Out of the Dark Season... and Onwards?

Snowy January in Leeds.

With the passing of every festive season, I normally crack wise about hiding away for the remainder of January, and essentially going into hibernation for five weeks that lead us out of the Dark Season and on towards our renewed walking career, but 2021 has already given us enough reason to literally do that, as a renewed National Lockdown, our third since the start of the Covid Pandemic, which means my inclination for keeping out of circulation for the month has no been imposed on everyone else too, and as we look forwards to my Tenth year of walking, I'm feeling deeply uncertain about what's going to come next. Not with regards the pandemic situation, as I can honestly say I've finally gotten a proper handle on that, but with how I'm going to conduct myself as we look to get walking again, as restrictions look like they're going to be in place for a while, and although it seems like severe time limits for exercise are not going to be in place this time around, there seems every indication that local exercise is going to mean just that, and so all the plans that I'd been hatching for 2021 during the late passage of last year are effectively junked to comply with the instructions passed out. So for once, I find myself on the waning edge of the rotten three months of the year, looking forward without a great deal of certainty about where my walking year is going to go, as I'm not immediately feeling a lot of enthusiasm for making more trails around Morley, having exhausted the vast majority of the plausible paths during that long Spring of 2020, with my desire to engage with the walking year feeling like it's at its lowest ebb in along while. I don't think I'd really expected to be in such a place when my last walking year ended, with the country going back into lockdown in the teeth of a second Covid wave that my optimistic brain would have hoped would have never come to pass, indeed my thinking back in March would have had us on the tail end of this pandemic, as it retreated into the background after the effective and well considered actions of governments and health care systems worldwide would have taken a firm grip on it. 

The Conclusions of 2020

Wrapping the 2020 Walking
Season at Morley Hole.

In retrospect, it seems entirely plausible that I cursed this past twelve months before they even got started, as the previous year's summation boldly declared both '2019 has been a rough year that I do not care to see a repeat of', and 'I'm going to need my good mental health as much as ever in 2020' almost as if I had accidentally wished upon us all a year of pain, frustration and intemperance with my hopeful words for the future, a reality that gave the world a stiff old kicking and left us all in a much less certain situation than we started out in. But if we ignore the Covid-19 pandemic and all that came with it, which we really ought to in the context of this walking blog, 2020's active season turned out to be far from ruined, as in spite of all the obstacles thrown in its path, like losing two months of Spring to absolute lockdown and being unable to travel beyond Morley, we managed to make the best of the Summer and Autumn while keeping ourselves mostly removed from the risks of the disease which has blanketed all our experiences. I'm really happy that my resolve to keep walking managed to hold so firm after losing so much of the first half of the year when compelled to keep my exercising local, and despite all the stresses and strains through the back half of the year, I managed to get all the way through all of the trips that I had originally planned for the four lost months, keeping going until the last available day of the year and reaching a final mileage which made it not even close to my least impressive year, surpassing both 2012 and 2013's totals. Indeed, only one walking weekend between July and November was actively under-utilised, as I gratefully absorbed the hospitality of My Good Friends in Calderdale, and while I might have not managed all the route across the Pennines to the fringes of Greater manchester, I managed to keep a tight focus to gain the landscape knowledge of another part of the county that had been absent from my walking field for too many years, giving all the lands between the Colne and calder as much exposure as they could have ever wanted. So while we may have seen more of my home town that I'd ever have anticipated, and only done half of the long trails I may have wished to have paced, I don't feel like I've missed out on the expansion of my walking experiences at all, as all you really need are a high viewpoint or two to look beyond what you know, such as ascending the Pennine ridge and looking west across the Cheshire plain to the Clwydian Hills, or east to the North York Moors and the Wolds, giving you a new visual horizon in excess of 100 miles wide.

Rumination: Lockdown 2.0

Pandemic Thoughts - November 2020

The Following is for Reference Only, the 2020 Summary will follow in a Month from Now.

On December 2nd, the second National Lockdown to attempt to arrest the resurgent spread of Covid infections came to an end, and even after four weeks of renewed restrictions and attempts at containment, I'm still not entirely sure what to make of it, with most of my most substantial thoughts having been shared at its outset, as it hasn't seen me get out of work, predictably enough, and aside from having no opportunity to travel away to visit Mum, it had no other impact on my plans which mostly involved hibernating my weekends away at the onset of the Dark Season. I'm sure all those involved with the hospitality, leisure and non-essential retail sectors will have really felt the sting of it, especially after so many weeks of mixed messaging from those who would govern us ahead of the inevitable, but being in the business I'm in, and having so little social interaction beyond my familiar circle, I really can't make any more useful observations beyond the facts of trains into Leeds being noticeably quieter in the mornings, but inexplicably busier in the evenings. It's not been an experience anything like the first national lockdown though, where most businesses shut down and so many people were effectively confined to their homes for two months, as this time around schools have stayed open, and suffered all the fluctuations in attendance and operations that might have been expected when operating through a pandemic, while there have been a lot more retailers opened up and offices not doing nearly as much working from home as before. I'm sorry that I can't report anything personally in more detail, but my attitude towards self-protection during this crisis means that I've been witness to so very little, and can only really reflect on what I've learned through the usual methods of reportage, such as noting that the Covid infection rate dropped by 30% during the past month, which is a substantial drop and not a stat to be taken too lightly, but it feels less like a good reason to return to normality than a reason to get everything back to normal, than a cue to keep things shut down for another month to arrest the spread further. It's certainly discouraging to see the increasing infection rate in school age kids, and the dangers that it presents to families nationally, and for the first time in months we've started to look seriously at the death rate again, which HM Government had massaged down to 41,000 at the start of July, but has since risen to 60,000, presenting the horrifying reality of this second wave, with the ONS suggesting that the rate should be revised significantly upwards again to reflect all the indirectly caused deaths that have occurred due to medical access restrictions during the months of pandemic conditions.

The 'Back in Lockdown' Finale Circuit 11/11/20

10.7 miles, from Morley Hole, via Dean Wood, Gelderd Road, Gildersome Street, Birstall Retail 

 Park, Upper Birstall, Oakwell Park, Gomersal (station), Birstall (Kirkgate), Popeley Gate, 

  White Lee, Carlinghow, Upper Batley, Scotchman Lane, Elvaston estate, and Scatcherd Park. 

The disappointment that we feel right now is the fact that I am unable to travel away to spend my birthday weekend with My Mum down in Leicester due to the re-imposition of national lockdown restrictions, and so we are effectively back into isolation in Morley for another month while we hope that the Covid infection rate starts to go back down, but extra time on my hands gives me an opportunity to walk some more, after the date that had been the scheduled conclusion for the year, and why not, when there's an opportunity to push my mileage total just that bit further along? So, ahead of turning 46, we'll snag ourselves another local Lockdown circuit, for old times sake, and to snare a few more nearby lanes that wouldn't offer up an otherwise obvious passage, heading out to Morley Hole under the least inspiring sort of late season gloom, for a 9.05am start, and immediately seeking the local roads that haven't already seen all the footfalls back in the Spring - Summer section of the year, which means we head off up Asquith Avenue, heading northwest along a pavement untraced in six seasons, beyond Morley Victoria school and the terraces adjacent to it. Then on, between the Dean Hall and Ingles estates, up to the still extant Deanfield Mills and its terrace block before heading out of town over the M621, and down with the road as it dives through Dean Wood, the enduring bastion of greenery above Dean Beck and Gildersome tunnel, ahead of the rise up alongside the 62 Leeds industrial estate, which has claimed all the open fields between the woodland and the A62, which we meet at the Gildersome Arms corner and join instead of continuing on into the village. We'll keep on Gildersome's periphery as we trace the side of Gelderd Road southwesterly, on the trunk route to Huddersfield (a passage from Leeds that I'm still to do in its entirety, incidentally), landing in a landscape that is almost entirely one of industrial estates facing the suburban fringe of the village, with only a few outliers giving it any appeal at all, like the Belle Vue terrace and Parkfield house, ahead of the rise between the Finnings Caterpillar dealership and the Overland Park industrial estate, by the playing fields and the passage of the Leeds Country Way. Rising up towards the top of Street Lane, gives a clear indication that the A62 - A650 junction at Gildersome Street sits squarely on the Aire - Calder watershed, and why the old Ardsley - Laisterdyke railway line needed a tunnel to pass below it back in the day, and once we've traced our byzantine passage across the traffic island, we start our descent down the other side, below the Junction 27 flyovers of the combining M621 and M62, seen up close on multiple occasions, and still showing up just how overly massive and unnatural motorways appear in the landscape when regarded on foot. 

Brighouse to Morley 07/11/20

10.6 miles, via Brighouse Bridge, Clifton, Hartshead Moortop, Hartshead Moorside, Hightown, 

 Knowler Hill, Liversedge, Littletown, Westfield, White Lee, Smithies, Birstall, Copley Hill, 

  Howden Clough, Bruntcliffe, and Leeds 27 Ind Est.

So, as of November 5th were into our second National Covid Lockdown, but it already looks like it's going to be a different beast from the first, as much greater flexibility and mobility is permitted, and indeed expected, this time around, and despite inessential travel being discouraged, I'm figuring that a single half-hour trip out of the region at the end of my walking season to complete the second leg of my homeward bound trip is going to be way down the risk list as we speak, and that the British Transport Police are going to have better things to do that track down solo-walking miscreants like myself. Thus my revived season concludes by heading out from Brighouse, just like it started back in July, alighting my train at 8.50am having travelled out through fog and mist that looks like it's going to linger over the whole day, and again starting out by not taking the most obvious route forwards, by heading west from the station via Railway Street to Gooder Lane, so we might pass the church of St John the Divine, which claims to be in Raistrick, to further confuse the geography of the area, ahead of pacing John Street to meet the long flight of steps that drops us down to Bridge End by the Star inn. Joining up with the A643m, it takes us under Brighouse viaduct and over the Calder at Brighouse bridge, before snaking around to meet Briggate once again, passing over the Canal and completing one of my most fatuous detours designed to keep my paths fresh, only getting properly on track as we join Bethel Street as the local shops are opening up, and barely showing the indications of the lockdown situation that exists at present, while getting the feeling that we've really done a number on this town centre during my many passages across it this year. Lawson Road leads us to the tangling of the local bypass roads, where we cross over to get on track with the A643 Clifton Road again, passing though the industrial band that sits around the lower reach of Clifton Beck, which is crossed over ahead of passing over the Calderdale Way route and meeting the remains of the railway embankments of the L&YR's Pickle Bridge line, with the station remnants of Clifton Road station being seen to the south of the main road. The climb of Clifton Common beyond is one we've paced before, and continues our theme of serious rises and falls on the year's paths, rising past the strings of terraces that rise up the hillside from the hillside up to the suburban infill, before we reach the open fields ahead of Clifton village, where we'd expect our views back into the valley, but there's just fog blanketing the scene instead, meaning all our attention will settle onto our pace in the absence of views as we run past the Armytage Arms and rise to Highmoor Lane beyond.

Mytholmroyd to Brighouse 31/10/20

10.7 miles, via Ewood Hall, Midgley, Lane Ends, Luddenden, Hollins Wood, Newlands Gate, 

 Norton Tower, Highroad Well, Thrum Hall,  Halifax (The Gibbet, Cross Fields, North Bridge 

  and Charlestown), Southowram Bank, Bank Top, Withen Field, Southowram, 

   St Anne in the Grove, and Brookfoot.

I'd really have liked to have gotten out to Mytholmroyd during half term, but with My Good Friends having both returned to full time teaching since the summer, and the worsening Covid rates doing their best to amplify the risk factors, it just didn't seem wise to try to re-establish my Support Bubble at this stage, and thus it is rather reluctantly collapsed until the Festive Season at the earliest, but as it has been my home-from-home over this past season, it still seems sensible to use the town as my start line for my homeward bound finale, back to Morley by the shortest route possible(?). Unfortunately, the weather projection isn't looking too clever, but a Sunday option isn't there thanks to engineering works screwing everything up, ans so we alight 9.10am, feeling certainty that there will be rainfall during the trip, following the pattern of the week if we can judge by the flows of Cragg Brook, as seen from New Road, and the Calder as observed at Mytholmroyd bridge, looking far fuller than they did on any of my visits in the Spring and Summer, though still way below dangerous flood levels, obviously. In keeping with this year's theme of tracing many ups and downs, that's what we'll keep to as the last legs home are forged, starting by rising from the A646 Burnley Road and setting off up Midgley Road, past the Russell Dean store and over the Rochdale Canal via White Lee bridge, past the enduring Clog Mill, and through the band of vintage houses before we reach the elevated reach of suburbia beyond, with the sizable Calder Learning Trust in its midst as it stretches uphill, with the descending channel of Foster Clough running through it, before entering its culvert. Further up the valley side than you'd expect, we finally break into the countryside, angling ourselves to the east, looking up to the woods of Han Royd Bank, and rising carefully up to the hamlet of Ewood Hall, which seems to have retained all of the farmsteads, barns and auxiliary cottages of its estate, while managing to lose its main house, though Ewood Court appears to be for sale if you've got a lot of cash to drop, to gain a residence with views to Cragg Vale, Scout Wood and Crow Hill. That's the landscape we'll take in as we power uphill along the well-contained lane to meet Height Road and Midgley village again, which doesn't have quite the appeal seen previously on a glum day like this one, with it all feeling a bit more removed from the world, strung out at the end of a very remote bus route and feeling like a bit of harsh weather could isolate it horribly, revealing just how much the weather can affect my regard for a location, not that the residents seem to mind as they come and go along Town Gate and we press through to the Lydgate junction once again.

Hebden Bridge to Halifax 25/10/20

11.5 miles, via Machpelah, Birchcliffe, Wadsworth Lanes, Height Road, Foster Clough, 

 Han Royd Bank, Midgley, Thorny Lane, Dry Carr, Luddenden Dean, Low Bridge,  

  Throstle Bower, Saltonstall, Caty Well Bridge, Crossroads Inn, Mount Tabor, Dodgson Wood, 

   Pellon, Mount Pleasant, Cross Fields, and the Piece Hall.

It's probably been observed here before, but when the clocks change, it's possible to trick yourself into an early start on Sunday morning as your body is yet to re-tune itself to the hour gained with the resumption of GMT, and this is particularly useful when your Saturday washes out and a much, much brighter day is projected to follow it, so getting ahead of the limited services to Calderdale means that you can be alighting the 9.20am train at Hebden Bridge without having broken you weekend sleep patterns, and all sorts of prepared for a turn along the north side of the Calder valley for a change. What you aren't ready for is the hiss of rain that passes over as you start out, weather that ought to be expected at this time of year, in this location but still catches you out as you pick an alternate route out to the A646 Burnley Road, via Mayroyd Lane and Crow Nest bridge over the Calder and up through the yard of reclaimed stone to still pass over the Rochdale Canal on the Station Road bridge, ahead of rising past the smart terraces and villas at the Machpelah corner and elevating with the A6033 Commercial Road. We've a lot of climbing to do to get onto our high downstream route, and thus we join Birchcliffe Road as it presses forcefully uphill, through an accumulation of proud terraces that still have me wondering just how this town grew around the merging rivers and up the steep valley sides in the 19th century, as we head up past the Stubbings school and up to the apex corner, then passing the hostel and school in th old Baptist chapel and rising sharply on as the weather blows itself out and sunshine pours in over the lower wooded reaches of Hebden Water, with St Thomas the Apostle's tower in Heptonstall rising above it. We rise with Wadsworth Lane to what feels like the top of the town, only to find a block of council houses on the high apron of fields above it, as if there wasn't anywhere else to place them, which we rise on past, with the valley view expanding behind us in the sunshine, revealing the path to the south that we took down into the town a few weeks back, as we also cross our last previous path in the vicinity, blazed in 2013 and revealing that the north side of Calderdale is still wanting for attention, even now. Shift away from having the sunshine directly in our eyes and roll uphill among the farmsteads that occupy the lane below the high road and the moorland apron, a cluster that seems to be growing into another suburban sort of hamlet, which I'm calling Wadsworth Lanes, high over the valley, from where we can look up the valley of Hebden Water to the north to spy the Old Town Mill on its high perch, while also rising high enough to spy all the wooded branches of the Calder splitting off the valley below and to look across to Stoodley Pike rising above the moorland brow to the south, revealing why people might want to reside up here, despite the practical inconveniences.