Pennines – Page 10

Top Withens April 20th 2013

Cath and I met at the car park for the Walshaw Dean reservoirs. We had a great day planning how we are going to teach one day navigation courses on a nice walk. We walked to Top Withens and returned via White Hill and Horrodiddle.

The lower Walshaw Dean reservoir has been emptied and there were BT men doing things with poles. I thought they were putting them in but we later found they were taking them out.

There are plenty of possible teaching points on this walk. We cleverly managed to miss our path just as we were talking about times when we’ve missed our path. You could not make it up! However because we do really know what we are doing, we were able to recover ourselves very quickly.

We met a keeper and this prompted us to consider how much we know about managing moorland habitats. There are several wide strips of cut heather in and amongst the grouse butts. The grouse butts have all been done up with decking. We also saw a fair bit of burnt heather and were able to work out that it was old burns. That said, a chunk of moor on my way home from Burnley on Wednesday was on fire on the road leading up to Blackstone Edge from Littleborough so it must be quite dry despite all the snow and snow melt.

I set Cath a challenge to find a boundary stone which is hard to see and which I’d set myself the last time I walked this area. Cath was of course spot on. Memo: must make it harder next time!

We lunched at Top Withens. This is an odd ruin with a plaque on it saying that it’s thought of as being Wuthering Heights but actually bears no resemblance to the description in the text. I subjected Cath to a short rendition of the Kate Bush song. But the best Wuthering Heights is this unforgettable semaphore version.

We took about 5 hours for the walk which was about 14 kilometres. The road that goes around from Hebden to Slack Top is still closed, and the diversion forces you through Heptonstall so we stopped on the way back and went to the really nice tea shop where we had some fab chocolate brownie and bought some goodies.

P1010588 — Cath with lambo in background

P1010580 — I liked this one despite the 2 people in bottom right corner

P1010577 — View to Haworth from Top Withens, lots of tourists searching for Heathcliffe

P1010574 — One of the Walshaw Dean reservoirs

P1010601 — Blackstone Edge reservoir on my way home

Please visit Map and Compass and learn how to interpret a map with me and my navigation partner, Cath.

Cold bike and hot (first ever) jog

Sat 16th March

Chris and I met just below the White House and cycled along the reservoirs to the point where you can see Gaddings reservoir. It was bitterly cold despite all the gear and I had a bad case of white finger which always makes me panic slightly. This was our first bike outing together this year so we kept it short and flat. On the return stretch we were going into the wind and we both felt quite weak with using muscles we’d forgotten existed. By the time we got back I had not only white toe but white foot even though I couldn’t see it, I couldn’t actually feel it either. We tried the White House for a warming cup of hot chocolate or even a snack but to no avail as they were just closing so we whizzed down to the best named Moorcock which I’m sure is some harmless wee birdie from these parts but allows me to indulge in teenage humour. This pub was open and we got hot tomato soup (bit odd) for me and spicy burger for Chris all washed down with a pint of Peroni for her and half of Landlord for me. Then it was suddenly time to go and pick up Carol from the renal unit and to be ribbed by the nurses for boozing whilst she was being a “poor invalid”. Poor invalid, my foot, stuffing herself full of biscuits, sleeping and reading, life of Reilly!!

Sun 17th March

I’ve bitten the bullet and have just returned nice and hot from my first ever jog. This has been a mental leap for me to do, partly I felt it would be bad for my knees, partly I thought I would look a berk, and partly I wasn’t sure I could do it.

I did 28 minutes which got me to our nearest reservoir and back, this was a total of 2 miles. I ran one minute and walked the next so as not to kill myself on the first outing. Now I know what’s possible in half an hour I can build it up. It did take a long time for me to get hot but it was pretty cold out today. I even picked up some litter. Runkeeper tells me I’ve burnt 223 calories. It will take a while for me to be able to run a mile in 12 minutes which is my goal but at least I now know that it’s possible. Hooray.

Please visit Map and Compass and learn how to interpret a map with me and my navigation partner, Cath.

First bike ride February 17th 2013

My first bike ride of the year and since the terrible flu. It’s 8 weeks since that started and I’m only now feeling about back to normal but massively unfit.

Another lovely day so just to get into the swing of it, a very short ride for about 40 minutes or so covering about 8km. There is a stone circle marked on the map near us and we’ve been talking about it checking it out for a while. You can see it from a distance from Ringstone reservoir but to get to it you take a longer track round. However it’s in a cultivated field which had just been sown so it wasn’t possible to go up to it and although the circle is a noticeable shape, it seems what stones are there are very small or flat.

Very glad I managed to get the motivation to go out. It was bitterly cold today so I wore a t shirt, a merino baselayer, a micro fleece and an insulated jacket. On my feet I tested out cycling shoes with neoprene overshoes, these worked very well to keep my feet warm but took forever to get on and made me so hot I had to take my jacket and helmet off during the procedure. On my hands I wore my new Christmas present from Chris cycling gloves which feel hot when you put them on indoors and which did the job brilliantly. At last warm hands on the bike!

Please visit Map and Compass and learn how to interpret a map with me and my navigation partner, Cath.

Littleborough 16th February 2013

Just a short nearly 6 mile walk around the hills above Hollingworth Lake with Babs. Lovely day for it. We wandered about on paths that Babs knew and it was nice not to have to navigate. We went under the motorway and did some of the route Chris and I have done on bikes. I was feeling very tired and out of condition so it was good to be out in the air and shoot the breeze with Babs.

[googlemaps https://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Hollingworth+Lake+Rowing+Club,+Lake+Bank,+Littleborough,+Littleborough,+Littleborough,+UK&aq=0&oq=hollin&sll=53.646141,-2.093367&sspn=0.145715,0.482712&g=Littleborough,+UK&ie=UTF8&hq=Hollingworth+Lake+Rowing+Club,+Lake+Bank,+Littleborough,+Littleborough,&hnear=Littleborough,+United+Kingdom&t=p&ll=53.631509,-2.10165&spn=0.030537,0.051498&z=13&iwloc=A&output=embed&w=300&h=300]

Please visit Map and Compass and learn how to interpret a map with me and my navigation partner, Cath.

Winter walks January 2013

Saturday 12th January 2013
Chris and I did a quick up and down Stoodley Pike. For me this was a warm up for the following day. I coughed all the way up to the pike and it was bitterly cold in the wind. But lovely to be out and walking again after what felt like a long gap. The last real exercise I had was at the end of November on the bitterly cold bike ride from Todmorden to Mytholmroyd in the Valley of Lights. Then I was floored by the evil flu from hell and only went back to work on 7th January. Lovely to actually feel well despite the cough.

Chris and furry ear


The mighty prong of Stoodley Pike!

Mincing! I did exactly same pose when I was 19, the one and only time I’ve skied.

[googlemaps https://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Stoodley+Pike+Monument,+Todmorden,+United+Kingdom&aq=1&oq=stoodley&sll=53.741347,-2.012077&sspn=0.018173,0.060339&t=p&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]

Sunday 13th January 2013
I met Cath at Hebden Bridge railway station and we drove up to Widdop. The road past Maureen and John’s house is shut off so we had to go through Heptonstall but this was lovely for a change. The road to Widdop was very frosty.
We set off and basically did a 6 mile circuit that took in Reap’s Cross which is missing its crossbar, then Raistrick, up to the old scout hut, over to the big reservoir, around it and back along the permissive path by the side of it and back to the car, the last bit along the road.
Cath wanted to see a nice bridge that she remembered from when she’d done the Pennine Way and it was still there. We had an early lunch at Reap’s Cross (re-erected in 2002 by the people who live in the hills) and a second lunch much later on.
Fab day with lots of good conversation.

Cath’s bridge

The FBs

Cath sporting new Rab jacket and new mountain cap at Reap’s Cross

Ruin at Raistrick

[googlemaps https://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Widdop+Reservoir&aq=0&oq=widdop&sll=53.715302,-2.070545&sspn=0.036369,0.120678&t=p&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Widdop+Reservoir&ll=53.792387,-2.105684&spn=0.01521,0.025749&z=14&iwloc=A&output=embed&w=300&h=300]

Please visit Map and Compass and learn how to interpret a map with me and my navigation partner, Cath.