Short walk as part of our drive for Map and Compass walks to start near train stations. A good cafe helps. I’m told Milly’s is good but have yet to try it. It’s veggie and vegan.
I went up from the Methodist church to Stake Lane then found barbed wire across the right of way. Next a sign pointing away from the right of way which went through someone’s garden. I corrected the sign and went through the garden. Got to the old quarry and soon found its Millennium Garden which was nice and peaceful although chilly. I had my hot chocolate there. Back via Miry Lane which wasn’t and Stake Lane which was miry and an old track. Not a long walk but will be a good one for our punters.
Some fabulous light on the way home.
Please visit Map and Compass and learn how to interpret a map and use a compass with me and my navigation partner, Cath.
I drove for 10 minutes from our house on the road towards Oldham and parked up on the A640. I then walked the Pennine Way to the A62 and back. On the way I had a good view over the Castleshaw Reservoirs. When Carol was recovering from her brain haemorrhage we used to walk round the reservoirs and sometimes go up to the Roman fort. It’s quite a big fort and it’s good because not many people go there and it’s only got one notice board telling you what’s what.
I met a man who was training for the Spine Challenger (at first I wondered if this was a charity thing for people with back problems) which is a 108 mile race from Edale to Hawes to be done in 60 hours. He told me he does ultra marathons. I’ve looked this up, it seems to mean longer and harder. Anyway he was certainly going at quite a lick and was aiming for Hebden Bridge. I was therefore a bit surprised when he took off on the path to Oldham! I then spotted him coming across the bog on a diagonal to where I was (on the right path for Hebden), I was nice to him and he told me he had a map and had done a navigation course recently! I should have given him one of our leaflets….but he was off like a whippet.
The following week I started from the same spot and walked north instead. It wasn’t a very exciting walk! I got to the main road that goes from Ripponden to Oldham near the M62 and crossed it into a big refuse area next to a mobile phone mast. I cannot understand how people thought this was a nice place to sit in their cars and look at the view. Acres of crap, the mast and the motorway, lovely Sunday out! I went as far as the motorway and crossed it and then came back the same way. I had to pass some boys throwing stones at nothing in particular. Felt quite depressed after this walk.
Please visit Map and Compass and learn how to interpret a map and use a compass with me and my navigation partner, Cath.
There are 2 places called Kirkland within about 40 miles of each other, one is to the west of the M6 and one to the east. The one I was headed for is near Penrith. Unfortunately I didn’t check where I’d programmed my sat nav to take me and although I did know I was going just east of Penrith, somehow I was so absorbed in listening to Bag of Bones written and read by Stephen King that I barely noticed that I’d passed Penrith.
Once I’d actually arrived at Kirkland number 2, I was about 2 and a bit hours later than I’d intended to be so this had to mean cutting my walk time back a bit. The original idea was for a circular walk taking in Cross Fell and back to the hamlet. I parked near the church and made my way up the fell. Straight away there is a sign mentioning that the path is part of Pennine Journey, this is a reference to Alfred Wainwright’s book of the same name. AW made his journey at the end of August/beginning of September 1939. He makes scant reference to world events and that’s understandable given his surroundings. He takes off to walk a good chunk of the Pennines as far up as Hadrian’s Wall clad in what I would say sounds like inappropriate clothing and footwear. There are accounts of the hob nails coming up through the boots. He only has one handkerchief and is suffering from a cold [this reminds me of Victoria Wood sketch where the prospective medical student is being interviewed and is asked “what do you think Othello was suffering from?” to which she brightly answers “he might have been suffering from a cold”!] Despite the time of year, the weather is awful and he gets it all. The most annoying scene in the book is when AW turns up at a farmhouse where a flood has taken place. Instead of offering to help out, all AW does is demand cups of tea from a woman who clearly has enough on her plate already. This narration did not endear me to AW but his walk probably did inspire and helped to lead to the formation of the Pennine Way in the 1960s.
My walk was just a fragment of AW’s. The route up the flank of Cross Fell is mostly along the Corpse Road. I felt really sorry for the poor people and more likely the poor horses who would have had to carry coffins up this track, the track is good in a lot of places particularly as far as the old mine workings but where it disappears it goes into deep bog. I managed to keep out of this and navigated my way through it but it wasn’t very delightful.
Although Cross Fell is high at 893 metres, it never feels as if you are climbing up a mountain, there are no steep sections, everything rises gently. It took me 2 hours and 20 minutes to reach the top. The top is a very broad plateau and on a lovely day would give views to Scotland, all the Lake District and so on. On a not very lovely day, it was just very cold (still some snow lying about) and very windy. I saw 7 people on my travels, 2 pairs of geezers, and 3 fell runners.
At the top I wolfed down the remains of my lunch and decided to return the way I had come, this was my compromise due to the reduced amount of time at my disposal. The weather was coming in and I found I didn’t really like Cross Fell very much, it had felt like a battle to get up it and so all I wanted to do was to get down.
I got back to the car in a record 1 hour and 40 mins which was nearly half the time it had taken me to get up. Partly this was because there were lots of long grassy sections which were virtually rock free and gently sloping, this enabled me to run for as long as they lasted so although I’m not a fell runner by any means and doing this with big boots and rucksack was not ideal, it was great fun and very liberating. I’ve run 3 times a week for a year and it feels like it’s really paid off and I was impressed with my stamina. I managed to avoid the bog on the way back down by sticking more rigidly to the Corpse Road. So even though it’s not quite long enough to qualify as a QMD, I would still say this was one as it was challenging, involved some navigational techniques and I learnt some things about myself.
Please visit Map and Compass and learn how to interpret a map with me and my navigation partner, Cath.
This is Kirkland FellCross FellIt’s a standard, I love these, looking towards ScotlandGolf ball on Great Dun Fell
Chris and I met up in the cafe at the station and took on liquid supplies. We walked the route I’d done in September for the Walk and Ride festival. This is the 5th time I’ve done this route or a variant of it and it still pleases.
The first section is a good warm up climb to the mobile phone mast through deciduous woodland. Then a short second climb across agricultural land sometimes with cows but not this day. Along Pinnacle Lane, past the goats and then up another short steep section at Kilnshaw Farm to reach the moor.
How many goats?
We stopped for a break and then crossed the moor without incident, finding a direct path to Broadhead Clough Nature Reserve, just by following a “rough” bearing and the relatively obvious path. Oh well, things clearly change underfoot according to the season.
The nature reserve is managed by Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and is a delight, completely unspoilt and just lovely.
We tracked along the edge of the wood, some new signage and fences have been put up which help to cross what was a quite tricky boggy section. Through the next wood and then down a coniferous wood to Daisy Bank. Down the stream and then onto the hard track which took us to Wood Top and back down to the station.
A lovely walk in springlike weather with the best of company.
Please visit Map and Compass and learn how to interpret a map with me and my navigation partner, Cath.
I met Cath and Brian on the main road between Todmorden and Burnley.
The walk is one that Cath is planning to put in her navigation walks book. We set off to go up Thieveley Pike which we did via a different route than the one I did in May. We traversed what seemed like a big quarry that was well overgrown, Brian took a high route and Cath and I crossed over and up the middle and Brian got there first so his route was probably a bit easier after the first steep part.
We reached the pike and the aim was to follow the Burnley Way, it seemed much harder than I expected and the path eventually dwindled away. Cath called a lunch break and it was then I found my back was really hurting so I took some painkillers. We also worked out what we had done and this enabled us to relocate the Burnley Way very quickly.
Then back down to the road and across to follow a path along the other side of the valley which got us back to the road so we only had to use that along the pavement for a short distance.
Pendle HillStoodley Pike in the distanceGrass patchworkNew windmill going up on Todmorden Moor.
Please visit Map and Compass and learn how to interpret a map with me and my navigation partner, Cath.
