Morley to Sandal 28/05/23

13.6 miles, via Gilroyd, Burn Knolls, Topcliffe, Tingley Common, Black Gates, East Ardsley,

 Jaw Hill, Kirkhamgate, Bushey Beck, Lodge Hill, Shepherd Hill, Low Common, Ossett Spa,

  Spring End, Hall Cliffe, Horbury, Horbury Junction, Broad Cut, Calder Park,

 Pugney's Country Park, Sandal Castle, and Castle Grove Park.

Three rest days later, and after some extra fortification thanks to a whole family get together lunch at the Booth Wood inn on the Ripponden & Oldham Road (which looks like it could become a regular tradition), we ought to be ready to go again as we find ourselves back at home on the middle day of the Spring Bank Holiday weekend, with the prospect of a filled slate for the month for the first time this year, and the marker of 100 miles on the year finally falling into view, which prompts us to Sunday walking despite the gloom gathering once again, to reveal that all those bright days still haven't heated the aits all that much. Left to my own devices once more, there's no impetus to get going at a hurry, as we return to the business of finding new trajectories out of Morley towards every railway station within reasonable walking distance, not getting going until we've seen what's happening at our own local development, where work continues on the new platforms and footbridge, with new lampposts being added to the mix, before our trail starts, southbound for a change at 10.30am, rising up the steps flight to Albert Road, noting that some recent tree felling has revealed a new angle on the Miners Arms that hadn't been seen previously, before we strike off, along Clough Street, between terraces and semis down to Middleton Terrace. We seek the path among the local green spaces among the developments on the Gilroyd Mills site and among the closes around Magpie Lane, passing in leafy seclusion across Peacock Green and down to Topcliffe Beck before we start the sharp rise up Topcliffe Lane, towards Topcliffe farm, where much heavy agricultural machinery is arriving, and on around the West Ardsley colliery site, with its tramway embankments still visible, before we pass through the Capitol Park office complex again, dropping down to meet the A653 Dewsbury Road which is crossed by the Highway Agency maintenance depot and the site of the lost Tingley station.

Rumination: Spring Jollies & Planet Spotting

Blogging with a View, in Scarborough.

Sometimes, the value of a week away from home really cannot be understated and before we press on into the High Season, it's worth pausing for a brief moment to contemplate just how good getting away from it all has been for me at the end of May, completely breaking away from all that's going on in my regular life and work in Leeds, and putting some considerable mental and physical distance between it and me, allowing me to properly unwind after some testing weeks and to allow me to get back into a creative mindset that had almost fallen way to the point of irredeemability, restoring my belief that I will be able to continue pursing the hobbies that I've invested so much into over the last decade. Peace and Quiet is wholly under-rated need in this age of almost constant activity, and we really managed to find that on this break away, keeping away from all the disturbances that you might expect when staying in a seaside town, which we were only just doing, as our let was to be found about three miles out from Scarborough town centre, right on the edge of the Throxenby and Newby estates, and looking over the hillsides of the North Yorkshire Moors, where the River Derwent and Scalby Beck rise, on an urban country lane where there was little traffic to be had outside of commuter hours, allowing us all the silence that we needed to allow us to unwind. Thusly, across all my days off the trail, we had time in the mornings and evening to get busy with catching up on almost two months worth of blogging, which you wouldn't know from the timestamps on these posts, but anyone who's been following me for a while should know that my time-keeping is a complete tissue of lies, and that I work better when away from my own desk, despite it being set up for my needs with an appropriately adjustable chair, leading me to conclude that I do my best work when sat at a dining table with an uncomfortable seat that needs to be padded with random cushions, working in a posture that surely couldn't be doing my back, neck or arm joints any favours. 

The Cinder Track #2 - Ravenscar to Whitby 24/05/23

11.9 miles, via Ravenscar Brickworks, Peak Alum Quarry, Brow Alum Quarry, Stoupe Brow,

 Howdale Wood, Allison Head Wood, Fyling Old Hall, Ramsdale Beck, Fyling Thorpe,

  Robin Hood's Bay, Bay Ness, Rain Dale, Hawsker Bottoms, Hawsker, Stainsacre,

 Cock Mill Wood, Larpool Wood, Larpool Viaduct, and Prospect Hill. 

NB: Historical Reminiscences are in Italics.

Long Distance Trail
Means Selfies!
#2 at Ravenscar

Two rest days are spent, to useful creative extent, and for getting ourselves out of our holiday let for a while to see the sights of Scarborough, so that when we land on Wednesday Morning we are feeling ready to go once more, not having to head out to early as the Parental Taxi takes me up the bouncy coast road to the top of the Ravenscar headland once again so that we might start the notionally downhill back half of this rail trail, and after getting dropped off at 10am, My Mum can head off to reconnoitre the finish Line and I can prepare myself to immediately head into a landscape where I walked purposefully, on a school trip. for possibly the first time in my life. The trail for today starts on the pavements, as the railway vanishes underground and inaccessible, so we are compelled to trace Station Road around the site of the resort that wasn't, with only the Raven Hall at the corner enduring, which marks the apex of a walk that my 10 year old self did with a school party whilst on a residential week at the Boggle Hole Youth Hostel back in 1985, which might have been my first experience of sustained uphill walking, which my little legs and under-developed brain were completely unprepared for, making what was intended as a bonding opportunity for many kids, gathered from about the city and county of Leicester, in a new school turn into something of a nightmare for me as I was dropped off the walking party and had to toil along the last long uphill stretch all by myself. Nearly 38 years on, I'm much better prepared, not least as we're headed downhill from here, tracing the Cleveland Way route down from the village to the amazing view over Robin Hood's Bay to the north, before we join the trackbed and double back through the over growth to spy the northern portal of Ravenscar Tunnel (notoriously hated by railwaymen for its tight curvature and foul atmosphere), which appears intact and dry, making it a sad omission from the Cinder Track, which starts its long decline away from the line's 200m summit as we resume our north-westerly push into a sea of gorse that clings above the long fall down to the sea, into a landscape that appears wild but is actually one where industry has scarred the cliffs, found as we approach the complex at the Peak Alum Quarry and Ravenscar Brickworks.

The Cinder Track #1 - Scarborough to Ravenscar 21/05/23

10.7 miles, via Falgrave, Woodlands, Gallows Field, Newby, Scalby, Burniston, Cloughton,

 Newlands Dale, Hayburn Wyke,  Staintondale, and Bent Rigg.

Long Distance Trail
means Selfies!
#1 at Scarborough

May time brings us Spring Jollies, and for the first time since 2019, we make tracks for somewhere further abroad than the Pennine Moors, as I'm feeling the need for a break away from home in every way, to clear my head and to continue getting my post-Covid self back into some sort of order, and a trip to the North Yorkshire coast seems to be the best way to go about that, especially as My Mum is still willing to taxi me around and drive into the relative unknown, while also enjoying her own period of time away, and basing ourselves in Scarborough allows me to approach the coastal trail that I've had in mind for a while, namely The Cinder Track on the old Scarborough & Whitby railway line. It's notably too long a haul at 21+ miles to attempt in a single shot, but very manageable when divided into two pieces, established as a multi use track following the line's closure in 1965, a relatively minor line with the NER's catalogue, opened in 1885 and operating as only a single line along the stretch of the coast on the fringes of the North Yorkshire Moors, not really serving any major centres of population and never being particularly profitable, while also featuring awkward switchback junctions at both ends of its length, some long and steep gradients and major feats of engineering along its permanent way. It feel like the sort of excursion that I need as my body still works out its post-Covid issues, requiring no navigation and just enough of a workout to ensure that I don't shamble my way through it, and after so many weeks of changeable weather, which have felt like Winter has endured for a month longer than normal, pushing April Showers deep into May, it looks like we are going to be blessed with a whole week of sunshine while we here as clear skies are forecast for the entire break, allowing us to bask as we go, despite the low air temperatures and the probability of persistent on-shore sea breezes, which will provide the healthy sea air that we need.

Morley to Horsforth 13/05/23

11.4 miles, via Valley Mills, White Rose, Beeston Park Side, South Beeston, Beeston, 

 Elland Road, Lowfields, Wortley Rec, New Wortley, HMP Leeds, Botany Bay, Burley, 

  Burley Park (station), Headingley (station), Queenswood, Morris Wood, Spen Lane, 

   West Park, Ireland Wood, Clayton Wood, Cookridge Hospital, and Tinshill. 

It's not really related to what we're doing today, as we already lack trains going through Morley due to another engineering possession and there's another train strike happening this weekend too, but on 11th May it was announced that Trans Pennine Express were not getting their franchise renewed, which is a rare bit of good news for us travellers to hear after many months (and years?) of their failure to maintain services and self induced industrial strife, which means we might have a competent operator taking on the North Country's premier express services once the mainline upgrade is finally completed in the 2036-41 window. Anyway, the good start to May continues as we rise to another Saturday trail, hopeful that the early gloom will shift before too long as we target a new trail from home to my local Old Country and beyond, starting out from Morley station at 10.15 am and heading down the Valley Road path with only the most cursory of glances being given to the deliveries of aggregate as I'm actually growing bored of spotting local freight trains now, heading on down by the Gasworks and Valley Mills site to strike for the fields beyond, rising over the false ridge and equestrian fields that have Cotton Mill beck concealed beneath it, and down again on the Millshaw Beck side. Land by the gas plant and exposed stream ahead of the staff car park at the south end of the White Rose centre, where we pass across the access road, and the A6110 Ring Road carefully, to progress up the side of Dewbury Road as to comes down the hill, rising up towards the railway bridge and the path to Stank Hall farm, passing up by the side of the former GNR Hunslet Goods line and soon enough find ourselves in the exact same part of Beeston Park Side that we visited last weekend, by old St David's and coming up to the Tommy Wass corner, where we'll swap sides to progress north rather than east (or in reality, South). 

Morley to Woodlesford 07/05/23

9 miles, via Daisy Hill, Broad Oaks, White Rose, Beeston Park Side, Brown Hill, 

 Middleton Circus, Sharp Lane Plantation, New Forest Plantation, Robin Hood, 

  Haighside Wood, Rothwell Haigh, and John O'Gaunts.

The long Coronation bonus bank holiday weekend is a most welcome arrival, not that I'm at all engaged with the on-going shenanigans for KC3, aside from the Musicks, but more so that it gives me an extra day to rest up and get busy housework-wise, before we get back to the business of walking on Sunday, having had three whole weeks off the trail since last my last venture, and it's just as well that my scheming for the next phase of season 12 is to feature walking from home on previously unseen trajectories, as we've got two whole weekends of engineering possessions on the Leeds - Huddersfield line, which means there's no quick way to get out of (or back to) Morley, even if I wanted one. So we start from Morley station in a familiar fashion, departing at 10.15am and rising with the path above the cliff above the carpark to observe how the platforms have been built up on the new station site and to see that the support columns for the new footbridge have been installed, sure to arrive during the line closure in June, I'd figure, while there's more aggregate being delivered by rail which does get you wondering where it's all going, and this all needs to be observed from the green space on Seven Hills Way too, just to get the reverse angles from the rock cliff above the new station. We get going properly by rising up to Daisy Hill and setting off to the northwest, to find that a new rough track has been gouged out beside the path from the A643 down to Gasworks Crossing, though its not apparent of this is for railway work or future suburban development reaching down from Laneside, but the feeling is we'll have to enjoy the fields of Broad Oaks while they still endure, heading up through the farm to observe the growth at White Rose station on the other side of the hill, where the lift shaft tower on the south side has started to be assembled, to be seen from the footbridge path as a Kestrel buzzes the local wildlife.

Rumination: Returning to the Support Bubble

The Following is For Reference Only.

One year ago, on the very same weekend at the end of April, I made the second of my trips to Manchester with My Good Friends from Calderdale, for beers, food and the music of RVW, which marked the final collapsing of the public social interaction bubble which had been forcibly imposed in March 2020 and which I chose to maintain for more than three years, and at the remove of 12 months I find myself at an entirely different philosophical place than I did when the passing of the Covid Pandemic seemed to have happened, almost entirely due to the lingering after effects of my own infection, six months ago. This time around, I'm ripping it up to Mytholmroyd and Manchester again on Saturday afternoon to enjoy a long weekend in the company of my still enduring Support Bubble, even though the wider climates have completely moved on, as a sociable weekend with them is good reason to take time out from the walking year and get in some proper R'n'R after the third stalling of my walking year, not that there will be too much activity going on as it's been a tiring few months for all, and friendly ears will be leant as we chat about enduring the effects of a post-Covid syndrome and living with CFS (which I really hope isn't the path I'm on). Chatter over food and wine, and whatever sports are on the TV, is all very well, but we also need additional entertainments, and the Sunday os the focus for these, as my visit manages to coincide with the Cragg Vale festival which sees the Cragg Road being closed for the morning as many local runners and cyclists take the opportunity to run and ride the length (or at least part of) the longest continuous road ascent in England, and back again, and these energetic feats need to be observed as we stroll up the valley as far as Lower Clough Fold before we get to the real meat of the May Day weekend. This sends us in the direction of the Bridgewater Hall, where an afternoon concert brings us the Poulenc Organ Concerto and Saint-Saens Symphony #3 (avec Orgue) as performed by the Halle Orchestra for one of the loudest, and busiest shows, that we've seen in a long while, where the opportunity is also presented for beer and food at Society, where Vocation Brewery still having a thriving business with a surprisingly diverse clientele, where three pints of their finest ales and pilseners can be consumed, along with Chicken Katsu Curry that literally hits all of the spots that it needs to.