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

Ravensthorpe to Holmfirth 14/06/14

The good news is that the latest 40th birthday celebration on 7th June went off in a much more predictable manner than the previous one, with 30+ people descending on AK's house to enjoy afternoon tea, a larger crowd than I'm usefully sociable in, but enough familiar faces to keep me company before staying on late for pizza and drinks, altogether a good day, enjoyed by all. The bad news is that the following weekend has me dropping Wild Boar Fell off my schedule again, as I can see no way to fit it into a day that also has me invited out for a dinner date with a group of my colleagues, attending the restaurant which we had been due to visit at Christmas last year before being curtailed by a power cut. Travelling out to the bottom corner of Cumbria and then being back in time for a 6.30pm table seems beyond my scheming, even with FoSCL doing the organisational work, lateness will either ruin it or I'll arrive still reeking and sore after topping a 700m+ hill. The later considerations come down to cost, as a rail trip and a meal seems like a lot of green to drop on one day, especially with another trip coming on the next weekend, and the weather finally looks not really good enough for a trip that really would deserve to be a year highlight. So on Friday evening, we look to the reserve list instead, wondering where else in Kirklees has avoided my gaze so far, and that's where a wander to Holmfirth drops in, for it's the notable town in the county that I have still never visited in all my years up country.

Raventhorpe to Holmfirth, via Lepton, Kirkburton & Brockholes.  12.1 miles

Morley to Leeds (version 3.0) 01/06/14

Every walking season so far seems to hit a point in the Spring where my early season enthusiasm drops off and the need to take some time out from the trail comes down, mid-May last year and mid-June in 2012, and sure enough, at the end of May this year, my enthusiasm falls off once again. It's mostly the need to have a Saturday morning lie in this time around , and not having much desire for the planned trail along the Barnsley canal, thus ending the month with only 7 days walked when I had hoped for 9, but the need this time is more the need for a rest, and knowing that June is going to be a much quieter month, some time out feels earned. However, the change of months has some excellent weather upon it, and that means the weekend can't go to waste, and with a trio of walking targets still outstanding from my last walk, it takes only the slightest amount of shuffling to find a fresh route to take in a Sunday morning stroll through the industrial heritage of Leeds once again.

Morley to Leeds, via Middleton Park & Hunslet  7.6 miles

Morley to Leeds (again) 26/05/14

Bank Holiday Monday rolls around and I'm back home again, eager for a stretch whilst the sun is out and the skies clear, a surprisingly good day after a sequence of four grotty ones, and yet I'm not feeling that well-disposed towards the world, no a particularly happy camper at all. There has been a shift in this nation that I do not approve of at all, one which marks a particularly unpleasant change that this country has happily avoided for several decades, and I get the feeling that the discourse is going to get rather more poisonous in the coming years, not a good places to be for sure. Not that this has anything to do with walking of course, but right now I'd really like to disappear far away from the world as it is to gather my thoughts and harden my resolve, but there's no option for a distant retreat as I need to work on Tuesday, instead taking a walk into the town again, happy that my city has retained a small amount of sanity in these testing times.

Morley to Leeds, via Middleton Park & Hunslet Dewsbury Road  6.3 miles

Hadrian's Wall Path #3: Chesters to Steel Rigg 21/05/14

Self at Chesters

Moving on swiftly as the Spring weather still has no idea of how to be consistent, and since I travelled for holidays it has been a pattern of three good days and one misty one, to be followed by one more good day and two completely awful ones, so naturally hay has to be made whilst the sun is shining. I'm pretty sure that today is going to be pretty rough, I'm still feeling sore after putting down over 30 miles over the preceding three days and I'm certain that some part of my right leg is going to suffer badly, but I need to use the bright and clear weather as today sees the transition out of rural Northumberland and into the high lands. When I made my first steps on the Hadrian's Wall Path in 2011, it was a cold and glum day in July, and all my intentions after that were to travel into the most dramatic landscape of the path and onto the ridges of the Whin Sill when the sun was shining, and as Wednesday is looking like the only day that that will happen, let us make to the trail ASAP.

Hadrian's Wall Path #3: Chesters to Steel Rigg  12.1 miles

Hadrian's Wall Path #2: Heddon on the Wall to Chesters 20/05/14

Self at Heddon on the Wall

A satisfyingly huge Sunday dinner, and legs that felt like they needed an extra day of rest meant that the superb weather of Monday was not put to walking use, and dropping a day like this one is always a pity, even if you can find other entertaining distractions to fill your day, so for the day off we took a visit to the Corbridge Roman town, named Coria or Corstopitum, or some other variant depending on who you listen to. Only half a mile outside the contemporary settlement at the crossing point of Dere Street and Stanegate, it's an excellent example of a Roman town growing out of a 1st century AD military encampment that predated Hadrian's Wall into a significant urban centre that lasted for three centuries, before retreating into the landscape to be rediscovered in the 20th. It also shows up the fact that regardless of how grand a settlement may have been, the fragments that remain will often be of the most mundane parts, like the granary cellars, the drainage and cistern, and the military strong room, giving a sense of the basic nuts and bolts of Roman living. Additionally, unearthed inscriptions illustrate the sheer range of peoples that travelled and worked with the Roman empire, with Coria having been built and operated by people from such remote corners as Syria, Algeria and Romania, which proves that movement of labour in Europe is an ancient and historical phenomenon, not something to be considered as a modern evil perpetrated by the EU. Seriously folks, getting a Sense of History will expand your mind, and decrease your prejudices.

Hadrian's Wall Path #2: Heddon on the Wall to Chesters  16.3 miles

Hadrian's Wall Path #1: Wallsend to Heddon on the Wall 18/05/14

Self at Segedunum, Wallsend

Spring Jollies arrive and that's a cue to travel far from my normal walking comfort zone, and to utilise the generosity of my parents for travelling and boarding purposes, and it's to Northumberland we head, basing ourselves in Corbridge for my first National Trail, as I should feature at least one before my initial three year odyssey ends, and that is going to be the Hadrian's Wall Path. Established as a National Trail in 2003 and 73 miles long, it follows the coast to coast route of the Hadrian's Wall World Heritage Site, and as a geographical and historical feature, it really should not need an introduction, but I will provide one in case you haven't been paying attention. Constructed on the orders of the Roman Emperor Hadrian in AD122, it was an 80 mile long defensive border and customs facility between Roman Britannia and the troublesome provinces of Caledonia (subject of two unsuccessful military campaigns in the preceding century), marking one of the first established frontiers anywhere in the world and of the beginning of the end of the centuries of expansion of the Roman Empire. Now it endures as a fascinating historical curiosity which has left a band of remnants across a broad stretch of Northern England, which should demand the attention of anyone who has an interest in the ancient history of these islands.

Hadrian's Wall Path #1: Wallsend to Heddon on the Wall  15.8 miles