Hadrian's Wall Path #4: Steel Rigg to Banks Turret 31/08/14

Self at Steel Rigg

Five hours on the trail without feeling any need for sunblock last weekend, followed by an August bank holiday Monday that is regarded as having been the coldest and wettest in over 50 years suggest that the End of Summer is upon us and that is the surely the cue for me to go on my late summer jollies. So it's time to get Kirklees out of my system for a week and refocus my attention to the far north once again, time to get the services of my Parental taxi service and head out for seven days staying in Cumwhinton, at the top of the Eden Valley, just shy of Carlisle, to make my attempt on the last three legs of the Hadrian's Wall Path, resuming in the high lands atop the Whin Sill and heading for the Irish Sea coast. So cast away from your mind the environs of Huddersfield and Dewsbury, and the views across to the Colne valley and the Emley Moor transmitter, and return your view to the sights from May time, and say Hello again to the A69 and the Military Road, Hello to Northunbria National park and the escarpments of Dolerite, and Hello once more to tramping through 2,000 years of history, in the footsteps of the Romans, and Britons of all ages.

Hadrian's Wall Path #4: Steel Rigg to Banks Turret  13.1 miles

Hadfield to Penistone 21/06/14

Top of the year already, and I rarely get out to do anything with the longest day before the decline of Summer kicks in, so as we are entering the final corner of my three year odyssey this seems like a cue for a long day on the trail, aiming for the second most talked about route of all the paths that I have been considering over the last few years, namely the Woodhead Route, the late and lamented Manchester, Sheffiled & Lincolnshire Railway / Great Central Railway line from Hadfield to Penistone, now enduring as the central stretch of the Trans Pennine Trail. A big day also deserves company, and I request the company of my good friend MW, himself a keen walker and in the midst of his own voyage of experience in his 40th year, so that me might share a social expedition that the previous years have missed. Even before we have set out he has shown his value, acknowledging that a train ride from Leeds to Hadfield is unduly long and expensive, and that alighting at Stalybridge and getting a taxi will cut 40 mins of time and £10+ from travel costs. So onwards into virgin territory for the both of us, starting out on the very fringe of Greater Manchester, but actually with the High Peak District of Derbyshire, and it you'd like an alternative perspective on the day, hop over to MW's blog to enjoy a much brisker and more engaging writing style.

Hadfield to Penistone, via the Trans Pennine Trail  16.5 miles

Marsden to Hebden Bridge 28/09/13

With the end of the walking season approaching fast, it becomes important to get the long excursions off the slate as quickly as possible as a long walking day needs a guarantee of decent weather and sufficient daylight to get to the finish line before being surrounded in gloom. So late September is the last point in the year to make an attempt of 16+ miles, and that's the fourth time that I'll be topping that figure this year, the magic number that says 'this is a long way', and I do wonder why I have left it so late in the year to go from Colne to Calder, and how I've not been to Marsden in a whole year when I still have an all-areas Metrocard. You'd never imagine just how difficult it is fitting in all your walking targets, even when you go for the whole summer without taking any time out from the schedule, so it looks like I'm not going to fit in more than a couple of walks in this area before my right to 'free' travel expires, and next year I'll have to return to travelling with cash in my pocket, or learning the dark art of rural bus travel. Onwards, anyway, as I've got a weather projection of clear skies, prolonged sunshine and minimal risk of rain, so hopefully it's only the wind coming from the north-east that will provide the only climatic challenge of the day.

Marsden to Hebden Bridge, via Close Moss, White Hill, Blackstone Edge, Warland Moor 
                                                 & Stoodley Pike   16.5 miles

The Dales Way #3: Buckden to Far Gearstones 04/05/13

Self, at Election Bridge
near Buckden

These long days which feature as much travelling/waiting around as they do actual walking are starting to frustrate me somewhat, as a good 5/6 hour walk should not be accompanied by a 5/6 hour journey. This is especially frustrating with the Dales Way as I had wanted to actually get the feeling of starting up in one place and then winding up in a far distant place three days on, but travelling to each start point by train and bus might absorb a lot of time, but it makes it feel that much closer together, and the feeling of  the many miles traversed and of escaping from the trappings of civilisation for a while is almost completely lost. Plus, today's outward journey was something of an ordeal, as the train up to Skipton is ridiculously busy with folks hitting the Dales for the Ride2Stride festival, and many, many kids are on board, filling half a carriage with baggage and loud voices, and it's then a 35 minute wait for the bus to Buckden, which bounces and dawdles its way up Wharfedale as I start to check my watch anxiously as I know I'll be going against the clock again on my remotest solo Dales walk so far, and I've forgotten to leave notice of my travels on my Facebook page...

Walking to Windermere: The Dales Way #3:
  Buckden to Far Gearstones (& Ribblehead).  14 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

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

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 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