Grisedale Pike 28/04/19

4.2 miles, from Braithwaite to Whinlatter Forest Park.

After the warmest Easter Weekend in recent memory, the very next one, when I travel over to Lancashire to visit My Sister and her family, brings an absurdly sharp drop in temperatures and constant rain that keeps me awake in the guest room in the loft after a Friday night of hitting the sauce, and washes out any possibility of us attempting the green road to Manchester from her abode in Egerton, leaving Saturday only good for doing some shopping in the big city, while dodging the precipitation the whole time. Sunday also looks like that it's not going to allow for much as Dr G and the girls have been booked onto a Mountain Bike Cyclo-Cross race in Whinlatter Forest Park in the northwest corner of the Lake District, two hours distant from greater Bolton and surely too far away for any consideration of approaching a Lakeland fell when I'm surely going to be needed as chaperone or spectator. So after suggesting that we two non-riders go up Grisedale Pike, pretty much on a whim, I'm surprised when My Sister agrees to this, and thus we travel away on Sunday morning with this idea in our heads, both expecting the other to call it off, with me anticipating her to claim timing problems while she expects me to bail due to not being an able hillwalker, and neither of us is expecting the weather to be good enough for a cloud free ascent, so we're both surprised to get as far along the A66 as Keswick and find the skies clear and the way ahead looking walkable, as the peak rises invitingly above the North-western Fells. So we get dropped off in Braithwaite village at 9.35am, just by the Hobcarton tearooms, (and far away from where I'd been anticipating walking this weekend or indeed this year) with 700m of ascent to look forward to as we set off up the B5292 Whinlatter Pass road, rising through this lovely Lakeland village, where everything is coated in whitewash, be it semis, council houses, holiday properties or miners cottages, passing the Royal Oak inn, the orthodox church and the well contained Coledale Beck. We don't have a sightline to the summit as the road pushes beyond the village, obscured by its easternmost ridge as we press uphill to the small access carpark, where we rapidly get off road and start rising on the path that tacks north to put Skiddaw and the bottom corner of Bassenthwaite Lake ahead of us, before shifting around onto a southward stretch to look over Braithwaite and Keswick to Derwent Water and the wooded top of Swinside, with the High Seat and Helvellyn ranges on the eastern horizon.

Wakefield to Barnsley 22/04/19

10.4 miles, via Fall Ings, Belle Vue, Sandal, Milnthorpe, Pledwick, Hill Top, Newmillardam, 

 Seckar Wood, Woolley Park, Notton Park, Staincross, Mapplewell, Athersley & New Lodge,
  and Smithies. 

Easter Monday comes around and it's still sunny, which feels unprecedented for this particular break, but we won't be continuing on the Long Walk to Leicester as the walk from the Don to the Derwent over the Dark Peak might prove too long when I have to go to work on Monday, and thus we have to look elsewhere for a shorter stretch, and establishing an eastern boundary to this year's field of experience feels like an idea, continuing the southwards trend and attaching Barnsley to our walking territory once again. So start early, so as much afternoon as possible might be usable after our stretch, alighting at Wakefield Kirkgate station amongst as much train action as I've ever seen happening there, not getting off the platforms until almost 9am because of the ungodly length of the subway tunnels, and landing myself on the southern end of the town while it feels like the locals haven't gotten out of bed yet, and immediately set a path south wandering down to the side of the A61 by the Grey Horse inn and embark on my route that ought to be my very last encounter with this town for 2019. This is my eighth trip in the vicinity of Wakefield for 2019, which is an awful lot when we aren't even three months into the season, and you'd think we'd have run out of things to see around here by now, but that's not the case as one trajectory is plainly missing, though we'll have to pass some familiar sites before we get to it, as we pass the Aire & Calder Navigation's former wharf, head over the Calder via the Chantry bridge and look over to the Hepworth and the gradually redeveloping Rutland mills sight as we untangle ourselves from the junction with Doncaster Road. Meet Bridge Street by the Ruddy Duck and pass over the initial cut of the Calder & Hebble Navigation at Fall Ings, where the residential landscape has changed much since 2012, and then continue on with the A61 on my fresh course, taking us into the district of Belle Vue as we pass the Arriva bus depot and the Baptist Church, before joining the long sweep of terraces as the A61 becomes Barnsley Road, and get the feeling that this area has a feel of both its neighbours as large townhouses and lesser terraces mingle rather randomly. That doesn't stop some of the parades being very pretty in a late 19th century desirability way, the one before the railway bridge being particularly nice, and we'll enjoy the sight on sound of a cross-country bound HST passing over as we look back over Sandal's cricket field and carry on, skirting the edge of Castle Grove park, and pass over the route to the local railway station at Agbrigg Road, which finally links Sandal with the city above, and then we can aim a course deep into Wakefield's suburbia, which stretches on for another hour ahead of us.

The Long Walk to Leicester #2: Horbury Bridge to Penistone 20/04/19

12.8 miles, via Netherton, Midgley, Bretton Park, High Hoyland, Cannon Hall, 

 Daking Brook, Rons Cliff, Gadding Moor, Gunthwaite Bridge, Cat Hill, Broad Hill, 
  and Watermeadows Park.

Long Distance Trek means Selfies!

#2 at Horbury Bridge

Still feeling sore as the next day comes around, not because of my new boots rubbing me up the wrong way, but more because of a sore muscle in my right thigh, pulled when descending the steps to Soothill Tunnel and now aching constantly after hours of resting it, not a bad enough pain to prevent me heading out, but enough to temper my expectations for what ought to be a 5 hour run, and thus we seek an early start so that we might get ahead of the weather and avoid the worst of the heat by aiming at the 2.19pm train home. The journey out to Horbury Bridge is immediately improved due to the #427 bus out of Morley having so few passengers boarding it that it arrives in Wakefield ridiculously ahead of schedule allowing me to hop on the earlier service to my start line, hopping off the #128A at 8.50am, way earlier than I'd ever conceive of starting a day's trekking in April and make my way to the corner of Bridge Street where we can rejoin the path south, opposite the house with the blue plaque that celebrates the mission church of Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould, author of 'Onward, Christian Soldiers'. So south again, past Bosco's coffee & champagne bar and on down the A642 to slip over the River Calder, looking all calm after the business of three weeks ago, passing the Bingley Arms to again ponder its viability, and then over the Calder & Hebble Navigation which marks us finally starting our way out of the Calder Valley having started our trek from high up on its watershed divide with the Aire. Our route lead us up Netherton Lane which is some steep going with some pretty terrifying early morning traffic on it, rising above the suburban closes and getting a look down the through the haze that hangs over the lower Calder before rising on, over the bridge on the MR's ill starred Royston to Thornhill line, and up towards the next village, enjoying the views, up the valley and back to Horbury and Ossett, and looking down to the viaduct that just calls out for accessible reuse in the future.

The Long Walk to Leicester #1: Morley to Horbury Bridge 19/04/19

8.8 miles, via Hembrigg Park, Howley Park, Soothill, Chidswell, Gawthorpe, 
 Ossett Street Side, Ossett, and South Ossett.

Long Distance Trek

means Selfies!

#1 at Morley Hole

Taking last weekend off proved to be a great idea, as it transpired to not be the point in the year when Spring Warmth finally wins out and instead proved to be one of the chillier April days that I can immediately recall, so going to Manchester with my Good Friends from Calderdale for noodles at Shoryu Ramen, and some Bax, Walton and Vaughan Williams from the BBC Philharmonic at the Bridgewater Hall proved to be a much more sensible use of my time, while also giving my legs a rest. With that out of the way, attention can now focus on this year's long and crazy scheme, namely trekking cross-country from West Yorkshire to Leicestershire, one of those ideas I've had on the to-do list for a good few seasons but never got scheduled because of My Dad's inability to travel in his later years, and now, since his passing, My Mum and I can try holidaying away together as a duo, which would allow me to complete the middle portion of the 100 mile trip through Derbyshire, especially as she feels apt to drive a lot again after a few successful trips away in the last month. So before we can aim at a Maytime holiday to do the middle of the trail, and then the return to the county of my origin, we have to start out from home and having a long Easter Weekend to use is absolutely the best time to get that going as a modest first leg and a longer second will fit in nicely on Good Friday and the Saturday, and it's an even greater bonus that the Cold Season has finally slipped away to be replaced by a completely unforeseen blast of hot weather that's due to last the entire break. If heat is in the air, then getting an early start is in order, not quite getting up with the lark but ensuring that I'm prepped and at my start line at Morley Hole at 9.10am, ready to strike off to the south and find it frustrating that I really am starting to run out of unwalked road around my home town, and thus we start off along lanes that have been seen before, along Brunswick Street and up the wooded and unmetalled track over Dawson Hill, leading around Morley Hall and the hidden former burial ground before landing on Queen Street by the Mumbai Village restaurant and then pressing uphill past the cenotaph gardens and Scatcherd park, as well as the still derelict St Mary-in-the-Wood, to the main drag and the Town Hall.

Darton to Brockholes 06/04/19

13.5 miles, via Kexborough, High Hoyland, Clayton West, Scissett, Skelmanthorpe, 

 Shelley Woodhouse, Shelley, Kirkburton, Storthes Hall, and Farnley Tyas.

As we've now shifted into British Summer Time, we should rejoin the trail feeling hopeful that the worst of the cold days should have passed, and the projection for this day's trip is fine, but distinctly lack the temperature peaks of the last weekend, which has me wondering just how many more False Springs we're going to get before the actual one arrives, and thus we make no effort at an early start as days hadn't been getting bright early before the clocks changed and mornings will be probably glummer and cooler longer with everything moved an hour on. So back to the criss-crossing of Kirkless that made up so much of a busy and very satisfying March, and after three such treks we are starting to run short of places to travel to or from in the east, when we still have a plethora of options to the West, and having exhausted all the viable place in Wakefield District, we thus have to move into South Yorkshire to start this trip, meaning actually having to pay for the ride at both ends of my journey and reacquainting us with a place last seen as the loose end of a walk from 2014. So off the stopping train to Sheffield we get as we arrive at Darton station at 10.15am, right on the outermost northern edge of Greater Barnsley's suburbs, and still rather unsure whether the original Darton village or the contemporary settlement has its bulk on the east or west side of the railway, which we process beside down the terraces of Station Road and then pass under to join Church Street, immediately passing over the River Dearne, which despite its miles gained since rising to the west of here still hasn't formed a particularly broad channel. This lane has the feel of being the old village High Street as we pass the Co-op and the old Sunday School, and soon rising up the shopping parade towards the old Vicarage and All Saints church, with its yard brimming with daffodils, up by the A637 Barnsley Road, which we cross with some difficulty by the Rose & Crown in and then continue rising into the suburban enclave to the east of the motorway along Churchfield Road. Pass over the M1 and gain height enough to locate ourselves at the edge of the channel of the Dearne as it flows south past Woolley Edge, and then set ourselves westwards, establishing another new southern boundary to our field of walking experience far below the loops of the Wakefield and Kirklees circular trails as we press on into the suburban enclave of Kexborough.