Barden Moor: Skipton to Grassington 08/06/13

No longer having the Dales Way on my walking schemes should make me feel that I am now free to head out into the walking world without the constraints of a plan, but my mind seems to like order too much to start out like that, and with Summer weather upon us and the reality of Summer being only a couple of weeks distant means that I need a plan for the coming three months or so. Last Summer had the many miles of canal path to tread, and this year should have a similar theme, but one hasn't come to me yet, and with a number of plans that I had schemed for April and May still unwalked, I had better make the most of the arrival of summer whilst it is here. So off we go for an early start to join up with the FOSCL group again, who are staying out the Higher Dales to avoid the traffic going to Appleby Horse Fair, and to instead cover one of the southern High Moors that has so far avoided my attention.

Barden Moor: Skipton to Grassington  12.1 miles

Hawes to Horton-in-Ribblesdale 27/04/13

The abiding image I have in my mind of walking the Pennine Way comes from my distant childhood and an episode of 'Go With Noakes' in which John Noakes took on the path in foul weather and extremely muddy conditions whilst wearing quite the most hilarious pair of 1970s flares. I recall thinking 'That looks no fun at all' and that impression still hasn't changed in 30+ years, as the Pennine Way resides somewhere near the bottom of my list of walking priorities, but the truth is that it is a trail that ultimately remains unavoidable when walking in the North Country. Indeed in all of my walking exploits since 2002, I have walked nine different sections of it, ranging from a few hundred metres to several miles between Stoodley Pike in the south and Hadrian's Wall in the north, so let's meet up with the FOSCL group and have day 10 on this trail and my longest single excursion on it to boot, and maybe I should start tagging my walks with 'Not Walking the Pennine Way'.

Hawes to Horton-in-Ribblesdale: 14 miles

Dent to Ribblehead 16/03/13

Walking over Great Shunner Fell, in May last year, had me regarding the uplands and valleys that separate the eastern flowing Wensleydale from the western flowing Ribblesdale, Dentdale and Garsdale, and wondering why the names of these geographical features were unfamiliar to me in the inventories of the ups and downs of the Yorkshire Dales. As with so many new things in my walking career, I made the resolve to venture into these lands between Hawes and Ribblehead, once the predictable routes had been covered and to find out the hidden corners of the North Country therein. So once a FOSCL walk shows up in the vicinity at the start of Year 2 of my 1,000 miles, it's the right time to make my first tentative steps in that direction, and as the weather projections shift from mediocre to changeable, a late winter walk in the high lands would be an ideal distraction before the Dales Way comes calling.

Dent to Ribblehead, via Arten Gill and the flank of Blea Moor.  9.6 miles

Ingleborough 09/02/13

Having taken my annual trip up to Carlisle and my favourite second-hand bookshop on the preceding Thursday, I was able to have a reconnoitre with regards ground conditions in Ribbledale and was fully prepared for some snow and ice residue on the ground when it came to hitting the Dales at the weekend. I'd kept my weather eye set to Saturday, and whilst the projection had gotten progressively worse, it never gave indication of heavy precipitation or high winds, so going up the first of the Three Peaks was never in doubt. What I hadn't taken into account was what the weather might do in the intervening time, but surely the conditions couldn't change that drastically? Well, they had and what follows is a walk quite unlike anything I have experienced so far in my walking career.

Ingleborough: Ribblehead to Horton.  12.8 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

Long Preston to Malham via Gordale Scar 14/07/12

My first week of Summer hols comes around much more quickly than I had anticipated, and I don't have any expensive trips away planned, just good old-fashioned walking and getting back out to the Dales again so I can put the horrible experience of a month ago behind us. Also I can continue my attempts to walk from, or to, every station on the railway line between Skipton and Kirkby Stephen, starting at the easily forgotten station of Long Preston, and to renew some acquaintances with the FOSCL group under altogether more favourable circumstances.

Long Preston to Malham, via Gordale Scar.  13.3 miles

Three Dales: Horton-in-Ribblesdale to Kettlewell 16/06/12

Dropped a Saturday on the 9th June, not least because I was bloody well knackered after doing more than 50 miles over my long week off and then returning to work, so when the next weekend wheels around, I wasn't going to miss out, I was walking no matter what, and anyways it was the last weekend of spring and that would surely mean a good long day for walking. Three Yorkshire Dales in one day, seemed such an inviting prospect too, until my weather eye watched the BBC weather site giving progressively worse predictions for the coming weekend. Well, thinks I, I've not had a day of walking in foul weather, how bad can it be? Let's just say, writing this might well induce post-traumatic stress...

Active June: Day Two

Three Dales: Horton in Ribblesdale to Kettlewell.  13.2 miles

Garsdale to Sedbergh 02/06/12

So our break away comes to an end, and that's a shame for the obvious reasons, and for the fact that Kirkby Stephen has a mini walking festival coming up for the Jubilee Bank Holiday. We're not paying for any more days away though, and we pack up and express our gratitude to the owners of Manor Lodge before we head away. Just to make the end of the holiday that bit more depressing, the weather has taken a turn for the cold and foggy as we drive off down Mallerstang to the start point of my last walk of the week away, to Garsdale station where my parents can drop me off and I can assure them that they should have no trouble at all with filling 5 and a half hours with a ride out to Windermere so Mum can can get her obligatory visit to the Lakeland store.

Spring Jollies: Day Seven

Garsdale to Sedbergh.  10.3 miles

Smardale Gill 30/05/12

The last week of May had been my planned holiday week since taking the same week last year, so the appearance of two Friends of the Settle & Carlisle Line walks in the immediate area during my week away was a very neat bit of happenstance, the sort of coincidence you often wish for and never get. Especially useful is the fact that the first of them goes to somewhere that I had been planning to walk ever since I chose Kirkby Stephen as my holiday destination, as Smardale Gill has landscape and industrial heritage and the walk promised us a bit of nature too, "For the Botanists" the FOSCL leaflet claims. "Sold!" is my immediate thought to that premise.

Spring Jollies: Day Four

Smardale Gill circular. 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

Garsdale to Kirkby Stephen via Mallerstang 24/03/12

When you awaken in Morley under a dense pall of fog, (on the first weekend of Spring, mind you,) you have no reason to expect the day to make a significant change in weather. You feel that the day may clear into one of those sunny, yet cool and crisp days, but it would still be necessary to dress for
winter, so the thermals go on, reminding yourself that it's always cooler in the countryside and you are bound to feel it once you've been in a pretty remote location for 6 hours or so. The day remains foggy as my train takes me north up the S&C line, until we travel up through the clouds at the top of Ribblesdale and sunshine takes over. Disembarking at Garsdale, I expect cool and crisp, not brutal heat...

Active March: Day Four

Garsdale to Kirkby Stephen via Mallerstang 11.7 miles

Gargrave To Settle via Malham 03/03/12

The initial plan for 2012 was a plan of three months of walking to conclude with a planned holiday at the end, figuring that I'd need to have my walking legs well tuned for a week away. Each month was given an "Active" tag, and was to feature walking on every Saturday and available bonus day, and I rallied moral support and encouragement on my Facebook page from those surprised by my desire to get exercised and those who have their own healthy schemes. Trips to the Dales and an assault on the Leeds Country Way were to make up the bulk of the opening stretches and then stock was to be taken as Summer loomed (It's a known fact that hot weather and I are not good friends).

The initial 1,000 miles idea did not come into my thoughts at this time, only coming to mind when I took time to reflect at the end of June, but after polling my Facebook friends and getting precisely one response, I made the decision to count all my walks and that is why I will be blogging in retrospect until I catch up the five month backlog. I'm not a swift writer, so this might take a while...

Active March: Day One

Gargrave To Settle via Malham.  14.6 miles