Pendle Hill 27/09/14

If I hadn't planned to head over into Lancashire for this weekend, I'd almost certainly have spent all of it in bed, as my activities last weekend left me feeling like my battery was almost completely flat after 5 days of work, and mix that in with far too many nights of restless sleep and agonising pains in my neck, and heading to Bolton for a weekend with My Sister's family seems like a very poor idea. However, September is Completion Month, and I had planned for this visit for nearly two months so such considerations need to be cast aside as this is the last opportunity for the weather to still look decent as I make for the hill that has been on my target list for all of the last two seasons, always proving an elusive goal. Younger Niece needs to get up a hill under her own power too, as Elder got out with us last year, and whilst they have both done more physical activity in the intervening time than I managed in my entire childhood, Younger is still to achieve a summit without being carried and she's now at a similar age to when Elder topped the Coniston Old Man. So cast aside the physical problems, gather yourself some fortitude and let's get on the shortest of trails for a Saturday afternoon, not walking a recognised long distance path for the first time since July, and that means the first trip in nine without the reader having to look at my grinning mug as they read of my exploits here.

Pendle Hill, from Barley  4.2 miles

Kirklees Way #6: Hepworth to Marsden 20/09/14

Self at Hepworth

Moving into the third day of a head cold is not the way to be going when you have the last day of a major trail on your schedule, but I'm not feeling too bad all things considered, there's certainly no restriction being felt in my lungs, so I feel that I need to get a move on as this is notionally the last weekend of Summer, and this isn't something I need loitering on my schedule any further into Autumn. Indeed, i am otherwise occupied for two of the coming three weekends, and if this day doesn't get walked soon, it could still be on my un-walked as the third week of October rolls around and who knows how the weather or my physical condition might be holding up by then? Anyway, I'm dubbing September as Completion Month, as I aim to get this trail done and another major walking target off the slate before Autumn brings the short and cold days that do not inspire me to putting down the miles with alacrity. So take an early start and onwards, for the 100 minute ride by rail and road to Hepworth and its distant corner of Kirklees, beneath skies that don't suggest the slightest possibility of sunshine, but also carry a forecast of no rain, still feeling brave enough to don only the gilet and to see if my dodgy respiratory system can handle the moisture laden air that will be hanging heavy today.

Kirklees Way #6: Hepworth to Marsden  12.7 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

Upper Rivington & Anglezarke Reservoirs 10/05/14

Even as a n adopted Yorkshireman, it seems a terrible and unnecessary cliche to perpetuate the theory that it always rains in Lancashire, because being on the windward side of the Pennines really should make so much difference, but the sad truth to me seems to be that I cannot coordinate a visit to my Sister and her family with an incidence of good weather. This has been a pretty decent year so far, no particularly rough weekends for weather, and mid May should manage to look decently clear, but the first rotten weekend of the year comes down to scupper my plan for a trip to Pendle Hill, and I'm already getting the feeling that this particular destination is going to prove somewhat difficult to obtain. Still, circumstances for my visit play against me, with my nieces having weekend morning activities which take them out of circulation, and they do enjoy their cycling and swimming trips, and my Sis and I aren't doing ourselves any favours when both mornings are needed to sleep off the drinks from the previous night, so the excursions plan for the weekend has to be scaled back, to fit in a stretch between the rain showers.

Upper Rivington & Anglezarke Reservoirs  7.5 miles

Tingley Viaduct & Ardsley Reservoir 27/04/14

Taking the whole department out for drinks could have been an expensive business if all 26 staff had turned out, but thanks to shifts patterns, absences and unavailability, a wholly more manageable 8 folk turned out which ensured that a drinks order could be made without recourse to writing things down, but I'm still baffled as to how many people thought they were celebrating my 40th birthday already. Maybe my choice of words on the e-mail invite, notably 'in a spirit of egalitarianism in my 40th year', was a bit confusing, but no matter because a seven pint session went on with a whole lot of nonsense talked and laughter echoed around, plus a couple of old faces rejoining the crew and everyone getting off for their last ride home. So predictably, Saturday is scrubbed with a hangover and no real awareness of what the day is doing until late afternoon, but even with it being a notional weekend off, I could use the stretch to work off the beer, and to make some space for the epic post-hangover bacon sandwich, so Sunday morning demands a supposedly short stroll to find a couple of the hidden highlights of the borough.

Tingley Viaduct & Ardsley Reservoir  8.6 miles

Rivington Park 08/02/14 & Entwistle Reservoir 09/02/14

I am not one to be sold by advertising, as most of it washes past me in a 'Don't need it / Never wanted it' way, but every so often something will capture your attention, as it taps in to your interests in an almost specific way, as if it were directed to you personally, and that is exactly what Land Rover's #hibernot campaign has done for me. I'm not sure if this is a campaign to sell more off-road vehicles to the suburban middle classes, or if it is a genuine attempt to promote outdoor activity in winter, but the ad perfectly captures what the many tangents of being outdoors in the least clement of seasons can be like, and the associated website does seem to be doing its best sell the idea of enjoying this 'grey and pleasant land', despite being pretty horrible to navigate (we don't all use tablets, you know). So whilst February fails to offer long days and clear passages of pleasing weather, the idea of #hibernot seems like a good way to enjoy the season before Spring finally makes its breakthrough, and as an excess of rain has knocked Pendle Hill from the immediate target list, some low key expeditioning will be handy as I end my week of NIW by staying with My Sis and family on the fringe of the West Pennine Moors.

Rivington Park 3.6 miles, & Entwistle Reservoir 2.6 miles

Mytholmroyd to Haworth 26/10/13

Last available day for 'free' train travel in West Yorkshire before my access all areas Metrocard expires, and that deserves a big day out going from valley to valley again, even though the autumn has now descended hard and even a clear day brings with it the risks of seasonal rains and chills. The Calder - Worth trail for today had really deserved a better day than one at the end of October, but I'd been holding on to it as it felt like a good finale for the High Moors season, and it's the last route that I feel like I could attempt over the Aire - Calder watershed on these rapidly tiring legs that I am compelled to use. Seriously, work in the hospital is doing me in, and my role as Departmental Gopher for the Out-patients Office is proving more of a physical strain than I could have imagined, and I'm going to need to use the Dark Season for some major recharging and refocusing, because I doubt that I'm going to have the physical and mental stamina needed for a healthy walking season in 2014 if this attrition rate continues...

Mytholmroyd To Haworth, via Hebden Dale, High Rakes & Withins Height  12.5 miles

Marsden to Mytholmroyd 19/10/13

A weekend drops from the schedule because of foul weather, and it couldn't have come at a better time as work is starting to leave me feeling perpetually run down and I need a spare day to recharge for the coming week and to focus myself for the final push of the season, as I've got three more trips to fit into four weekends and only two weekends of 'free' travel left. Another trip out from Marsden is in order, doing Colne to Calder again, and I set out an hour later than planned, hoping to have allowed time for the early morning mists to have cleared, and feeling like I owe Kirklees district an apology, because in all these month of having rail access to anywhere in West Yorkshire, I have made only two trip into this area, and both of them have been focused on walking out of it. No journeys have been made in the direction of Slaithwaite, Meltham or Holmfirth,  and I didn't once ride the line to Penistone, plus obvious targets like Castle Hill and Black Hill avoided my plotting, and I'll have to make my promise to make it up to the district and wander into the unknown paths of Kirklees next year, where my attention will hopefully focus in a direction that isn't north and west.

Marsden to Mytholmroyd, via Slaithwaite Moor, Moss Moor Edge, Blackwood Edge
                                               & Great Manshead Hill.  14 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

Carsington Water 21/10/12

Away from Calderdale for a while and head down country for a family get-together for celebration of my Mum's 70th birthday, on the nearest available week, and as it lands in Autumn Half Term week, this makes it possibly the most pre-planned holiday since our trip to Oberammergau in 1990. Amusingly, planning was done without an obvious destination in mind, but when notes were compared it turned out that My Sis and I had managed to pick out holiday houses within 3 miles of each other, I'd picked the nicer house but she picked a site with a pool so her girls might be more easily entertained, and her choice won out. So on the Saturday we all converge on South Derbyshire, to Knockerdown Farm, just outside the Peak District, and I travel with a pile of copies of OL24 and walking destinations for the first four days, hopeful that Autumn Jollies will deliver good weather.

Carsington Water.  9.6 miles