Skipton to Saltaire 20/10/18

16.6 miles, via Snaygill, Bradley, Farnhill, Kildwick, Cross Hills, Eastburn, Steeton, 

 Utley, Keighley (Beechcliffe & Aireworth), Riddlesden, East Riddlesden Hall, Sandbeds, 

  Crossflatts, Bingley (Five Rise, Priestthorpe, Ferncliffe, & Gilstead), Higher Coach Road, 

   Glenwood Estate, and Hirst Wood. 

Back on the trail after a usefully scheduled weekend off, used by travelling to see my good friends in Calderdale, and for having an outing to Vocation & Co in Hebden Bridge for a sociable sharing of beer and tacos, feeling somewhat fortunate that we dropped this past weekend as neither day brought weather that would be considered usefully walkable, but entirely seasonably predictable as the cloud and rain descended. So back we go to Airedale, determined to put an end on my long distance travels away from home, still finding myself challenged by the train strikes that are still afflicting us thanks to the ongoing Northern Trains - RMT beef, not giving us trouble as we ride out to Skipton, but giving us a pretty fixed deadline for the other end of the day as we head out at 9.40am, feeling that we might be about to experience one of those days where all the day's best weather was misplaced in the early hours of the day, in the miles distant from where we are actually walking. So get going at a relative clip as we've a lot of miles to put down in 6 hours, setting off down Black Walk, behind Morrisons on the old Cattle Market site, over Eller Beck and getting our panoramic view over the town before meeting Craven Street and passing around Tesco on the site of the former railway goods yard as this leads us past the proudly terraced edge of the town and onto Keighley Road, passing Skipton's cottage hospital as we go. It'll be road walking for the bulk of the day, following main Airedale road for a fair chunk of it, passing out of the town under the bridge of the Grassington branch line and on into that odd little cluster of terraces around a former mill site, squeezed into the space between the Leeds & Liverpool canal and the railway line, before the way forward opens out somewhat and we run on past the Snaygill industrial estate, which extends all the way down to the A6131 - A629 junction, and the Rendezvous hotel, which fits its considerable bulk into a really rather small plot. We depart the main road by the Bay Horse Inn, joining the minor Skipton Road as it ascends over the canal by the Snaygill boatyard and on into the fields, which gives us view to the rising hills on the far side of Airedale, with Ramshaw, Fiddlers Hill and Gib Side rising most prominently as we pass the cottages clustered here to absorb the grand view. It looks like the day is taking a turn for the better as we rise over the lane's crest, which gets a confirmation as we meet the sunshine raining down from the south, an unseasonal wall of heat that makes for a feeling of being over-dressed for Autumn, and that gives the spirits a lift as Low Bradley reveals itself in the declivity between Skipton Moor and Farnhill Moor, passed by the major roads but not without its own suburban growth around a stone built and pretty ancient feeling heart.

Bolton Abbey to Burnsall via Troller's Gill & Grimwith Reservoir 07/10/18

15 miles, via Riddings Hill, Barden (Beck, Scale, Tower & Bridge), How Gill, Skyreholme, 

 Troller's Gill, Appletreewick Pasture, Grimwith Fell, Grimwith Reservoir, Gate Up, 

  Hartlington Moor, Hartlington Raikes, and Hartlington.

The last viably warm weekend of the year comes around, and it's not feeling as good as some that we've had in previous seasons, as if Autumn in 2018 feels determined to disappoint us, and we're going again on Sunday as the Saturday weather doesn't look so clever and the appeal of a lie in after an extremely testing week as work is strong, and we can be quietly overjoyed that the road up Wharfedale is open again, which allows us to take the bus ride up to Bolton Abbey without having to take any stressful diversions. The additional bonus is that travelling on the Sunday gives us an extra half hour on the schedule, which is most welcome as a 15 mile tilt over some rough and remote paths in only six hours would certainly be a bit of a test as the cooling days of October start to take their grip, and despite the waning season, the #874 seems to be busier that ever as it's not even standing room only all the way to our start line, somewhat delayed as we disembark at 10.40am, but still with plenty of time available to complete our trip. Our first hour will follow the B6160 as we head north to Barden, setting off behind the Priory Gatehouse that has been gradually redeveloped into Bolton Hall, passing the tope edge of Priory church's grounds before rising with the path above the dramatic loop of the Wharfe and meeting the Cavendish Memorail Fountain, where we split away from the Bolton Abbey estate to continue against the oncoming traffic past the farmstead at the roadside and above the riverside car parking fields. Thankfully the Sunday traffic is light and the sightlines keep progress un-fraught as we elevate further to see the company of hills on the fringes of Hazlewood Moor and Barden Fell rising above the river valley, with North and South Nab, with Carncliff Top beyond, presenting a drama filled view that had been seen many times when riding the bus down Wharfedale, and one that need to be added to my walked experience list. This keeps us company as we progress past Cowpert Gill and Riddings farm, as we skirt Riddings Hill on the green south-eastern edge of Barden Moor, getting a truly fresh perspective on this quarter before the road descends markedly and views diminish as the road grazes the top edge of Strid Wood, where we pass more car parking and tourist facilities to keep the day trippers happy, sneaking a view west to the heart of the moorlands as the depression filled by Barden Beck approaches. The thing to see here is beyond the plantation as the road bottoms out, and that's the Nidd Aqueduct, making another of its appearances above ground, just south of where its castellated companion passes over the Wharfe, making a multi-arched passage over the beck before disappearing underground again on its long journey to Chelker reservoir and on towards Bradford, which I take many pics of, not really satisfied that they're better than the ones I once took from a moving bus.

The Washburn Valley (top half) 30/09/18

15 miles, from Swinsty Moor car park, via Fewston Reservoir, Blubberhouses, 

 Redshaw Gill, Thruscross Reservoir, West End, Capelshaw Beck, Holme Field, 

  Roundell's Allotment, Thruscross Dam, Limekiln Plantation, Blubberhouses, 

   Fewston Reservoir, Swinsty Reservoir, Spinksburn Lagoon, Swinsty Dam, 
    Swinsty Hall, and Swinsty Moor Plantation.

It's rather unfortunate that last Saturday, probably the best day of the declining Autumn, doesn't get walked as I've scheduled things around it that make it unusable, as I've got My Mum visiting for the first time in over a year due to My Dad having a week of experimental residential care, and her having a week of much needed respite, and while she does bring the Parental Taxi with herself, trying to put an extra 60 miles onto her Up Country journey to drop me off in the Washburn Valley is probably beyond my natural charm. So we have to go on Sunday, bussing it out on the very last day that #821 Nidderdale Rambler runs this year, and it would have been useful to know two months ago that the three scheduled Dalesbuses all deliberately pile up in Otley so that travellers from all over West Yorkshire might transfer between them, as that's knowledge that has no use at all beyond the end of September (remembering that the #874 goes through Otley would also have helped too, of course). So we finally get to our ride to the Washburn, as I get squeezed into the small single-decker that seems to be crammed full of people who've been travelling this route regularly, bouncing our way o'er hill and dale via Farnley, Norwood and Bland Hill to get to our start line at Swinsty Moor car park, between the pair of reservoirs in this quarter, and below Fewston's dam, where there are crowds out in force for an organised run around the Swinsty perimeter, and I need to take a facilities break before we set off at 10.30am, with a seven hour window of success ahead of us. Our circuit that's been 3+ years in the planning finally gets underway as we head north, down through the woods steeply on the path that soon arrives on the perimeter of Fewston Reservoir, and immediately we note that this will be a day with more company than many of its predecessors as the healthy exercisers, family strollers and dog walkers will be out in force in the lower portion of the dammed Washburn, which is quite a contrast to the quiet paths we found when first coming out here, back in 2004(?). Stroll around the first main inlet feeding the reservoir, which is still ridiculously low more than two months after this year's drought conditions ended, and take looks back towards the embankment dam, where the valve tower sits markedly above the waterline, before we press on, with views to the north/east bank being frequently shrouded by waterside foliage and overhanging trees as we move on to the second major inlet into the reservoir. this is where the various streams running off Blubberhouses Moor feed the reservoir, and the path rises sharply as we take a marked westwards turn, rising into the neighbouring plantation where that path appears to have been redirected away from below some crumbly cliffs, staying up high below the tree cover before meeting an unfriendly sharp descent to cross Thackray Beck as it runs in from the west, back on the original path route once again.

Addingham to Harrogate 22/09/18

17.5 miles, via West Hall, Low Moor, Langbar Moor, Middleton Moor Enclosure, 

 Gawk Hall Gate, Blubberhouses Moor, Gill Becks plantation, Beecroft Moor plantation, 

  Fewston Dam, Wydra, Penny Pot Lane, Knabs Ridge, Uniacke & Hildebrand Barracks, 

   Oakdale, and Low Harrogate. 

Now that Summer 2018 is consigned to history, and Autumn is underway, it's time to get back on the trail as I've got five walks that I definitely want to get done before this year's walking season runs out, and getting them fitted into eight weekends could be a challenge if the weather persists with its run of mediocrity and my wavering will to walk continues. I'd brought two walks to this weekend's plan, either traversing or transiting the Washburn Valley, and I'm going with the latter of those as the traverse requires a Sunday trip and the meteorological projection gave us a severe weather warning for it (which definitively hasn't come to pass, I might add), and thus we set course for the transit, as I'd noted a blank spot that ought to have been covered in my Wharfe to Nidd trips, and needs to be done this year as I'm not planning to walk again in this Lower Wharfedale company again for a while. So the X84 bus is ridden out to the top left corner of West Yorkshire for a not too early start from Addingham, disembarking at the Memorial Hall at 10.15am, hopeful that a later jump off might give the clouds a chance to dispiate to give us the sunny spells sort of day that we'd been promised, but all looks grey as we trace steps among the suburbia that has grown and blended in one of the county's most desireable dormitories, soon passing off Main Street and away from the shadow of Rombald's Moor, and joining Church Street and Bark Lane to pass through the oldest and prettiest corner of the village. Soon find the steep and angled path that leads down the wooded riverbank to pass over the suspension bridge over the Wharfe, and then head northwards across the riverside meadow under the shade of trees and beside the channel of the descending beck as we roll up on the complex of farm buildings and cottages at West Hall, finally breaking off from the path we've previously walked up to Beamsley Beacon when we meet the road, hitting an angled rise across the fields at the start of a 150m ascent up to the moorlands. The cows in the lower fields keep their distance but the sheep in the plots beyond get overly startled as I seek the path through the wooded cleft that contains the suggestion of another descending beck, and then it's on, uphill though the tree cover and into the rough pasture beyond, aiming uphill to a field corner to meet the enclosed green track that rises up from Nesfield, a path that's harder to find than you'd expect, despite its prominence on the map. We can look back to see Addingham spread out below at Wharfedale's angle, and up to the Beacon as it looms over the valley as we rise on, but the route to the moor is well concealed as we go, only becoming apparent as we enter the open fields of livestock below Moorcroft Farm, home to a lot more sheep that we will have to shoo away as we join the track and driveway around it to meet the lowest portion of the Low Moor.

Rumination: The End of Summer

Again, the Following is For Reference Only.

Remember Summer? and that hot blast of weather that lasted all the way from the top of the year to the end of July? when it felt like we might have lasting high temperatures and drought conditions previously unseen in our lifetimes? which made our working environments hellish but still provided days inspiring enough to head out to walk distant trails despite the risks of moorland fire and induced dehydration? Those days seem hopelessly far away now as we roll on to The End of Summer, which I had once considered my second favourite time of the year after the glorious days of May, which has lately come to be regarded as the time of the year when my inspiration levels fall off and I have to start revising my plans for the late season as I begin to run out of available weekends to use as the legs and brain feel the appeal of walking waning badly. My naïve and much younger walking self of six years ago was ready to use this weekend to start on five legs of the Calderdale Way, which seems a bizarre choice when regarded at this remove, while my contemporary, and supposedly more organised, self is looking at how to fill the remaining weeks of the year before my will to walk falls away or the weather gets too poor for me to want to be outside at all. It's all been a bit of a rough turn since August rolled around, as it feel like I've had a whole bunch of rum walking days as the weather turned to a more familiar atmosphere of constant inconsistency, though the continually unacknowledged truth of the matter is that across the period  I've had four good days out against three mediocre-to-poor ones. I guess that the inconsistent weather has left me with the feeling of it being cold and dull over the last seven weeks, when the reality has been that it has been wholly average, and my mood has been hampered more by my failures to get organised, by changing my walking plans for August which caused the delay and then cancellation of plans for six trips of traipsing around in Malhamdale. Still, you find me in particularly glum mood as the last weekend of Summer comes around, feeling ground down by the external pressures that have descnded during the last season, and not finding much in my personal, family or working lives that have brought me much joy, or will do in the immediate futrure, and when wedded to the aspects of the wider world, it gets me feeling anxious, that if I feel this bad now, how on Earth am I going to feel when I've got to face a three month traverse through The Dark Season?

Leicestershire Round #7 - Sutton Cheney to Newtown Linford 05/09/18

17.1 miles, via Bosworth Park, Market Bosworth, Carlton, Shackerstone (station), Odstone, 

 Nailstone, Bagworth, Thornton (Mill & Reservoir), Markfield, and John's Lee Wood.

Long Distance Trail means 

Selfies! #7 at the Hercules 

Revived, Sutton Cheney.

A relatively chilled couple of days drop in between my trekking days, with nothing more active than having My Sister and her family drop by for lunch while passing through on a cross country jaunt, and getting My Parents over to the church dinner club the following day, knowing that the gardening exploits are due once my walking days are finished, so I feel decently recharged once my second 17 mile jaunt of my Down Country break comes around. Unfortunately, after six clear runs to my start points on the Round, the seventh and final one is the longest trip of all, which forces us through Leicester's morning rush hour traffic, preventing a very early start and meaning that we don't get our jump off in Sutton Cheney until 9.05am, with the skies suggesting coming blueness in the west, but general grey pudding hanging over the rest of the county. Depart from the Hercules Revived public house (a name I really can't get enough of), and roll up Main Street, through a village that would surely glow red on a sunnier day thanks to all it construction in brick, passing the Old Hall that is plainly the most impressive structure in the village, running up as far as the Royal Arms Hotel, the other village pub that has a sideline as an actual hotel complex, and our route passes through its car park and into the fields beyond. Trace a bunch of boundaries as we tack to the northwest, which will be our trajectory for the next 5 miles, noting that we are passing though enclosures that were growing beans, judging by the quantity still on the ground post-harvest, rising towards Spring Wood and Woodhouse farm whilst feeling a light regret that the Round doesn't pass through Cadeby, a mile or so inside its path, where the Reverend Teddy Boston used to famously operate a narrow gauge railway in the Rectory Garden. The path leads us into Bosworth Park, once the extensive parklands of Bosworth Hall, seat of local benefactors, and general oddballs, the Dixie family, where we follow a tree lined avenue that leads among the open meadows and small spinneys, still looking the same as the would've a century ago,  for a solid half mile before we arrive in the public park at the top end. Meet the local exercisers and strollers here as our route tracks around the shaded memorial garden and the Bow Pool before meeting the open parklands as we run in towards Rectory Lane, with both Bosworth Hall and St Peter's church just beyond the passage of the Round path as we enter Market Bosworth.

Leicestershire Round #6 - Frolesworth to Sutton Cheney 02/09/18

17.2 miles, via Claybrooke Magna, Claybrooke Parva, High Cross, Fosse Way, 

 Fosse Meadows, Sharnford, Aston Flamville, Burbage (Wood & Common), Barwell, 

  Odd House, Ashby Canal, Sutton Wharf, Ambion Wood, and Bosworth Battlefield.

Long Distance Trail means Selfies!

#6 at St Nicholas's, Frolesworth.

After my long weekend away in Wharfedale and a gratifyingly short week back in work, we can set our sights on the last holiday of the Summer, heading Down Country once more with August already receding into memory and all intentions set on getting the Leicestershire Round completed, with the two longest and most distant days still to go, trips that I had worried might prove to be logistically unfeasible due to the travel durations necessary to get to my start lines. We need not have worried though, as My Dad can be left to nap of a morning without great risk, and maximum flexibility can be gained from starting out as early as possible, not that I'm entirely sure that My Mum is entirely enamoured with having to get the Parental Taxi fired up for a departure from home at 7.15am, so that the trail might be joined again at St Nicholas's church in Frolesworth at 7.55am, which is easily the earliest I've started out, and the day's sunshine has already come on, for which I'm immensely grateful after last Sunday's damp debacle. Away on Main Street we go, past the gates of the Rectory to the corned by the now absent Royal Oak inn, taking a southerly track as we set course for the Heart of Roman England, down a grassy track that leads onto a field walk, seeing the village recede rapidly, but making sure to note the Dutch Barn at Manor Farm, a modern office building that looks exactly like an open barn stacked with straw bales, the sort of modern design that should be replicated in every rural redevelopment. Our path rises, gently, up towards Hill Farm, aside plots of corn and across the recently harvested wheat fields, before cresting by the equestrian grounds and then declining through open plots before shifting into rougher fields, where I'm greeted along the way by a farm worker and her enthusiastically yappy dogs, and I continue to enjoy the warm morning sun as we field walk to Frolesworth Lane and then hot foot it over to Claybrooke Mill, secluded away in its own little spinney. Trailing around the West Riding moorlands can make you unprepared for regularly rural Midlands landscapes, with its many stiles, ditches and plank bridges, and they will become the testing features of the day as we progress, across recently ploughed fields and enclosures full of docile cows, as we lead over to Claybrooke Magna, one of a Leicestershire pair which seems to have the majority of the modern suburban houses in it, apt to it's 'large' name, which our track only sees a corner of, on Bell Street.