chevin  11.7 miles

Tailbridge Hill & Nine Standards Rigg 12/05/12

You may have noticed a distinct lack of summits in my walking so far, so it must be time to make up for that. It's odd to find that when you mention that you have taken up walking, people tend to wonder what you have been up rather than where you have been, and you have to explain that there's quite a distinct difference in discipline between walking up and walking along. I might have walked over 100 miles but people are unimpressed that I haven't done the Yorkshire Three Peaks yet, actually, I'm disappointed that I haven't summitted any of them so far, but Ingleborough had too much snow, and I had too much upset stomach for Whernside. Anyways, I've got my Spring Holiday on the immediate horizon and I need to get a bit of ground knowledge in before then, so onward to Kirkby Stephen!

Active May: Day Three

Tailbridge Hill & Nine Standards Rigg.  12.3 miles

The Calder Valley & Birkby Bradley Greenways 07/05/12

Trying to make sense of the National Cycle Network is a frustrating business, as it is being created on a piecemeal basis as Sustrans gain funding and access to necessary lands, so today's stretch is part of the grand scheme of National Route 69 (dude), but it's hard to envisage it as part of a coast-to-coast path when so much of it remains in the planning stages. Even factor in the other sections in West Yorkshire and it's almost impossible to work out how it is all going to fit together, hopefully time and progress will prove my interpretations to be wrong, but for today this is just a stretch from Dewsbury to Huddersfield featuring a viaduct that I hadn't previously heard of!

Active May: Day Two

The Calder Valley & Birkby Bradley Greenways - Dewsbury to Huddersfield.  9.8 miles

Sowerby Bridge to Mytholmroyd, plus Bonus Stroll 05/05/12

Ever since my closest friends moved to Mytholmroyd in 2006, I've been entertaining the idea of walking there or back, but that plan has a couple of major drawbacks, most notably the fact that it is a really long way. Morley to Mytholmroyd is 19 miles, by the direct route and 26 by the prettiest, and doing that I'd probably be in no state to socialise if visiting or having to walk off the hangover from the previous night if going home. Walking back to grab the train at Mirfield looks like a possibility, but there are virtually no trains on a Sunday, my favoured travel-home day, and doing that on a Saturday after the work/booze mix of Friday does not appeal all that much. So if that walk does ever get done, it will probably be done in pieces, starting today, kicking off Active May.

Active May: Day One

Sowerby Bridge to Mytholmroyd via the Rochdale Canal path  4.2 miles
 plus Bonus Stroll  2.8 miles