Rumination: Summer Jollies (with Trains, Birds & the Night Skies)

Featuring: Ruswarp to Whitby - 1.5 miles, via the Rail & Riverside Path. 07/09/23

Esk View cottage might be the
 best letting we've scored so far!

Back in May, I pontificated some on the real value of a holiday break away from home, having let the disappointing opening of the year pass away and getting the spirits lifted with a warm week away on the Yorkshire Coast to get my walking year going properly, and three months on from the revivifying benefits of my Spring Jollies, I can tell you that exactly the same benefit can be felt at the End Of Summer, having endured two of the most frustrating months of poor weather, low energy and lacking motivation, heading away from the persistent gloom and changeability that has blighted July and August to be rewarded with the bright and warm week and the universe knew I spiritually needed. It’s another Friday-Friday let that we’re taking, going back to the coastal edge of the North York Moors after Mum expressed an interest in staying in the vicinity of Whitby, and I pulled up a very plausible pair of walks on the moors that got plotted when I was first seeking out rail trails at the start of my walking escapades in 2012, having managed to find a cottage at a significant reduction in price for the week after the end of the schools Summer break, just outside the town in the village of Ruswarp (which is pronounced Ruh-sup, if you were wondering), in a peaceful little idyll of its own, away from the tight streets and general throng of visitors that comes with this most beloved of coastal settlements. Even arriving having passed over moors under the heaviest of damp palls hanging in the air via the A169 does not do anything to temper our enthusiasm that we feel for Esk View cottage, and even on arrival we know that we’ve scored ourselves a gem that will be absolutely ideal for our rest and relaxation needs, amply sized and quietly out of the way at the end of its close, right on the north bank of the river Esk, with its own terrace and directly across from the railway bridge, which means that there will be entertainment to be had, even when settled in at our holiday base, be it on the rails above the water’s surface, or on the banks and their surroundings. 

Rosedale Railways #2: Rosedale Circular 06/09/23

11.4 miles, from Blakey Junction, via Glead Holes. Slead Shoe Bents, Low Blakey Moor,

 Sherriff's Pit, Thorgill Head, Thorgill Bank, Hobb Crag, Bank Top, Chimney Bank,

  Rosedale Abbey, Abbey heads, Bell End, Plane Trees, School Row, Hill Cottages,

   Low Baring, Stone Kilns, Iron Kilns, Black Houses, Dale Head, Nab Scar, Reeking Gill,

    Seven Head, Cross Gill, and Blakey Swang.

Two warm and pleasant days off from the trail are spent, filled with activity before we get back to the business of the walking plan for this round of Summer Jollies, and we did not expect moorland mist to be on our menu in the midst of our warm spell, as it hangs in the air for the full duration of our 23+ mile ride out onto the moorland top, during which Mum demonstrates an amount of fearlessness in her motoring that belies her years as we tool our way up to the crest of Blakey Ridge again, to resume our exploration of the railway and ironworking that took place in the moorland edges of Rosedale, which falls away to the west and south of the road we ride the high road. We alight at 9.45am at Blakey Junction, with a 5 hour trip in our sights as we descend beside the infilled cutting that passed under the ridge road, down to the site of the Little Blakey hamlet that stood by the division of the railway lines around both sides of Rosedale, of which nought but feint foundation remnants remain in the landscape, and we'll head south from here, down the western branch, for reasons that will become apparent as we start our circular tour, with the mist already burning off as we pass through the gate by the end of the long switchback siding, with mist still obscuring views to the east, and the kiln complexes at the end of the eastern branch, which will get much of the day's attention. It's a steady contour-hugging walk to enjoy as we progress south, at about 360m with only the slightest of declines as we trot away on a decent cinder track surface, with sleeper markings still present underfoot as we look over the valley of Rosedale, trying to get some context of the landscape below as move on among the banks of purple heather that illuminate in the sunshine behind us, settling into the shallow cuttings that run atop the edge of the Glead Holes edge, and looking down across the long rib of Middle Ridge, where it looks like a huge piece of the valley side sloughed its way downhill in antiquity, leaving a scarred and wild landscape in its wake, one not caused by human mining or quarrying activity, with our surroundings becoming more steadily apparent as we track south. 

Rosedale Railways #1: Battersby to Blakey Junction 03/09/23

10.4 miles, via Bank Foot, Park Plantation, Ingleby Incline, Greenhow Moor,

 Bloworth Crossing, Farndale Moor, Wares Gill, Middle Head, Dale Head, Gill Beck,

  Esklet, Oak Beck Head, High Blakey Moor, Blakey Gill, and Blakey Ridge. 

Late Summer Jollies arrive, not a moment too soon, and we're off to stay in Ruswarp, a stone's throw up the Esk Valley from Whitby to operate as our base as Mum and I get in a week of relaxation and I can target some walking on the North York Moors, having trailed the coastal railway path and dropped feet on my OL27 plate for the first time in the Spring, it's time to get onto the OL26 map for the first time as the 20 miles of the Rosedale Railways on the remote High Moors, demand my attention as a complete change of scenery from all my day tripping from home, and not least because I've had them on my walking target list for longer than I can immediately recall. They're not especially local to where we're staying of course, and instead of using the Parental Taxi privileges to get to the start line, we'll catch a train up the Esk Valley line instead, starting out relatively late due to the scheduling of the Sunday services, and already in the grip of warm Summer conditions that we haven't seen the like of in two months, having snared a cheap ride for only £3 and travelling along a line I've seen in part before, having ridden the NYMR section to Grosmont in 2016, and as far as Danby back in 1985 in order to visit the National Park centre (Oh Hi, School Trip Memories!) and thence it's a dawdle into the unknown, beyond the head of the valley and into the catchment of the Tees where we can alight at Battersby, that odd junction station where all services have to reverse, in the apparent middle of nowhere. We'll depart here at 11.25am, away from the station complex and the long terraces of railway cottages shadowing the start of the branch line as it split off towards the moors, looming large on the southern horizon, a wholly industrial line constructed by the NER in 1858 to service the distant ironstone mines in Rosedale, creating a significant freight interchange in this landscape where the only immediate remnant to see is the crossing house on Stone Stoup Hill, from whence we have to follow the turns of the local lanes with the trackbed inaccessible through the fields, allowing attention to wander to scoping our surroundings, placing the Captain Cook monument on Easby Moor, and the anvil peak of Roseberry Topping behind us to the north, while a trio of prominent moorland tops rise like knuckles on the edge of the Cleveland Hills to the southwest of us.

The Cinder Track #2 - Ravenscar to Whitby 24/05/23

11.9 miles, via Ravenscar Brickworks, Peak Alum Quarry, Brow Alum Quarry, Stoupe Brow,

 Howdale Wood, Allison Head Wood, Fyling Old Hall, Ramsdale Beck, Fyling Thorpe,

  Robin Hood's Bay, Bay Ness, Rain Dale, Hawsker Bottoms, Hawsker, Stainsacre,

 Cock Mill Wood, Larpool Wood, Larpool Viaduct, and Prospect Hill. 

NB: Historical Reminiscences are in Italics.

Long Distance Trail
Means Selfies!
#2 at Ravenscar

Two rest days are spent, to useful creative extent, and for getting ourselves out of our holiday let for a while to see the sights of Scarborough, so that when we land on Wednesday Morning we are feeling ready to go once more, not having to head out to early as the Parental Taxi takes me up the bouncy coast road to the top of the Ravenscar headland once again so that we might start the notionally downhill back half of this rail trail, and after getting dropped off at 10am, My Mum can head off to reconnoitre the finish Line and I can prepare myself to immediately head into a landscape where I walked purposefully, on a school trip. for possibly the first time in my life. The trail for today starts on the pavements, as the railway vanishes underground and inaccessible, so we are compelled to trace Station Road around the site of the resort that wasn't, with only the Raven Hall at the corner enduring, which marks the apex of a walk that my 10 year old self did with a school party whilst on a residential week at the Boggle Hole Youth Hostel back in 1985, which might have been my first experience of sustained uphill walking, which my little legs and under-developed brain were completely unprepared for, making what was intended as a bonding opportunity for many kids, gathered from about the city and county of Leicester, in a new school turn into something of a nightmare for me as I was dropped off the walking party and had to toil along the last long uphill stretch all by myself. Nearly 38 years on, I'm much better prepared, not least as we're headed downhill from here, tracing the Cleveland Way route down from the village to the amazing view over Robin Hood's Bay to the north, before we join the trackbed and double back through the over growth to spy the northern portal of Ravenscar Tunnel (notoriously hated by railwaymen for its tight curvature and foul atmosphere), which appears intact and dry, making it a sad omission from the Cinder Track, which starts its long decline away from the line's 200m summit as we resume our north-westerly push into a sea of gorse that clings above the long fall down to the sea, into a landscape that appears wild but is actually one where industry has scarred the cliffs, found as we approach the complex at the Peak Alum Quarry and Ravenscar Brickworks.

The Cinder Track #1 - Scarborough to Ravenscar 21/05/23

10.7 miles, via Falgrave, Woodlands, Gallows Field, Newby, Scalby, Burniston, Cloughton,

 Newlands Dale, Hayburn Wyke,  Staintondale, and Bent Rigg.

Long Distance Trail
means Selfies!
#1 at Scarborough

May time brings us Spring Jollies, and for the first time since 2019, we make tracks for somewhere further abroad than the Pennine Moors, as I'm feeling the need for a break away from home in every way, to clear my head and to continue getting my post-Covid self back into some sort of order, and a trip to the North Yorkshire coast seems to be the best way to go about that, especially as My Mum is still willing to taxi me around and drive into the relative unknown, while also enjoying her own period of time away, and basing ourselves in Scarborough allows me to approach the coastal trail that I've had in mind for a while, namely The Cinder Track on the old Scarborough & Whitby railway line. It's notably too long a haul at 21+ miles to attempt in a single shot, but very manageable when divided into two pieces, established as a multi use track following the line's closure in 1965, a relatively minor line with the NER's catalogue, opened in 1885 and operating as only a single line along the stretch of the coast on the fringes of the North Yorkshire Moors, not really serving any major centres of population and never being particularly profitable, while also featuring awkward switchback junctions at both ends of its length, some long and steep gradients and major feats of engineering along its permanent way. It feel like the sort of excursion that I need as my body still works out its post-Covid issues, requiring no navigation and just enough of a workout to ensure that I don't shamble my way through it, and after so many weeks of changeable weather, which have felt like Winter has endured for a month longer than normal, pushing April Showers deep into May, it looks like we are going to be blessed with a whole week of sunshine while we here as clear skies are forecast for the entire break, allowing us to bask as we go, despite the low air temperatures and the probability of persistent on-shore sea breezes, which will provide the healthy sea air that we need.

Knottingley to Bentley 06/08/22

16 miles, via Bendles, Park Balk, King's Standard Hill, Cridling Stubbs, Spring Lodge,

 Womersley, Grove Bridge, Stubbs Bridge. Tanpit Bridge, Low Field, Norton, Askern,

  Sutton, Burghwallis Common, Owston, Owston Common, Carcroft Common, 

   Bentley Moor, Toll Bar, and Wrostholme.

After returning to work for a week of cross-site activity between the hospitals, and suffering a horrible bout with an upset stomach along the way, we return to the trail come the weekend, hopeful that we have better luck with the trains and weather than we had last weekend, and that a rapid turn on the ground might be had after a month of dawdling, and despite there being half the number of services passing through Morley today, the extended trip to the northeastern corner of the 2022 walking field can let us have a half-hour turn-around at Castleford to see how the station's redevelopment works are progressing. Thence we can alight at Knottingley after 9.30am, as we set a course to the south and east, rising to the Station Hotel and the A645 to remind ourselves that there's a lot more to this town than is recalled, with most of it lying to the east of the station, as we work a way with Headlands Road and Spawd Bone Lane around two sides of the railway triangle with the former motive power depot in its middle, also passing below the chimneys of the Ardagh glass works and noting the adjacent Reiki practitioner and Guns & Pawn store as being the strangest of neighbours before making our fifth railway transit via the England Lane level crossing. This returns us to the Weeland Road by the Stoelze Flacconage glass works and the CT Transport depot before we start our southbound turn by joining the Womersley Road, taking us over the Askern branch again by the Winston inn, for our sixth passage of the local railway lines before heading on out past the town cemetery with its obvious pair of mortuary chapels, and through the suburban enclave that grew on the quarried pits that must have brought the glass industry to the area, where one aggregate supplier still operates, ahead of the turn by Park Balk farm, where we shift into the countryside. We are initially shadowing the southerly track of the railway, and then the eastwards push of the M62 as we pace among the fields and find ourselves on the low bluff of King's Standard Hill, revealing the vast flatlands between the lower Aire and Don in the east, tracing the any pylons across the fields towards Drax Power Station, while noting that the last remains of Eggborough have now vanished completely, demolished two weeks ago, with the massive spoil tip, or landfill, on Gale Common rising unnaturally ahead as we come around to pass over the motorway. 

Fitzwilliam to Adwick 30/07/22

14.8 miles, via Brackenhill, Ackworth Moor Top, Low Farm, Ackworth Viaduct, 

 Burnhill Bridge, Standing Flat Bridge, Thorp Marsh, Wentbridge, Sayles Plantation,

  Brockadale, Smeaton Pasture,  Kirk Smeaton, Little Smeaton, Willow Bridge, Norton,

   Campsall, Sutton Field, Burghwallis, Skellow Cross, Carcroft, and Old Ea Beck. 

My July NIW week does not feature any walking, despite being Down Country with a plan in my pocket, as getting on with some deferred housework and clearout tasks at My Mum's house demand the attention while we have all the members of the extended family visiting, having scheduled my trip in the same window as My Sister and her family's and thusly some necessary garden work and DIY can get blasted through while many hands, both young and old, are available to take them on, and thus not really providing a period for relaxation before we get back into the walking and the second phase of my Summer plans, which should lead us deeper into the southeast of the old West Riding. A fine plan which comes up against the problem of the weather turning unexpectedly inclement, resulting in choosing a later start out from home, and the local trains running late and failing to make an important connection for the only available service to my start line (which incidentally has nothing to do with the strikes in force today as Northern are thankfully maintaining a full slate), and that's why we aren't arriving at Fitzwilliam until almost 10.45am, behind the worst of the morning drizzle, but already feeling mildly dispirited as gloom and chill fill the air ahead of the anticipation of a late finish that's well have to take regardless of how well the day goes, with a time window demanding either a hurry-up to make it for the earlier ride or a dawdle in order to catch the later one. It's going to be a slow day, which we can feel as we push away, to the northeast along Wentworth Terrace, beyond the industrial terraces and the Pit Club on the north side of the village, shadowing the boundary of the old Fitzwilliam Hemsworth colliery and the reclaimed fields of the country park, passing the local industrial estate before it becomes a rough track to pass along the undulating fields boundaries, gradually turning eastwards working its way around to meet Dicky Sykes Lane and the run uphill past the recreation ground and terrace ends to land us on the A638 Wakefield Road in Brackenhill, the western part of greater Ackworth, across the way from the Electric Theatre cafe and cinema (?).

South Milford to South Elmsall 02/06/22

19.3 miles, via Milford Hall, Monk Fryston, Hillam, Hillam Common, Birkin, Beal, Kellingley,

 Stubbs Bridge, Cridling Stubbs, Darrington Quarries, Mid Yorkshire Golf Course, Darrington,

  Westfield, Wenthill Plantation, Wentbridge, Broom Hill, Thorpe Audlin, Thorpe Gate,

   Rogerthorpe Manor, Upton Beacon, Upton, and Minsthorpe. 

The long Platinum Jubilee bank holiday weekend presents the perfect opportunity to do what suits me best, getting out of the house and taking a long walk, as street parties and the like to celebrate HMQ doing the same job for 70 years aren't my bag at all, and a decade on from trekking Rombalds Moor on the occassion of the Diamond Jubilee, we look to a much longer trip today, as we start our own campaign to walk for 70+ miles in the month of June, in a display of low-key patriotism, or merely making best use of the five walking days that have been made available. We immediately return to South Milford for our start line, with a time window entirely dictated by the rail services at either end, alighting at 9.20am under the sort of weather that I'd have liked to have seen more of on my Spring Jollies week, descending down to the Milford Road and striking south through the village along its main artery, mostly matching the path that we took when last passing this way, taking us over Mill Beck, of ford nomenclature, before Low Street leads past the Swan hotel and down between the old faces of the village and the suburban band beyond. Soon enough, we're into the fields, following the land as it leads us to the island on the A162 bypass road, which is crossed to pass Milford Hall, now fenced off from view and in residential hands, and to trace the footway-less side of Meadow lane as it passes the rail yards at Milford Junction and leads us away from the wrinkles that bound West Yorkshire and down to the way into Monk Fryston as Lumby Lane takes us over the railway and down to the A63 junction, to join the picturesque Main Street as it takes us among the colourfully dressed stone houses and across the way from the Crown Inn and St Wilfred's church. This is the corner of the village that we didn't see in 2015, and it's obviously its best face, and we join our route of seven years prior as we split off away from Monk Fryston Hall to join Lumby Hill as it rises slightly to take us past the old village school and on through the suburban band that has grown to join neighbouring Hillam to the greater settlement, noting a lot of sympathetically built houses in the local sandstone rubble vernacular as we come down to the green by the Cross Keys inn, before we start our new path by heading along Chapel Street, taking us past Hillam Hall and along the ribbon of development on the eastbound lane, where many dream houses have been built, it seems.

Glasshoughton to South Milford 28/05/22

9.7 miles, via Junction 32, Holywell Wood, Toll Hill, Townville, Holmfield, Ferrybridge, 

 Brotherton, Fairburn, Monk Fryston substation, and Lumby. 

Back from holidays with 46 miles of a completed trail under my belt, and feeling pretty sanguine about my trip despite the relatively mediocre weather, and as we now stand on the cusp of the High Season, it's time again to dig into the unknown by expanding the walking bubble to the east and south, and seeking out new destinations too, which is where we start with this trip, seeking out the one railway station that sits within the field of experience, passed by at close quarters on two occasions in 2015 but never travelled to or from. Thus we return to where we were spending our early season weekends, taking a leisurely ride out to Glasshougton as we have large but inflexible time window for this trip, alighting at 10.25am having ridden out the long way round from Leeds and aiming ourselves east once we've gotten off the footbridges, immediately away from the shadow of the Xscape complex and the Junction 32 retail park, but wholly in the commercial and post-industrial landscape still as the A639 Colorado Way leads us past the Aspen Way retail park with its stores and fast food outlets as head out to meet the A656 Park Road, taking a left turn to take us on into suburban Castleford. Note that the former bingo hall has been demolished since we came this way in March, as we rise up to the KGV WMC at the corner of old Glass Houghton before taking a easterly turn again with the B6136 Holywell Lane, rising uphill with the views south to Pontefract Park and ahead to the ancient and enduring Holywell Woods before we dig into the landscape of semis, with nothing of any vintage showing up along the rising lane, before coming up to the top of Toll Hill, where the old pub on the corner of the Fryston and Airedale estates is still refitting. It's certainly a bit of a culture shock being in an urban scenario with a lot of traffic, after such time as we had out of it, and I'm sure my lungs were feeling happier in the preceding week than they are presently as we press down out of the town along Sheepwalk Lane, having not seen anything more than a century old once we're out into the fields again, with pylons and the remaining chimneys of Ferrybridge power station punctuating the local horizon beyond the trees as we skirt through the enduring greenbelt below Fryston Park, ahead of meeting the farm hamlet at Holmfield, and passage under the bridges and flyovers of the A1(M), just north of its entanglement with the M62.

Woodlesford to Knottingley 12/03/22

14.5 miles, via Fleet Mill, Lemonroyd Bridge, RSPB St Aidan's, Shan House Bridge, 

 Methley Cut, Caroline Bridge, Lowther Colliery, Wood End, The Linesway, Allerton Bywater,

  Newton Ings, Newton, Fairburn Ings, Fairburn, Brotherton, Byram, and Ferrybridge. 

My New Lumix is Ready to Go, &
Old Lumix becomes a Paperweight!

After the expiry of my old Panasonic Lumix, and the temporary revival of my old Fuji Finepix, we are compelled to introduce my third camera of my walking career, another DMC-TZ70 which I managed to acquire at very short notice via John Lewis's, at a pretty modest price seeing that its model has been superseded a couple of times since I got my original one, while I'm not looking to upgrade as that would be an unnecessarily expensive and complicated business when I need my tool to be as ready to go as I am, and thus the black model replaces the silver one, restoring to my arsenal all the familiar benefits and drawbacks that I've grown accustomed to over the last four years, with the important reminder to try to keep it dry whenever possible. Thus armed we set out again, questing for the remotest of the Five Towns, travelling to Woodlesford to find it further away in time than it is in distance at the southeast corner of greater Leeds, alighting at 10am, and aiming a path down the course of the lower Aire valley, joining the pavement of the A642 and following it down to the canal were we join the path alongside the wide channel of the Aire & Calder Navigation, and follow its long length down to Fleet Bridge wharf, where the oil depot is gradually getting demolished and rise to the embankment of the river Aire, which we'll be tracing along the length of the section that we re-chanelled after the catastrophic flooding of 1988. All the river below the former opencast pit of RSPB St Aidan's is wholly man made, to be crossed above the weir at Lemonroyd Bridge, and leading us directly into the bird sanctuary, where the originally planned path has to be traced to its west, just to check that the path through the northwest lakes is indeed still flooded, with the floodwater still not going away after a month, before we resume our eastern track, taking us past a reedy lagoon, formed by the old river course, and the old Lemonroyd Lock chamber, and the old canal channel beyond, isolated by the passages of both having been completely re-dug, a short distance to the south.

Sowerby Bridge to Low Moor 16/10/21

13 miles, via Mearclough, Washer Lane Bottom, Granny Hill, St Paul's, Thrum Hall, Pellon,

 Ovenden Wood, Wheatley (viaduct & tunnel), Page Hill, Forest House, Ovenden Moor estate, 

  Old Lane, Boothtown, Pule Hill, Shibden Dale, Lane Ends, Northowram, Lumbrook Mills, 

   Coley Hall, Norwood Green, Horse Close bridge, Old Hanna Woods, New Road Side, 

    Carr Lane Bottom and Morley Carr.

Going into the final turns of the season, the good news is that I haven't gone lame, and it feels like my hip pains are not going to come on at a pace that will interrupt my concluding stretch of walking for 2021, though the difficulties are still like to be forthcoming, not least from the fact that the residual warmth of the earl Autumn has now passed, and we'll have to hope to keep ourselves from chilling down too much by sticking to some more urban environments as we make our final start out from Calderdale proper, where so much of this year has been spent. Alighting at Sowerby Bridge station at 9.05am, we've got possibly the last of the un-traced Lost Railways of West Yorkshire in our sights, namely the Halifax High Level line, but we're down here in the river valley, and it's up there in the western reaches of the town, and thus we've a lot of ascent to make to get there, which means striking east to get no sight of the valley town at all as Holmes Road and Mearclough Road lead us along the riverside and below the rise of the railway line, passing the remaining fragments of industry still enduring, in order to make our passage over the Calder and the C&HN canal via Sladen Bridges. Rise with Canal Road to the passage over the A6026 Wakefield Road, and then get the climb going in no uncertain terms as we join Washer Lane, passing through the small urban enclave at its Bottom, before we start the sharp rise straight up the valley side, doing the reverse passage along my trans-Pennine trail from 2015 but getting a wholly different sort of perspective thanks to going up rather than down, and being in mid October rather than late July, as we pass into the terraced landscape clinging to the hillside around the Wainhouse Tavern and its eponymous tower. Our path beyond then gets extremely technical as it appears that a right of way has endured right up the hill, despite having been broken by the construction of the old turnpike roads, and being accommodated on slippery runs of cobbles between tight walls and up flights of steps, to really get the burn going as we rise relentlessly, from Darcey Hey Lane and over the A58 Rochdale Road and the A646 Burnley Road to land us upon Granny Hill, apparently level with Norland Moor across the valley, on the southwestern corner of Halifax.

Sandbed to Cowling 26/06/21

16.3 miles, on The Pennine Way, via Marsh Wood, Pry Hill, Hebble Hole, Colden, 

 Hot Stones Hill, Green Hill, Clough Head Hill, Reaps Level, Graining Water, Clough Foot, 

  Walshaw Dean Lower & Middle reservoirs, Withins Height - Dick Delf, Top Withins, 

   The Height, Buckley Green, Ponden Reservoir, Dean Clough, Crag Top, Thornton Hill, 

    Oakworth Moor, The Sea, Cat Stone Hill, Ickornshaw Moor, High End Lowe, 

     Dean Hole Clough, Lumb Head, Green Hill, and Ickornshaw. 

Summer lands, in theory, but June fails to continue to flame as we aim our our most ambitious tilt at the lands between the Calder and the Aire, approaching an unbroken stretch of the Pennine Way, that most notable of long distance paths that I keep blathering on about never wanting to do in its entirety, located only a short way west of where we were last weekend, but those extra couple of miles upstream from Hebden Bridge requiring an earlier start and some inconvenient early morning busing to get us to the start of the trail and the time window we need for so, so much off-roading. So it's off the #592 bus at 9am, by the Sandbed terrace, on the side of the A646 Halifax Road, deep in the wooded cleft of Calderdale, by the Callis Bridge weirs and at the point where the Pennine Way and Bridleway both drop in from the south, immediately joining the former of these as it starts north, under the railway and past Lacy House, at the eastern end of the Underbank hamlet-let, and sending us directly up a stone causey at an angle that makes you glad that we haven't got wetness underfoot as height is rapidly gained away from the river. Altitude gains us views back, landing Stoodley Pike and its moorlands on our reverse horizon as we land amongst the perched cottages and farmsteads of Higher Underbank, following our path west before it switches back beyond, past the concealed former chapel and its graveyard, and onto the path directing us northeasterly into Marsh Wood, giving us a gentler ascent up the steep sides of the Calder valley than we are accustomed to, letting the locality of Charlestown and Eastwood recede behind us as we rise up through the ferns and birch, only getting steep as we rise up aside Dale Clough. It looks like it has an old hydro plant built above the cascade, which we pass on our way up through a knot of inconvenient vegetation to meet the cottage cluster above, the last one crammed in on the angled valley side as above lies open fields, met once we're past the Long Hey Top terrace and a passage along the track of Winter's Lane, with a clear way ahead through the long grass, angling us between the Popples and Scammerton Farmsteads, and passing through the wild garden of the latter on our way up to Badger Lane, one of the unexplored high roads in this quarter, and on up to the crest of the Pry Hill ridge, our first summit of the day.

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.

Buckden Pike (aborted) 27/08/18

6.3 miles, from Kettlewell, via Top Mere Road, Cam Pasture, Starbotton Cam Road,
 Tor Dike, Hunters Sleets, Top Mere Top, Buckden Pike, Buckden Rake, Buckden, and 
  Starbotton. Park Rash, and Cam Gill Road.

The weather projections for Bank Holiday Monday morning look a whole lot more favourable than those we had for Sunday, suggesting that the worst of the lingering rain should be done before 9am, and as I've got my camera working again and all my clothes dried, with a potential six and half hour window to use before the last #874 bus runs back to Leeds, it makes total sense to tilt again at Buckden Pike and hang the consequences of a dozen extra miles walked when I still need to return to work on Tuesday. So rise for breakfast at 8.45am, again eating as much food as Zarina will put in front of me to sustain another trip out, feeling teased by the suggestions of blue skies and sunshine breaking through the light clouds as I watch an early starter walk up the ascent up to Gate Cote Scar across the valley, but as I make plans to leave an hour later, the weather looks a whole lot less favourable, and I'm already mentally revising my plans as my hosts agree to allow me to leave my bag containing my clothes and ancient laptop at the tearoom to collect on the way back. Step out at 10am, cursing the fact that Upper Wharfedale never seems to bring the weather that you'd like to have, striking back along Middle Lane again as I choose to get the long ascent up to 500m altitude done early, rather than retracing steps up the main road back to Starbotton, stepping past the Village store again and walking up the north side of Kettlewell Beck, past the various cottages and farmsteads to the former village school at the bottom of Cam Gill Road. The ascent here starts in earnest, and even before we've risen above the tree cover, the drizzle has shifted to a steady rain, and I'll pause overlooking the village to look to the north west to see if the weather shows any sign of relenting, which it doesn't and so we get fully waterproofed up again as we hit the slippery limestone-clad track of Top Mere Road, wondering aloud if we're getting yesterday's weather back, returning for a bonus downpour or two over Wharfedale again. The steepest stretch of the days' ascending is the rise to 350m, the regular 150m ascent from the river valley being something of a West Riding tradition, and looking back down the valley as we go gives a distinctly shifting view of the weather as the cloud level changes with nearly every look, sometimes revealing Barden Moor all the way down the valley, and at other times offering nothing further away than all the marquees around Kilnsey, and hopes for high land progress feel stymied once I get sight over to Great Whernside, with cloud shrouding it above the 600m contour.

Great Whernside 26/08/18

10.1 miles, from Kettlewell, via Hag Dike, Great Whernside, Stone Top Head, Blackfell Top, 

 Black Dike, Hunters Sleets, Top Mere Top, Buckden Pike, Buckden Rake, Buckden, 
  Tor Dike, Starbotton Cam Road, and Starbotton.

As it's August Bank Holiday at the end of one of the hottest summers in the last few decades, it's entirely natural that the weather projection isn't looking good, and it looks like a complete circuit of the two 700+m fells around Kettlewell is unlikely to be completed before foul weather takes the day over, so after a decent night's kip I rise at 8am, the only early starter in the B'n'B so Zarina can host me with a three and a half course breakfast, which will hopefully be enough to fortify me for the whole day, and against whatever it might throw at me. I'm not quite prepared for winter weather but waterproof and gloves ought to protect me against the coming rain and wind, which are already underway when I depart at 9.10am, hopeful that I might get well on over the high grounds before the weather worsens around midday, wandering off up Middle Lane to the corner by the Village Store and crossing over Kettlewell Beck by the King's Head Inn and pressing east up Scabbate Gate, among the many cottages that grew up here thanks to the boom in the Lead mining industry in the 19th century, surpassing the textiles and farming industries that preceded it, and it's the sort of Yorkshire village that I love most, until you realise just how far from the wider world you really are up here. Which makes it ideal for the adventurous type, which we are being this weekend, following the road as it turns to a rough track leading up to the campsite at the bottom of Dowber Gill, where we pick the bridleway as our ascent route up to Great Whernside, which still sits away hidden from view above the village, and as we rise aside the neighbouring valley of Cam Gill Beck, we gain a fresh perspective over the side valleys that cannot be seen from the main body of Wharfedale. The road up to Coverdale can be traced as we rise above the tree cover and press on up well built track until we hit the 350m contour and split from our north-western trajectory to hairpin back and trace a broadly twisting path across the high pasture that leads back towards Dawber Gill, giving us evolving views back down Wharfedale and across to Firth Fell, to Buckden Pike and its companion Top Mere Top to the north, and finally up to the top 200m of Great Whernside, a summit strip that is over a mile long, and thus I'm not entirely certain that we can see the actual summit cairn from here.

Skipton to Kettlewell 25/08/18

14.8 miles, via Tarn Moor, Scale House, Rylstone, Cracoe, Swinden Quarry, Threshfield, 
 Kirk Bank, Kilnsey, and Skirfare Bridge.

August Bank Holiday weekend arrives, at long last, or rather suddenly as the month already hits its last week, and even if the weather projection for much of it is not looking too great, I'm still going to take my long weekend away in Kettlewell to face down its pair of 700+m neighbours as I've had this trip planned since May and have already paid half of the costs of my room and board, and most probably won't be seeing that money again if I chose to stay home and rest up instead of walking. So stuff my life into two bags, rather than the largest single one, as wearing them slung fore and aft offers more comfortable weight distribution, despite me looking like I'm primed to attend Leeds Fest instead, and set out late-ish as Northern Trains and the RMT are still at loggerheads, meaning that I don't get to my jump off point in Skipton until 10.40am, with my sights set on Upper Wharfedale, which immediately feels like a long way away as the extra weight of my holiday bag is soon felt. Skipton station being offset to the town's south-west means that finding routes north will always follow familiar pavements, and that's the case today as we hammer out along Broughton Road past the mill conversions as far as the canal bridge before turning up Coach Street to pass among the old wharf-side building before crossing the Springs Branch and heading uphill among the town's car parks to meet Gargrave Road, and the route up the sealed off rat run of St Stephen's Close. Suburbia butts up against hidden terraces along here, where the RC church also hides concealed, where a last look over the town is gained before we slip downhill to the leafy passage of the B6265 Grassington Road, which will be our companion as we press away from Airedale, rising out of the walled in section below the trees and on past the smart range of suburbia that has never quite grown to fill all the fields above the town, where we gain sight of the Barden Moor fringe before we lose our footway and have to make a passage over the A59 Skipton Bypass. It's going to be road walking for such a large chunk of today, so it's nice to briefly get a detour onto an off-road trek over Tarn Moor up as far as the Craven Heifer Inn, a path seen before as long ago as 2012, meeting the pub and having the three high crags on the southern edge of the moor announce themselves as we press on, along with Sharp Haw and Rough Haw arriving on our horizon to the west. The road walk thus starts in earnest as we rise and fall with the lane as Eller Beck flows south towards the town beyond the adjacent fields, as we enter the Yorkshire Dales National Park with the traffic level looking like it might prove more challenging than on my escapade along the A65 in April, pressing on in the shadow of Crookrise Crag as we pass Bog Wood and None Go Bye farm, and the West Riding roadsign indicating that we are only two miles out on the Skipton & Cracoe turnpike.

Otley to Burley via Swinsty Dam 05/08/18

16.5 miles, via Wharfemeadows Park, Farnley Park, Leathley, Stainburn Bank, 

 Napes Hill, Lindley Moor, Stainburn Forest, Little Alms Cliff, Sandwith Moor, Bland Hill, 

  Swinsty Dam, Timble, Low Hall, Askwith Moor, Askwith, and Burley stones.

There's no bonus round of walking for the last Sunday of my first Summer break because it's actually raining, putting a temporary brake on the 2018 heatwave for a short while at least, but the plan I'd hatched for it is carried forward to the next weekend, as after finally getting a copy of this year's Dalesbus timetable I'd discovered that the #821 Nidderdale Rambler could take me to Fewston or Blubberhouses and give me a window large enough to walk the circuit of the top half of the Washburn valley, a plan I've had on the slate for over two years now. So we aim for that as August comes around, setting out on the bus from Morley in what feels like good time, but it transpires that the journey plans that the WYMetro site gave me were damn lies as the necessary X84 isn't running and the scheme to ride the #821 dies before I can even board my second bus, and even though I could make the #874 to Upper Wharfedale, I only have the E297 map with me and thus am compelled to make a trek from Otley. Thus it's fortunate that I have the bones of a trail that I'd considered last year in my mind, travelling among the paths that were left unseen on my many treks across the Washburn area as I aimed to Harrogate and Nidderdale, and so when we arrive at Otley's bus stand at 10.10am, I set out with some idea of where I'm going to go, but with no idea at all of how far it might be or how long it might take, so for once we go onwards as close to trekking without a plan as we've ever really done. So northwards, after a fashion, via Crossgate and Boroughgate, past the empty market place and on to Clapgate, passing the Black Horse, the Stew and Oyster in the old Grammar School, and the solicitors office called Savage Crangel, then on between the spired pair of RC and URC establishments before making our crossing of the Wharfe via Otley Bridge. Tacking eastwards from here takes us into Wharfemeadows Park, and trying to trace paths not walked last year, which takes us along in front of the picturesque riverside terrace, around the back of the bowls club and former lido and then from Farnley Road side down to the riverbank to spot the redeveloped mill site and the fish elevating mechanism by the weir. The we can meet the dog and child exercisers who are using the riverside path that leads below the playing fields and out into the vast and recently harvested fields of Farnley Park, where the house hides well up the hillside, obscured by the rolls of the landscape and the fact that it's further away than you think, seeing the crowd thin down as we press east and downstream, watching the lump of Rombalds Moor recede and smelling air thick with the scent of Balsam as the vanishing clouds suggest we are in for another very warm day indeed.