Deighton to Mytholmroyd 25/07/20

15.7 miles, via Bradley Gate, Lower Fell Greave, Sheperd's Thorn, Booth Wood, Toothill, 
 Rastrick (Carr Green), Elland Lower Edge, Old Earth, Elland, Hullenedge Rec, Broad Carr, 
  Holywell Green, Stainland, Scar Hill, Bankhouse Mill, Barkisland Mill, Barkisland, 
   Bank Top, Ripponden, Soyland Town, Mill Bank, Field House, Sowerby, Dob, Higham, 
    Steep Lane, Long Causeway, Stake Lane, and Hall Bank.

I need a decent Summer to get my walking plans completed, and now I'm certain that the season is trolling me after giving us a warm spike on Friday which it promises won't persist into the weekend, and thus we set out on our early ride expecting the worst for yet another outdoor day, only to land ourselves in the Colne valley with the day bringing on sunshine that hadn't been projected at any point, with me dressed in waterproofs and having not applied sunblock despite us being at the start of the heights of Summer. So we alight at Deighton, on the eastern side of suburban Huddersfield, at 8.20am, ahead of most of the locals being roused for their weekend, and after the briefest of showers as we meet Whitacre Street and it's ascent over the current and former railways in the area, up to the Deighton Road corner where we meet the WMC and War Memorial, it's rapidly getting bright and too warm for extra layers and waterproofs need to be shed before we ascend the lane onwards, up past the Deighton Centre, the local multi-use sports arena. Our early route over the Colne-Calder watershed takes us onto a path that leads around the grounds of the Christ Church CofE academy, which feels like it hasn't seen much recent traffic as it skirts the car parks and boundary fence to lead into the woodlands that separates it from the suburban close beyond at the bottom end of Wiggan Lane, which will carry us north as it drops in quality, leading as a farm track up to the old Bradley Gate farm before becoming a rough path as to shadows the eastern edge of Lower Fell Greave wood. The covering of Beech trees snags us onto the route of the Kirklees Way as it leads uphill on Old Lane, passing a gatepost with a benchmark on it before landing among the expanding Bradley Business Park, which mostly hides from view behind foliage, but does reveal that it might have a traveler problem before we are propelled out onto the A6107 Bradley Road, which we cross to join Shepherd's Thorn Lane as it shadows the edge of Bradley Park golf course, and while the sunshine still holds sway here, we get rainclouds over Calderdale ahead. This does give us a rainbow hanging to our west as we progress beyond the fields at the hill crest and away from the Kirklees Way route, declining with a rougher track to meet the footbridge over the M62 on its long straight run down from Ainley Top, and join the improved track beyond as we enjoy our last footfalls in the district, passing the Booth Wood Scouts encampment and what looks like a roadside ice house that might double as portal to an alternate dimension for local teens to explore, in a Spielberg-esque fashion.

Slaithwaite to Sowerby Bridge 18/07/20

15.6 miles, via Hill Top, Wilberlee, Pole Moor, Scammonden Dam, Withens End, 
 Rishworth Mills, Godley, Rishworth, Dyson Lane, Farrar Height, Manshead Moor, 
  Baitings Reservoir, Ryburn Reservoir, Stones Mills, Rishworth, Ripponden, 
   Hanging Stones, Triangle (station), and Watson Mill. 

I'm now pretty certain that the Summer of 2020 is openly mocking me, not just by preventing a first family get-together of the year to celebrate Dad's birthday by locking down My Mum in Leicester for another few weeks, but also by seeming to know that I want to get my walking impetus on again, and thus dropping deeply unseasonable weather onto the days that I have selected to walk, whilst giving us three days of the conditions that you'd like to out in when I'm busy doing something else entirely with my time NIW, making the Summer feel far too much like the relentlessly damp one of 2007. So we travel out early on Saturday morning, with a plotted route in mind, but not certain if it will achievable due to the fact that we are projected to have rain in the air until 1pm and no significant improvement dus after that, riding out to alight in the Colne Valley at Slaithwaite station for the first time at 8.40am, with waterproofs already donned and a climb coming right after we've headed out from the platform by the old goods yard, not opposite the other, down to Crimble Bank and then uphill under the railway and hair-pinning left to join Hill Top Road and Royd Street through the terraced district that clings to this high side of the valley. I'd have hoped to get a view of Slaithwaite reservoir in its side valley cleft as we carry on up Longlands Road, but only its dam and heel are faintly visible beyond the run of suburban houses that run up the hillside, petering out as we rise higher, into open fields on the steeply rising road, with Merry Dale Clough opening out to the west of us as we see the first of many drizzles coming on as the road shifts us uphill to the hamlet of Wilberlee, where the Colne Valley Circular brought us last year, reeling rather remote for a suburb, despite being barely a hard mile out from the start line, and only part way up the climb out of the valley. Tiding Field Lane leads us on uphill sharply, before we reach a welcome level section below Moorside Edge and among the high farmsteads on the edge of moorland altitude, which we crash as we head above the gash of Barrett Clough, taking us over Crimea Lane and the route of the Kirklees Way, onto the high plateau and among the high points of the Colne Valley's north side, with Worts Hill to the west of us and the bulk of Wholestone Moor further off to the east, having gained over 200m of altitude as we pass behind the microwave masts on Pole Moor, the slender sentinels that can be seen from far and wide, which scrape the low clouds as they pass overhead.

Brighouse to Marsden 15/07/20

14.9 miles, via Rastrick, Badger Hill, Elland Upper Edge, Elland, Nab End, West Vale, 
 Greetland (Sunnybank), Barkisland, Slack, Ringstone Edge Reservoir, Scammonden Dam,  
  Bilberry Hill, The Mosses, Doe Holes, Deanhead Moss, Buckstones, March Haigh Reservoir, 
   The Dean, Hey Green and Tunnel End Reservoir. 

It's been a long time coming, and it might not be the wisest decision that I've ever made, but we are not living in age of wise cultural decisions at present, and thus after 4 months of lockdown and restricted walking, I'm ready to get back into my routine of proper walking for 2020 while I'm NIW, donning heavy boots again, and accepting the risks of travelling far from home, picking up the slate of walks that I'd hopefully scheduled for the Spring and hoping that Summer will last long enough to get them down, though if it continues in the vein of mixed up weather that it has so far, conditions other than a global pandemic might yet shut me down. So off on the train we ride, under grey skies that fail to scream 'July' at us, alighting at Brighouse at a measure ahead of 8.55am, with another trip from Calder to Colne on the schedule, shadowing my last excursion out back in March, and starting out from the A641 Huddersfield Road (which we visited at this year's opening), but not heading directly uphill as the roads down't align, instead slipping down to meet Cliffe Road, which shadows the river Calder between the two main road bridges, giving us sight of the climbing wall in the flower silo before we come upon Bridge End, where the railway line up the valley passes overhead on a five-arched viaduct that you's fail to acknowledge under any other circumstances. The A643, my hometown trunk road, will lead us on from here, with Bramston Street forming the initial stretch, up through the stone terraces of Brighouse's spread on the southern side of the river, leaving the growing apartment block on the corner in our wake as we press away, past the imposing chapel, the recreation ground and the suburban development in the roadside depression that was once filled by a dye works, getting a feel for just how sharp the landscape edge of this side of the valley are as Thornhill Road transitions us into Rastrick. This village is indelibly linked to its downhill neighbour, thanks to its infamous brass band heritage, and the centre of it lies ahead, with a short shopping parade sitting between the village school and St Matthew's church on a distinct kink in the road, and the pitch of the climb continues, as we transition among stone cottages and suburban semis on Crowtrees Lane, where the former mill sites have redeveloped and the outlying districts above the valley are passed though before the name of New Hey Road gives us something to grasp hold of, ahead of landing by the Sun Inn at Badger Hill, on the crossroads that we touched on our last solo trip far from home.

Mytholmroyd Bubble Walk #3 11/07/20

4.3 miles, from Cragg Road, via Hoo Hole, Dauber Bridge, Parrock Clough, Spring Wood, 
 Broadhead Clough, Erringden Moor, Bell House Moor, Lumb Stone, Cragg Bottom, 
  and Cragg Vale.  

Having exhausted my supply of local and socially responsible walking circuits, and now finding myself at another ten day stretch of being NIW, I naturally feel like it's time to venture out to my Calderdale Support Bubble for some sociable R'n'R before we start to think about formally reviving the 2020 walking season that has been on hiatus for the better part of four months now, and thus we ride the rails out to Mytholmroyd on Friday evening straight from work, to get our weekend off with IH & AK to a quick start, catching up on the concession of Chicago deep dish pizza that I missed out on last time, before settling into the wine again as we chatter our way through the last few weeks of happenings. Boozing like that ensures that an early start won't be easy to come by, and factor in a Test Match on the TV, and the scope for a lot of walking drops away, so we don't head out until after our lunch break that has coincided with that of the cricket, departing our base on Cragg Road at 1.20pm, and setting off out of town to the south, to find that Mytholmroyd isn't really much more than half a mile deep in this direction, passing out of town by the Royds Ices factory and the Hoo Hole mill into the low fields, scattered suburban houses and high wooded banks that form Cragg Vale, the most significant branch of the Calder in this quarter. Our plan is too follow the Cragg Vale Coiners Walk, a path created to take us past the historical sites of the infamous counterfeiters of the 18th century, and those of their fictional counterparts as featured in the novel 'The Gallows Pole' by local author Benjamin Myers, following a map plotted and illustrated by Christopher Goddard, our admirable local variant of Alfred Wainwright, which is almost too nice to use as a route guide, which we follow as it leads us out of town up to Dauber Bridge to split from the main road and onto the rise away from Cragg Brook, along a steepening track that does lead to farmsteads at its high and distant ends, which are not to be seen on our ascent. The route is soon sending us up one of the main branches of Cragg Vale, elevating us above the stream in the cleft of Parrock Clough as we twist around below the cover of trees gaining altitude all the way before we enter open fields which give us some scope of the environs and the amount of ascent still to come, before we meet a herd of young Highland cattle who won't be stirred from the track they are blocking, forcing me to take a dynamic lead in clearing a way past them as these are the sort of cows that are placid enough to not inspire fear in me as we head on with the rise to meet Spring Wood.

Morley Far North Circuit 04/07/20

12.1 miles, from Morley Hole, via Bruntcliffe, Gildersome Spur Ind Est, Gildersome, 

 Moor Head, Cockersdale, Nan Whins Wood, Roker Lane Bottom, Troydale, Green Lane, 

  Farnley Hall Park, Farnley, New Blackpool, Far Royds, Cottingley Hall, Millshaw, 

   White Rose centre, Valley Mills, 'City', Scatcherd Park, and New Brighton. 

It's the top of the year already, and while National Lockdown effectively ends today with the revival of the hospitality industry, freedom to travel by public transport still seems to be formally discouraged, and thus we are still keeping the wandering local, but not for much longer as I'm starting to run out of local circuits to do around Morley, this will be my eighth and I can't envisage any more routes that have a substantial element of fresh paths to pace, so we'll be looking further afield after this weekend, pandemic crisis or not. So we launch ourselves out, as June's queer weather behaviours continue into July, with slatey skies abounding as we start out again from Morley Hole at 9.10am, aiming to the north of town by setting off to the southwest with Bruntcliffe Lane, rising with the course of the A643 past the Fielding and Highcliffe Mill site, and barely getting past Morley cemetery before we tick over the 4,000 miles in the North marker, a mere calculation error away from dropping last weekend, and passed in the least auspicious of surroundings, as we carry on past Bruntcliffe Academy to the Toby carvery and Travelodge at the A650 crossroads. Turn onto the Wakefield Road as it leads out over the M621, following a route that always falls as this way out of town, and a route we are only pacing today so that an unseen path might be paced beyond, taking us up Stone Pits Lane as it traverses the Gildersome Spur business park, and wandering through an industrial estate for fun is what we really should be doing to expand the horizons, meeting the grassy path that tracks north between the yard and depot of Downton distribution before we pass over the embankment of the lost GNR line through Morley, still forming a tree-lined perimeter at its top edge. Beyond, we meet the fields that have been levelled with great purpose for a redevelopment that has stalled, leaving a barren landscape to the west, which has also seen the improvement of the public paths in the area and some major work done at the head of Dean Beck too, though the passage out of Dean Wood must be tenuous now, as we join that route paced in 2016 as we rise up the gravelly track up the A62 Gelderd Road, and on into Gildersome via College Road and its mix of suburbia, where its most interesting feature, Turton Hall, is mostly concealed by trees, new build houses and an ancient brick wall.

Morley South-West Circuit 27/06/20

12.3 miles, from Morley Hole, via New Brighton, Dartmouth Park, Howley Park, Howley Hall, 
 Lamplands, Upper Batley, Brown Hill, Birstall, Field Head, Moorside, Adwalton, Gildersome, 
  Hart Hill, St Bernard's mill, Rooms, Daffil Woods, Churwell (Lane Side), Daisy Hill, 
   Chapel Hill and Banks Hill.

In our final episode of 'June doesn't know what the hell it's doing' we get it dropping three midweek days of unbroken sunshine and high temperatures which are concluded by one of the most epic cloudbursts that I have ever experienced (and I should know because I was right out in it when it happened), and as the weekend lands it decides that it's going to shift our climate back into that of early Spring rather than Summer, presenting weather of teeming rain than might inspire me to stay at home in normal circumstances, but as we know, we are in a world that's far from normal, and I need my routine of stretching to keep my head in good order. So to Morley Hole we head, waterproofs donned against the persistent drizzle, for a 9.10am start, aiming to get this tour done at the hurry-up to stay ahead of the threat of storms in the afternoon, starting out up the causey into New Brighton, because original routes are proving hard to come by now, risking early injury on the slippery setts before we head south via the way to Corporation Street, which we cross and find a couple of un-walked roads through the estate beyond, Highcliffe Road and Gerard Avenue, which pass St Francis' RC school along the way to Scatcherd Lane. Steps are retraced again past the cricket and rugby clubs and on into the upscale Victorian suburbia that surrounds Dartmouth Park, before we actually do locate the route along New Park Street, which leads us among its terraces towards Fountain Street before not actually joining it, instead slipping down the back lane of Oak Road, which gives access to a whole block of suburbia that would otherwise go unnoticed as it leads us to a ginnel behind the old chapels on the corner of Bruntcliffe Road, on which we land by the Halfway House inn at the top of Scotchman Lane. Over the A650 and again onto familiar pavements, down among the suburban ribbon out of town and over the M62 before we split onto the route of last year's Long Walk, angling down the farm track and across the fields on the site of the original Howley Park quarries, getting none of the views down to Batley and across Kirklees that we enjoyed in 2019 as we pass above Morley tunnel and between its vents, meeting a crowd of grazing horses and foals at the bottom corner of the field where we join the path that skirts the perimeter of Howley Hall golf course, where the well-grown vegetation shows up a greater risk of giving you a soaking than the rainfall does.

Morley South-East Circuit 20/06/20

10.9 miles, from Morley Hole, via Troy Hill, Town End, Birks, Tingley (Upper Green & 
 Baghill), West Ardsley (Beggarington Hill & Common Side), Woodhouse lane, East Ardsley, 
  The Fall, Thorpe on the Hill, Ardsley Junction, Sissons Wood, West Wood, Owlers, Gillroyd, 
   Low Town End, and Corporation Street. 

My calendar tells me that this Saturday is the first day of Summer, though I'm sure that it isn't due until the following day, meaning that the seasons might have shifted around without having informed me, not that anyone seems to have informed June of what season it is meant to be either, as we experience three days of chilliness that might have you thinking about putting the heating back on before promising an increase in warmth and brightness for the weekend that never quite arrives, and thus I'll look again to local paths as I'm still feeling wary about striking further afield despite the relaxation of lockdown. There's another three loops to do around Morley for now, and we'll start out at 9.05am at Morley Hole and pace that usual route out to the bottom of Queen street, where we split off between Body & Sole and Tasty Balti to ascent the flight of steps up to Troy Hill, a right of passage for many local school kids back in the day, which elevates us onto the seventh and last of the local hills, where we pace around the tree shroud that conceals the still derelict shell of St Mary in the Wood, before heading onto Commercial Street, the town's back lane of interest which hides away such features as the Congregational school, the public library, and at least three other chapels in this famously non-conformist town. Beyond Peel Street it takes on the industrial landscape of mills and factories, while also concealing an animal hospital and a Thai restaurant on the way down to the Commercial inn, where we slip over Fountain Street and head up High Street, to pass the former Sycamore Hotel, as my interests turn to locating Morley's lost pubs, leading us up to the top of Magpie Lane and the island at the bottom of Chartists Way, where so many of this last month's paths have piled up, hitting the rise onto Bridge Street by the site where the Albion inn used to reside. This route out of town seems all a bit familiar, as is the way with doing a lot of local walking, but we sneak our views off towards Leeds to the north as we hit the top of the Aire-Calder ridge, as well as noting the VW Beetle dressed as Herbie in one back yard, tallying off another former chapel opposite the Mormon Temple and emerging by the now completely refitted Tingley Mills, where we cross the tangle of the A650 junction at Tingley Bar, or Birks, before we join the A6029 Rein Road, that suburban lane that sets off from town with great purpose but then never really goes anywhere.