Out of The Dark Season & Onwards!

Don the New Togs

for Season #8!

Having returned home to Morley after Dad's funeral, and having steeled myself to return to work after two weeks absence, I checked my work e-mail on Sunday evening and received an unexpected piece of good news, finding that I had been granted an additional week of compassionate leave by my department mangers at the hospital as half of the time that I was away was pre-booked annual leave, and they'd figured it polite to grant me the extra time off. For this I am massively grateful, for I might moan about my bosses in my line of work (who doesn't?) but with matters regarding my bereavement they have really come though for me, and thus I've got a whole sequence of available days to get my eighth walking season going when I'd figured that it would be postponed until the start of March, after we've all reconvened in Leicester for Dad's memorial service on the 23rd February. So, now we can look forward to returning to the trail, having used the Monday of this week to travel into work to update my supervisors and colleagues on what's been going on these last couple of weeks, and to show my best brave face as we face an unknown future for the first time in a long time, and I can grind the mental gears to give 2019's walking season some sort of shape. I've certainly spent the off season preparing for it, having acquired new boots for my birthday, pair #7, which allows pair #6 to go into semi-retirement as my Leicestershire footwear (replacing the utterly ruined pair #5), usable during the inevitable breaks Down Country as I travel to visit My Mum and start the long process of clearing away so much stuff accumulated by My Dad over the years. I also acquired a bunch of fresh gear, getting two new jackets to replace the ones that have seen so many miles, including the one that I got off My Sister some 18 years ago, picking the new ones for low cost from TK Maxx and sending the old ones to the Christmas charity drive at St George's Crypt, Leeds's most notable homeless shelter. I've already told you about my sock acquisition exploits, now having ten pairs to go with both sets of boots, which will hopefully protect me from sole blistering grief in the coming season, and also got myself a new gillet and wicking vest, care of My Sister as a Christmas gift that will hopefully do as many years of service as their predecessors, with to only kit not getting added to being any new trousers, as my 2005 pair still endure against all the odds while newer pairs really start to show their age.

So where to go in 2019? You'll hopefully recall that my conclusion for 2018 was to not plan so much, and thus this year's targets are not going to form a list as long as my arm, and after three years of looking north from West Yorkshire, I really think it's time to look to the south again, though all plans are subject to a change of whims, naturally.

• So we will head into the southern districts once again, to Kirklees and Wakefield.
• Focus on visiting the many stations on the Huddersfield to Barnsley line, now that the Northern Trains - RMT beef has finally (!) settled (with the status quo regarding the role of train guards being maintained, unsurprisingly).
• Look to holiday away again (one of the first thoughts I shared with Mum after Dad's passing), and attempt a cross country trek to Leicestershire over the Dark Peak and down though Derbyshire along the Derwent Valley.
• Aim to finally summit Black Hill and traverse Holme Moss after regarding it from afar from far too long.
• Use the Summer to probe the available paths over the hills and moors in the directions of Longdendale and the Don Valley.
• Get to walking the circular routes in the Holme & Colne Valleys.
• Get together with My Sister and finally do the Witton Weavers Way. It quite simply has to happen (because I also want to do the Rossendale Way with her too)!
• And Remember, Break to be Sociable and Don't Burn Yourself Out!

A modest list for the year, but the long days away through 2018 have left me feeling the need to be a bit more conservative in my choice of routes, and to only go for long burns when the days are suitable for it, which won't be until June comes around, and thus we will look to wander locally for the beginnings of the season, and with a bonus week on my schedule will hopefully allow me to put down a selection of sub 10 miles trips through the coming mornings.  Hopefully this will not give me too many physical tests as I try to get back in the exercising saddle and look to clearing my head to fit the new normal that has come with experiencing a world that no longer has My Dad in it, and hopefully this will help my mental state settle down again after the upheaval of the last few weeks.

5,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 3650.4
Up Country Total: 3257.3 miles
Solo Total: 3364.1 miles
Miles in My 40s: 2244.2 miles

Next Up: A Local Road, Previously Unseen.