Rombalds Moor: Steeton to Guiseley 20/07/13

Walking the High Moors of the West Riding and failing to do another traverse of Rombalds Moor would surely be an error, but having already crossed it twice this year and three times in total, does it still have a good trail to offer? A only 6 and a half miles long and 3 miles broad at its limits, you'd imagine that it would soon run short of fresh and unseen perspectives, but this is plainly incorrect as it offers an awful lot of things to see, so unlike the other moors of Lower Wharfedale which can only offer a couple of routes over their masses, Rombalds Moor can offer a whole book's worth, and the best way to get the full flavour is to walk the full length of the spine of the moor along a latitudinal route, rather than the traditional longitudinal ones. This had been intended as one of my shorter ambles, but after plotting it turns out to be my single longest walk on the High Moors so far, so it's probably for the best that this isn't another day of unrelenting sunshine and 25+C temperatures, and our first heatwave since 2006 may have passed, but the walking season certainly has not.

Rombalds Moor: Steeton to Guiseley  13.1 miles

Grassington Moor 13/07/13

For the first time in my walking odyssey, we meet a day when I actually considered not walking on the grounds of it being too hot, rather than too grim or wet, and having gone to bed for a night of restless sleep brought on by excesses of heat and a rough headache, walking prospects for the Saturday looked grim. On rising the following day, my mood was much more resolute, mostly because of the realisation that we are having a proper hot and clear summer for the first time since 2006, and it would be wise to make the best of it as we might go another seven years before the next one. Plus good long days are needed when you are still delving into upper Wharfedale, and whilst Grassington Moor is a much vaguer upland mass than the High Moors previously explored, I'm sure that my investigations will show that there is still plenty to see up there, so get the bag loaded with liquids and set out for the High Moors in the heart of Limestone Country, on the hottest day of the year, taking with you the idea that you might well be insane to do such a thing.

Grassington Moor, via Hebden Ghyll & Bycliffe Road: 12.6 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

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

The Dales Way #6: Burneside to Bowness-on-Windermere 31/05/13

Self at Burneside

To the last leg of the Dales way feeling somewhat sore, as the muscles in my lower thighs and the tendons in my knees seem to be objecting after all that fell-walking yesterday, I guess that must mean that I have given myself a decent workout. My Sis does often emphasise that walking is not a particularly useful method of keeping fit as you are doing a range of physical exertions which you body is programmed to do naturally, which is why she prefers hill-walking and cycling as they are things to really get the body going. I favour point-to-point walking though, as it allows you to experience the world at the most humane of paces, and over an extended period, you can see the incredible distances that you have travelled under entirely your own power, and that's where I am today, taking the ride out from our holiday house in Bowness, to make the 20 minute trip out to Burneside and I can be momentarily overwhelmed that I am so close to my destination. The strange caprices of the universe may have thrown foul weather and the extremes of ennui at me over the last three months, but right now I am less than 10 miles from completing a real long-distance trail, as well as my walk from home to Windermere.

Walking to Windermere: The Dales Way #6: Burneside to Bowness-on-Windermere. 9.8 miles