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

High Leicestershire: Billesdon to Great Dalby 24/03/14

Spring has sprung in the way it should, not bringing the blast of late winter like it did last year, but me being not the most ambitious of souls ensured that I had no serious plans afoot when the last week of holiday for the financial year came around. A shame, because this would be the sort of day to embark on a long distance trail, setting out your plans for the blooming Spring. Instead, I'm down country, visiting my parents whilst I'm NIW for the week, and realising that I have to temper my walking ambitions as I'm only a marathon's distance away from reaching my 1,000 mile target and it would not be the done thing for an odyssey that has been made of so many miles in the North Country to be completed in the Midlands. So, onto the summer list goes my 16 mile walk along the canal, and I look back to East Leicestershire for inspiration, and it might not be the highest portion of the county, a title claimed by the Charnwood Forest, it's a distinct (relative) upland that is broadly known as 'High Leicestershire' by the locals, our own slice of Alpine country (or Pyrenean if we want to be pedantic).

Billesdon to Great Dalby, via Tilton on the Hill, Marefield & Burrough on the Hill  11.5 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

Pen-y-ghent (& Plover Hill) 05/10/13

Having my walking season finale on a high hill seems like a great idea when viewed at a distance, but becomes a much less appealing prospect once you have felt the Autumn bearing down on you bringing mist, rain, falling temperatures and high winds above the 400m contour. It's the wind that's the killer, and the last trip I made has me feeling like I don't want to know what the winds of November might be like when the ones of late September were no fun, so the finale gets brought forward, spoiling the symmetry of the season, but that is less important then comfort, surely? Anyway, 3rd October marked my 20th anniversary since coming north to attend the University of Leeds, and what better way to celebrate that marker than to listen to every album that I bought in 1993? Or perhaps to also return to the scene of my first solo walk, some 11 years ago, and to partially retrace my original steps and to add Pen-y-ghent to the list of summits achieved in my official wandering career? Anyway, to the last excursion to the Dales for a while whilst the day still manages to promise a six hour window with minimal risk of precipitation!

Pen-y-ghent & Plover Hill  10.4 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

Saltaire to Otley 21/09/13

Autumn is upon us and as is the tradition, a ferocious head cold descends on me, only a 48 hour virus and one that I choose to work through to demonstrate what a trooper I am, but that means that the tank is going to be running low as the weekend comes around and the long walk from Marsden to Hebden Bridge isn't going to happen. Walking after a respiratory ailment is not a good idea, as recalled by leg #3 of the Calderdale way when a trek of less than 10 miles took more than 6 hours, so walking from Colne to Calder is going to have to wait, and as the last phase of the walking season is upon us, I think I can allow myself a short excursion to get in three high points between Aire and Wharfe.

Saltaire to Otley, via Baildon Moor, Hawksworth Cliff and Otley Chevin  9.8 miles

Earl Crag & Airedale's Neglected Hills 18/08/13

Reading walking literature about the lands south of the Dales seems to have largely ignored on quarter of Airedale, namely the southern side below Skipton and above Keighley, for some reason it does not feature as a desirable destination despite many hills rising above the 300m mark and by having the Pennine Way running right through the middle of it. Maybe its lack of a distinctive name and identity has cost it, or maybe it's just that much less appealing when placed against its loftier and bleaker neighbours, but having taken a look at Earl Crag from afar and knowing that ridge is the one known feature of the area has me putting it on the walking slate for immediate attention and hoping that the area might bring other rewards as I once again venture into the completely unknown. Also, I'll be doing this all on a Sunday, and I know that's not a good plan when work looms the following day, but Saturday was mostly a washout, and I do need to make hay whilst the sun still shines!

Earl Crag & Airedale's Neglected Hills: Steeton to Skipton  12.6 miles

The Peaks of Charnwood Forest 01/08/13

No walking career was ever conceived in the county of Leicestershire, I grew up in the county and can count on my fingers the number of walking excursions made during my first 18 years, it simply does not have the drama of Landscape and the scale of terrain that can be found in most parts of the country outside of the Midlands. Plainly expressed, the majority of Leicestershire is gently rolling countryside which can prove interesting on the smaller scale, does not offer the changing vistas and viewpoints of the higher lands which would appeal to the walking soul. There are a couple of notable exceptions however, and one of these is Charnwood Forest, an area largely covered in the remains of ancient woodlands and sited atop the remnants of even more ancient volcanoes, at over 560millon years old forming some of the oldest rocks in England. So when the time comes for a week away from home and absorbing my parents' hospitality, my first walking destination in the Old Country has to be in the heart of North-West Leicestershire's Granite Country.

The Peaks of Charnwood Forest: Old John, Beacon Hill & Bardon Hill.   13.8 miles

Barden Fell & Simon's Seat 06/07/13

I quite unexpectedly got sun-burned on my trip over Whernside, surprisingly as I'd barely seen any direct sunlight, but I noticed when taking a shower afterwards and finding that it stung my cheeks and ears a lot more than normal, and sure enough, lower half of the face (due to consistent hat-wearing) is looking distinctly pinkish. Work colleagues greeted me with 'Where have you been that we haven't?' and 'Are you going to try to even it out next weekend?', so I must have been looking unusually healthy! Anyway, after that experience of light frying on an otherwise unremarkable day, we've hit that rare point in summer where the clouds disappear, the wind drops and the temperature soars, the sort of weather which we haven't seen since 2006, I think, and I had better slather on the sunblock and don the sunhat and the most lightweight clothing possible and prepare myself for a whole day of seasonal warmth in the gritstone country of Lower Wharfedale.

Barden Fell & Simon's Seat  12.1 miles

Whernside 29/06/13

The top of the year comes a week later than I had planned, as the 22nd provided uninspiring and grey skies around Morley and promises of grimmer weather further afield, so the mid-point of the walking year, and of my 3 year odyssey can come as 'Flaming' June comes to an end. Having walked up Ingleborough at the start point of the year, I think it's time to return to the Yorkshire Three Peaks and make my first assault on Whernside, having first looked that way back in 2002 and being discouraged from going there as my more active friends described it as a 'grim and unforgiving slog', but having had a reconnoitre on my wanders in Dentdale, I have picked myself a route which is the path less trammelled and approaches that big hill from its more interesting aspect. So, top of the year and top of the county too, which has a nice symmetry to it, and the weather for the early summer looks like about as changeable as an all white cloud day can be...

Whernside: Dent to Ribblehead  11.3 miles

Beamsley Beacon: Addingham to Ilkley 15/06/13

The first three walks on the Summits and High Moors of the West Riding have been on my planning slate for more than two months, and the target for today had been officially listed before weather and ennui intervened, but the route I'll be taking today will be very different from the one originally projected. Having learned the lessons of adequate planning for walking days, my weather eye sees that the 13 mile loop from Ilkley, taking in Beamsley Hospital, is going to be rather too long for a day that threatens a very mixed bag of sunshine and showers, so some judicious trimming is necessary and if that means riding the bus out to Addingham to take a couple of miles off of the circuit, then so be it.

Beamsley Beacon: Addingham to Ilkley  9 miles

The Old Man of Coniston & Dow Crag 30/0513

The first encounter I had with the idea of hill walking came my way as far back as 1980, when my family was holidaying in Wales, as my parents suggested we might take the Mountain Railway up Snowdon and then walk back down, a plan the 5 year old me famously nixed with the phrase 'I'm not wasting my legs!', and so it came to pass that I only did two country walks of any duration in my childhood, and didn't achieve my first summit until the age of 27. However my nieces have both gotten to the top of various big hills already, having summitted Catbells and Skiddaw respectively before they were even six months old, but all trips so far have been on the energy of their active parents carrying them, and we all think that it is time that they got to the top of their first Lakeland Fell under their own power. Younger Niece isn't massively impressed by the idea, and at age 5, I can't blame her, but at 6 and a half, Elder Niece is game, so a course is set to Coniston for four of us to have a wander into the Furness Fells.

The Old Man of Coniston & Dow Crag.  6.3 miles

The Windermere Three Peaks 26/05/13

Even with me out on my holidays I had no intention of walking on a Sunday, as I'd already had six days of activity preceding it and was in need of a rest, but with another excellent day of weather projected (and two rotten ones following it), I couldn't waste it just with food shopping, a good book and dinner preparation. Plus, with the four ladies of the household all on a cookery course and Dr G out cycling, I was left with only my Dad to entertain, and he'll be needing an afternoon nap, so that'll surely give me a three hour window to get in the sights around Bowness-on-Windermere. A delve into Wainwright's 'Outlying Fells of Lakeland' illustrates three hills around the town that should make for good viewpoints, and I'll plot a course and head out for that straight after lunch, at least I would if I could find my phone. I cannot find it anywhere, so I can only assume that I dropped it somewhere between Gap Wood and Sedbergh, and that wasn't a smart thing to do when walking in unexplored territories...

The Windermere Three Peaks: Brant Fell, School Knott & Orrest Head.  7.3 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

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

Skipton & Flasby Fell Circular 03/11/12

As my last 10 walks from home have all been somewhere in the vicinity of the River Calder, I think it's time to find some other part of Yorkshire to explore before the season comes to an end, so it's to upper Airedale we head for a complete change of scenery. I'd fancied a shot at the FOSCL walk from Dent to Ribblehead today, but the changeable weather put me off that, and its wouldn't have linked up my walks in the Dales as the section from Garsdale to Dent would have been missing and I'm not going to venture solo into the Dales at this time of year. So instead, let's at least stitch together my canal walks in West Yorkshire to my ambles in the lower Dales and also return to part of the scene of my very first walk of 2012's season, and to get in one of the hills that I have observed many times. After all there are not that many opportunities for a canal walk and a summit on the same day!

Skipton & Flasby Fell Circular, by the Leeds & Liverpool Canal path to Gargrave,
              and return via Skipton Woods and the Springs Branch.  13.1 miles.

Great Shunner Fell 28/05/12

Picking a summit to walk solo is an interesting business, you want one with a decently marked path, you don't want any walk that is too long, challenging or remote and you want somewhere that feels worthy of the trip, and has a view. That knocks the likes of Wild Boar Fell, Mallerstang Edge and Cross Fell from the list of choices and puts Great Shunner Fell right to the top; it has the Pennine Way over it, the whole stretch is 8 miles, with 350 metres of ascent, and ends at a pub. It's also 12 miles from Kirkby Stephen and would be a challenge to do walking from the Settle & Carlisle line, and it has a view. So get an early start so my parents can drive me to the start point near Thwaite, bouncing up Birkdale and down to the head of Swaledale, and the hot weather continues so the pace does not need to be too quick, I'd measured the walk at 11 miles and guess 5 hours to the other side.

Spring Jollies: Day Two

Great Shunner Fell: Thwaite to Hardraw.  8.5 miles

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