Stoodley Pike 01 August 2010

Finally I did a walk I’ve had dreams of doing for years. Namely to walk along the ridge from the Pike to Chris’s house. I parked in the spot just below her house and took the path that goes up behind it and goes through Knowle Farm with its cattery, hens and peacocks. Continued to cross the Pennine Bridleway and then 400m further on took a very indistinct left fork to take me to the far corner of Gaddings Reservoir. I duly climbed the steps to check on the water level and it was not too bad, nothing like some of the reservoirs I’ve seen of late. Walked along the top parapet to the small beach at the corner and then along the wall of what looks like an ex reservoir. This then follows a drain along the edge of the cliff and basically wiggles around with the contour. The path eventually joins the Pennine Way on which it remains until Stoodley Pike. I could see over to Withens Clough reservoir which looked nearly empty.
I hardly saw anyone apart from a few people around the Pike. It took me just over 2 hours to reach the pike. I had a drink and then set off straight back as I was hungry and had weirdly forgotten to bring anything at all to eat. I made a good fast pace back. I had a small chat with a bloke just near Gaddings and then found he was behind me and there was no-one else in sight and this gave me the willies. I suppose it’s because it’s quite a lonely area. I set off across the indistinct path again and saw the man was still behind me. However he did have quite a big belly and so I increased my speed and managed to lose him. I fairly raced back through Knowle Farm and down back to Lumbutts Road. The return trip took just over and hour and a half. I did think about whether it would be possible to do it by bike but reckon it would be pretty uncomfortable let alone getting the ruddy thing up the Pike in the first place.

Withens Clough
Lumbutts

Gaddings

[googlemaps https://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Stoodley+Pike+Monument,+Todmorden,+United+Kingdom&aq=0&oq=Stoodl&sll=54.52257,-3.381656&sspn=0.035667,0.120678&t=p&g=Ennerdale+Water,+Ennerdale+and+Kinniside,+Copeland+District,+United+Kingdom&ie=UTF8&hq=Stoodley+Pike+Monument,&hnear=Todmorden,+West+Yorkshire,+United+Kingdom&ll=53.715301,-2.07058&spn=0.015238,0.025749&z=14&output=embed&w=300&h=300]

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