Runimation: Remember Covid?

 The Following is For Reference Only.

Well, ain't that a Kick in the Stones?

If you've been regarding the world in 2022 with a casual eye, you could easily believe that the Covid-19 pandemic has long since ended, judging how far it has dropped from the public, political and media consciousness over the last year, some might consider it having concluded when HM Government declared the end of all social restrictions in July 2021, while others might have considered it all done after the Omicron wave passed over across the end of 2021 and the start of 2022, and if you paid attention to governmental actions you'd figure it over as attention fell to the war in Ukraine, the cost of living crisis and people choosing to create new problems where they didn't exist previously. The horrible reality is that it's still here, and ongoing with much vigour, maybe not with the deadliness of the initial waves in 2020, but with enough force to still pose a significant health risk to the clinically vulnerable and the un-vaccinated, and to cause problems for healthcare networks worldwide, especially considering that the OG variant is now barely present in the population, while the much more contagious Omicron variant has now gone global, to present everyone with a new transmissible disease, that wasn't around only three years prior, to be afflicted by with the passage of the seasons. Reflecting on the fact the the NHS in the UK still has a backlog of 7 million elective operations to perform, while still needing to work around many internal infection prevention measures, it's very easy to believe that we literally got the bad ending to the pandemic endgame, where the disease wasn't contained by restriction in 2020 after being imposed too late and lifted too early, while prolonged global mobility has ensured that every subsequent variant has had its opportunity to infect the worldwide population, resulting in the situation where the disease is now endemic, and able to afflict and kill thousands every year into the foreseeable future, like an unwanted companion to influenza and tuberculosis, which those in power globally completely failed to prevent.

Rumination: Collapsing the Bubble

The Following is For Reference Only.

Pandemic Thoughts - April 2022 

More than 25 months on from the World Health Organization declaring a global pandemic, we cannot really allow ourselves to think that it’s over, as there’s been no further declaration made as such, but the reality of the situation is that the spread of Covid-19 and the risks that it poses have fallen far down the list of issues and anxieties in the modern world, to be replaced by a burgeoning global economic crisis and an open conflict in Europe that shows no signs of abating, while the behaviours of so many are such as like the health crisis is now far from their minds. I’ll finally put myself into that bracket, after reserving judgement for so long, taking the opportunities presented to me during April 2022 to collapse my imposed bubble of isolation from general socialising that we maintained throughout the months, covering the first and second waves of Coronavirus infections of 2020, and through the spread of the Delta and Omicron variants in 2021, having somehow come out of the other end without having become unwell, and ready to face the hopefully diminished risks in person, now that covid can be largely regarded as an infection that would be unpleasant to get, rather than a matter of life and death. So, naturally, it’s with my Good Friends in Calderdale that I make my breakout, after they were so good to me after the last two years, twice making an excursion over the Pennines for evenings out in Manchester, not exactly hitting the town hard, but going into a crowded venue for the first time since Christmas 2019, on both occasions braving the throng in ‘Society’ on Barbirolli Square to get in the beer 'n' burgers, as the mix of Vocation Ales and Slap & Pickle’s creations are worthy of the trip in their own right (despite having closer and more convenient outlets in Hebden Bridge and Leeds). 

Pontefract to Wakefield 02/04/22

11.1 miles, via Pontefract Castle, Pontefract Park, Park Hill, North Featherstone, 

 Snydale Villas & Streethouse, Sharlston Common, Brand Hill, Bracken Hill, 

  Heath Common, Belle Vue, Fall Ings, and Wakefield Bridge. 

There's only one day of Walking to be had whilst Down Country, as there's also three days of labour to be done around My Mum's house, and a sudden downturn in the quality of the weather to be contended with before we instead return to this season's regular stomping grounds in search of one of the few remaining trajectories in West Yorkshire that hasn't been traced, which involves installing Pontefract as our probable launch point for trails in many directions for the year, alighting at 9.30am again at Monkhill station, with all of the sunshine of two weeks ago, but none of the heat to go with it. To head westwards, we first fall and rise with Mill Dam Lane, past the Railway inn and the Hope & Anchor to arrive below the bailey of Pontefract castle, tracing it around Beech Hill and Castle Chain to land beneath the keep, and its quatrefoil donjon, before rising to the town up Micklegate and Horsefair, noting just how many tower blocks have been built up the hillside without spoiling the ancient aspect of the town centre beyond the Town Hall, along  Market Place to the Butter Cross and St Giles church, and down Beastfair to the war memorial. Split off Cornmarket by the old Courthouse, and descend off the hill via Sessions House Yard and Colonels Walk, between Haribo factory and Leisure centre to find the way down to the railway, which is passed under via the foot tunnel by the playing fields of Pontefract Collieries FC and the urban enclave that has developed around them, rising past Tanshelf station and over the A639  by the gates to Pontefract Park, joining Park Lane as it propels us along the suburban ribbon at the town's west end, past New College and up Park Hill, arriving below the prominent water tower. Having risen with the B6134 to a modest height, a westward view emerges, to the county's distant southwestern horizon, with Woolley Edge and Emley Moor re-sequenced ahead of it, giving us something to look at across the fields of blooming rapeseed as we work our way along the perimeter of Pontefract Golf Course, offering no views north through the hawthorn hedges until its full length has been passed, revealing the look over Glass Houghton and Castleford, and the look towards Leeds, peeking its highest towers above nearby hills, and showing the Aire-Wharfe watershed ridge bounding the city to its west and east.

Allerton Bywater to Pontefract 27/02/22

 5.6 miles, via Allerton Ings, Castleford (Bridge), Glass Houghton, Pontefract Park, 

  and Tanshelf station. 

When you nab yourself a long weekend, your mind immediately thinks that your day off work has to be the one to use for any outdoor exploits, but when the situation presents a Monday that looks like hot garbage, it makes much more sense to move this to the Sunday, especially when there's only a relatively brief catch-up to be had and the weather is looking massively superior, and although the transport options are much more limited, it's going to be a 90 minute trip to the starting line regardless of the day, via the TPE to Leeds and the long ramble of the #168 bus. We thus alight at the Blands Avenue bus stop at 11.50am, at the end of the Wood End estate and across from the riverside ponds so that we might replicate the walk along Leeds Road through Allerton Bywater, past the primary school, the terraced triangle and the parish church of St Mary the Less, this time under a wash of bright sunshine, before Station Road leads us past the colliery memorial, unseen last time, and on past the splurge of suburbia on the brownfields to the north and on past the Railway Terraces and Letchmire Pasturees to the A656. We strike south here, with the Roman Road taking us across the apron of level fields that form Allerton Ings, with dampness still apparent all around, in the marshlands and arable fields, with the former gravel pits and workings to the east having filled with the floodwaters of the preceding weeks, ahead of the road kink that takes us over the Aire & Calder Navigation's Castleford Cut, past the enclave of terraces and industry on Lock Lane and over the mighty Aire, flowing with the force of two rivers as it heads eastwards beneath Castleford Bridge. Avoiding the town centre to the west, we'll continue south with Bridge Street as it leads us under the wide railway bridge and sticking with the A656 Pontefract Road as it rises up past St Joseph's RC church and school, past the ends of the mining vintage terraces that array to the south of the town and uphill beyond the The Magnet inn, between the playing fields of Castleford Academy and the urban wild park around Smawthorne Marsh as we crest our way over the ridge that the town has grown over during the last century, well away from the flooding risks posed by the river to the north. 

Out of The Dark Season, and Onward!

In all my walking years, I cannot recall a Dark Season which has passed as rapidly as this last one did, seemingly come and gone in about half the time that they'd normally take, and that has to be in part due to effectively going to ground completely after the end of 2021's open season, taking a well earned rest that rapidly turned into an extended period of isolation - hibernation as the risks posed by the Omicron wave of the Covid pandemic washed over ahead of Christmas, when all focus fell upon having a normal sort of Festive Season before we embarked on 2022's journey.  I can't place how we managed to get January to shift through so quickly though, as it's always the month of the year that feels like it's over six weeks long, but this one has flushed through in no time too, come and gone rapidly after getting in our necessary weekend of social interaction at its start while toiling through a busy month at the hospital which never gave me the opportunity to feel bored, with the sunshine returning in the evenings with almost indecent haste, all combining to make our passage from Samhain to Imbolc, via the festivities of Yule, almost bizarrely short. Maybe it helps to find distractions to pass the time away, and becoming a moon watcher in 2022 has helped with that, as I've never quite been familiar with its phases and location in the sky through its orbits, and this has been a particularly good month for watching it wax and wane, awhile taking an interest in seeing it in its crescent and gibbous forms, revealing it cratered features and many mares when contrasted in shadow, around the appearance of January's full moon, the Wolf Moon, which I can only hope every howled at on the evening of the 17th. Now having a decent idea of where to look for it in the mornings and evenings, that can be fitted in around a renewed engagement with a bit of astronomy, an interest of mine that has become very minor over the the last decade, and the month has also been spent spying Jupiter in the evenings during the early going, while chasing Venus in the dawning skies later on, both repeating the reality-altering experiences of my youth when I first regarded them with binoculars, namely spotting the former's system of Galilean moons across the vastness of space, and seeing the latter resolve as a crescent showing it as a planet, and not just a bright star in the morning sky.

The Conclusions of 2021

Wrapping the 2021 Season
at Shipley railway station.

As 2021 slips into history, we again find ourselves in the moment of reflection, looking back at the end of (almost) a whole decade of walking around the West Riding of Yorkshire, and beyond, and being mildly amazed of how much we've seen and learned across the course of those years, how a few months of useful exercise back in 2012 have become no less than an active career of travelling on foot, seeing more sights and pacing more miles than I ever would have thought possible, while again pondering the annual question of What Have We Learned in 2021? Honestly, most of the take away from my tenth season of walking amounts to 2021 has been an extremely frustrating year, as a simple extraction of achievements from the list of targets that I posted last January would make it look like this year has been a significant success in light of the ongoing pandemic conditions, a more reflective regard would have things appear very differently. Indeed, my local aims in the early season came together very well, getting down plenty of miles in the circuits from home during the third national lockdown, before expanding the season in April while I waited for travel restrictions to be lifted and the effects of vaccination against Covid-19 to take hold, getting in my local multi-part trial before then busting it open wide in May, starting out my long ruin of trails between Calderdale and Airedale and getting in the cross-country trail, in the form of the Bronte Way, which I had promised myself. Summer then saw us being mostly successful in pushing my experience field out to the northwest from Calderdale, over the high moors in that corner and making ourselves acquainted with the Boulsworth Hill massif and the lay of the East Lancs valley, before keeping the legs going through the autumn's dour months to check off most of the unseen paths in the vicinity of the Calderdale - Bradford high moors and the most notable towns of their boroughs, while pressing ourselves past 500 miles on the year, which was always my stated goal, and achieving the 5,000 miles before I'm Fifty target with considerable ease, with almost three and half years to spare.

Pandemic Thoughts: November 2021

The Following is For Reference Only, the 2021 Summary will follow in four weeks' time.

Another month starts with our attention having wandered away from Covid for a while, instead taking interest in the COP26 intergovernmental conference on Climate Change, with a small amount of hope that after nearly two years of health crisis conditions around the globe,  world leaders might actually start to take the existential threat of the climate crisis just as seriously, but despite what feel like weeks of discussions little seems to come out of it, aside from a non-binding agreement to phase out coal usage, which hasn't been signed by the remaining major coal consuming economies. It's a horrible realisation to make, that those who would govern all of us have little real interest in long term planning for the benefit of future generations, setting targets to be met by 2050, long after any of them will have any stake in the future well-being of the world, but we really shouldn't be surprised, as we ought to be aware that as soon as challenges to the enduring problems of contemporary economics are faced, the wagons are circled in an attempt to protect the status quo, and after all this is the 26th such conference on the matter, and all the previous meetings have failed to create binding agreements and actions. So we have one less reason to feel hopeful after all that, and instead reflect on where the Pandemic is leading us as we transition out of the light half of Autumn and into the Dark Season, and despite having a few days of infections spiking above 50,000 per day, a renewed surge in the rate doesn't come to pass, and the familiar sort of numbers continue throughout the month, apparently fired most prominently among family groups, and with the under 12s being the most harshly affected group for the first time, showing that circulation among the un-vaccinated is still the major issue. It can all look like that Covid is becoming socially normalized, and the risk of infection has been allowed to become 'just one of those things' that people catch, with a panel scientists speculating that even in a best-case scenario, it could very plausibly be 2023 before Covid becomes a background disease, among the mix of regular ailments suffered by the general populace, while bad scenarios could have it lasting another five years, with social counter measures and annual booster vaccinations being a regular feature for some time to come.

Halifax to Bradford (again) 30/10/21

10.7 miles, via North Bridge, Haley Hill, Akroydon, Boothtown, Booth Bank, Catherine Slack,

 Shibden Head, Ambler Thorn, Queensbury (Ford, West End), Low Fold, Hole Bottom, 

  Clayton (Bailey Stile, St John's, Town End, Pinnacle, Lidget), Paradise Green, Scholemoor, 

   Lidget Green, Lister Hills, Forster Square, & Exchange.  

Having done the walk over the Aire - Calder transition between Halifax and Bradford last weekend, it would seem to make sense to approach today's excursion as going back the way we came so as to vary things up a bit, but instead we'll be doing a repeat of start and finish points on consecutive weekends because I've had the road walk up the side of the Holmfield valley tagged as an ascent option since I first rode the bus up to Queensbury, and also because we have weather forecast to come on from the southwest all day, and I have no intention at all of walking into the teeth of that over the latter half of our trip. Dampness is already heavy in the air and thick on the ground as we alight in Halifax at 9.30am, seeking another fresh route to the north as we leave the Station compound and head up Horton Street once again, this time making our turn onto Market Street, taking us between the Piece Hall and the Westgate Arcade, and on between the Borough Market and the Woolshops centre, along with making another pass the Duke of Wellington's Regiment memorial before heading out onto Northgate, in the direction of the Broad Street centre and the bus station, which is finally in the grip of a remodelling to replace the 1980s styled pavilions, the last such in the county. Heading towards North Bridge, we turn onto Bowling Dyke to pass below it and the A58 flyovers to meet the crossing over Hebble Brook at the throat of Dean Clough, and tramp the pavements of Old Lane to meet the snicket that was famously photographed by Bill Brandt in 1937, where we'll rise up the steep and slippery cobbles to pass over the old GNR line between North Bridge station and Old Lane tunnel, both hidden by overgrowth in the cutting, and thence up the valley side on more setts to arrive on the side of the A647 Haley Hill, high above the valley side already, below the looming towers blocks on the Range Lane corner. The main road leads us up the valley's periphery, past the perched Lidl store and up to All Souls Haley Hill, the towering and spired pile that might be Sir George Gilbert Scott's crowning achievement in his speciality of Victorian Gothic revival churches, which lies below Ackroyd Park, home to the Bankfield museum and once home to Edward Ackroyd, the local employer and benefactor who developed the industrial suburb of Ackroydon in the 1860s which lies along the side of the rising road, a place to take a proper visual interest in on a nicer day than this one.

Hebden Bridge to Queensbury 02/10/21

9.9 miles, via Machpelah, Birchcliffe, Chiserley (sorta), Midgley Moor (Collon Flat & 
 Dimmin Dale), Luddenden Dean, Low Bridge, Warley Moor (Height Edge, Sleepy Lowe Flat, 
  & Rocking Stone Flat), Cold Edge, Hunter Hill, Stod Fold, Lower Brockholes, Illingworth,
    Bradshaw, Raggalds, Mountain and Hill Top (abandoned en route to Bradford). 

After ten years of doing this, I really ought to have learned by now to not necessarily trust my weather eye when trying to predict the weather for the Pennines from my regular haunts in greater Leeds, as this past week had me observing all the changeable weather patterns of early Autumn from my vantage point at Seacroft Hospital and figured that a white cloud day projected for Saturday couldn't be more challenging than the passage of sunshine and showers that had covered the five days that preceded it, a display of climate naivete that's completely in keeping with 2021's experience. Our ride out to Hebden Bridge for our fifth and final embarkation of the year has us doubting the weather quality for the day, already grey and drizzly before we're off the train for a start ahead of 9.15am, already happy that we chose to graduate up to a long sleeved jacket before we headed out, and the rain's already coming on as we pass over the Calder and the Rochdale Canal, and make our way across the Burnley Road to the Machpelah terrace and the road towards Keighley, turning northeast as we meet the steep flight of steps that elevates us rapidly up to the raked terraces of Birchcliffe. It'd be a challenging ascent even in warmer temperatures, and as we hit the top, the reach of Marlborough Terrace continues at a similar sort of pitch, as if this town built its urban sprawl without real consideration for how practical it might be as we're elevated high above the combining valleys on the troublingly slick cobbles, passing above the rooftops and looking back to Heptonstall across the way before we join Sandy Gate, shadowing the fall of the Nut Clough as we press on northeasterly, above the tree line and into the rural apron of fields above. It's a slog up this damp tarmac, doing the ascent of the regular 150m of Calderdale ascent and then some as we push away from the clough edge to Lane Ends Lane, getting the fine view of all the amalgamating channels around Hebden Bridge as we press uphill, taking us to the south of Chiserley village, and its nearby companions to the north in Wadsworth and Old Town, almost grazing the settlement as we pass the Hare & Hounds inn by the high lane junction, and join Popples Lane beyond, accessing the farmsteads on the high marginal lands. 

Hebden Bridge to Nelson 04/09/21

15.2 miles, via Calder Holme Park, Wood End, Lee Mills Bridge, Midgehole, Shackleton, 

 Walshaw, New Laithe Moor, Alcomden Bridge, Greave Pasture, Greave Clough, The Sod, 

  Hey Slacks, Boulsworth Hill (Lad Law & Abbott Stone), Bedding Hill Moor, Will Moor, 

   Deerstones Moor, Upper & Lower Coldwell reservoirs, Walton's Monument, Castercliff, 

    Marsden Park, and Netherfield. 

August Bank Holiday Monday also gets dropped from my walking schedule, not solely because of the mediocre weather, but due to the fact of being laid up in bed for 10 hours of Sunday with an absolute bastard of a headache behind my eyes, as if all the experience of the preceding day out overwhelmed me completely, completely blowing the already busted flush that was August 2021, and so as we head into the final third of this year, we have to start looking to force in the walking long walking days on the High Moors, regardless of the conditions, just to get them paced before the days get too short. That's where we find ourselves as September starts, alighting at Hebden Bridge at 8.15am, and setting out northbound, trying to find footfalls that haven't been made through this town already, which means passing through Calder Holmes park on the north side path and rising over the canal via the bridge into the formal garden by the Picture house, and thence crossing the A646 New Road to head up Bridge Gate, where the marketeers are already breakfasting in the many cafes and our path takes us over Hebden Water via St George's Bridge, the 1510 packhorse bridge that's one of the most enduring structures in the valley. Take a left onto Hanging Royd Lane, behind the town hall complex to trek on among the terraces and factory units that occupy the only significant area of flat ground in the town, which leads us up to another crossing of Hebden Water via the Victoria Road bridge, and another twisting turn or two among th terraced streets that start to stack up on the hillside, feeling puzzled that a riverside path in the town does not exist, only located at the end of Spring Grove where the Foster Mill packhorse bridge leads us across again and into the green passage upstream. The local cricket field is hidden in this riverside glade, as are some allotment gardens and the village bowling club, all crammed onto whatever flat ground they can find upstream from the town, alongside the river that churns away over the riffles and pools that have been contained by built-up walls along both banks, clearly trying to manage the flow of the many valleys that feed water into this single channel and into the Calder, a feat to be admired as we we move our way up to the Lee Mill bridge, where a suburban enclave has been developed on the mill site.

Hebden Bridge to Burnley 31/07/21

14.7 miles, via Calder Holmes Park, Hebble End, Mytholm, Rawtonstall Bank, Pry Hill, 

 Blackshaw Head, Well Hill, Pole Hill, Hawk Stones, Stiperden Bank & Bar, Coal Clough 

  Wind Farm, Long Causeway, Mosley Height, Mere Clough, Red Lees, Brunshaw, Turf Moor,

   Burnley Town Centre, Sandygate, Barracks, Central & Manchester Road stations.

As we find ourselves on the cusp of August, you might have the hope that we have something like a Summer climate in the air, but we're not seeing anything of the sort as we approach the high season objectives around the moors to the northwest of Calderdale and over the English Watershed into East Lancashire, instead of sunshine and warmth,we've got a cool and white cloud-y sort of day to face, hopeful that the proximity to the Pennines is not going to bring the rain at altitude as we join the old road out of the Calder valley for a proper trek into the unknown. We're not up with the lark today, instead riding out to Hebden Bridge for a 9.15am start, in the hope that predicted rain on the far side of the Pennines might have blown itself out by the time we get there, aiming ourselves towards the high roads by keeping low initially, departing the station to make a passage through Calder Holmes park, where its gloomy and early enough to only have dog walkers for company as we track its paths over to the side of the Rochdale Canal, where we cross Bridge 17 to follow the towpath west, past Blackpit Lock and over the Calder aqueduct. There's light drizzle in the air as we make our way along the back of the factories and terraces of Hebble End that are squeezed onto the narrow island between the river and the canal, keeping to the path until we meet the site of Calder Mills, where we split off to Robertshaw Road, taking us over to the other end of the ranked terraces in this space to follow Stubbing Holme Road as it follows the channel of the Calder, markedly narrower here as it flows down from its confluence with Colden Clough, where a footbridge takes us to the north side again, and up alongside the interceding stream channel. This leads us up to Bank Foot Bridge, where we land towards the western end of town, crossing over the A646 King Street to get on our route properly, starting our ascent of Church Lane as it passes behind the old folks home complex and into the district of Mytholm, passing the church of St James, which confirms itself as Hebden Bridge's parish church, on the closest plot of level ground large enough to accommodate it, as well as passing the local school and starting our climb in earnest as Bank Terrace and Glen View Road start their steep, twisting course uphill between the terraces and semis that cling onto this hillside, among the rising woodlands.

Brighouse to Northowram 03/07/21

6 miles, via Owler Ings, Brookfoot, Slead Syke Wood bottom, Sutcliffe Wood bottom, 

 Hipperholme Mill, Mytholme bridge, Shibden Hall Park (Mereside), Stump Cross, Salterlee, 

  Lane Ends, and Shibden Dale Brow. 

You can probably guess from the headline that this was not a walking trip that went as planned, and I should also have known that I was flick fate on the nose when I thought that I could take on the challenge posed by a day of constant Summer rain, but sometimes it seems that I really think I know better and that the weather conditions can easily be overcome even when taking on a trip from the banks of the Calder up to the watershed ridge and back down again, taking a long route around Halifax and taking in some of the Calderdale terrain missed on my long trips northbound. So, this object lesson in watching things come unstuck starts at Brighouse station at 8.50am, already dressed against the weather that doesn't take much time to come on as we take a snaking route across the town to the northwest, heading to Brighouse bridge via Gooder Lane and Cliffe Road, and then approaching the Navigation channel and  Anchor Bridge via the stub of Bridge Street, before we head out of town via Owler Ings Road and Bank Street, varying it us just so things can be kept interesting as we match old trajectories. There's already a persistent light drizzle in the air as we rise up to the side of the A6025 Elland Road, again, where we'll carry on northwesterly through the tree lined bank above the canal and the Calder on the way down to Brookfoot, by no means an original route choice but the only practical way to get to this low corner of the town, with its terraces stacked on the hillside above, its old Co-op store now occupied by a funeral director and the Red Rooster inn looking likes its back in business after seeming to have had regular occasions of being permanently shut. Our new route starts here, not up through the Brookfoot Business Park on the site of the old dye works, despite it offering a hard surface to walk on, instead joining the rough path at the side of Red Beck, which forms the valley that we're intending to traverse, possibly the most concealed of all the branches of the Calder, with our initial steps being taken up to the edge of the woodland and fields above the stream, pressing on past the industrial plant, with the vegetation having been very recently cut back so we're not getting an additional soaking from below as we rise on, up the dirt track to meet Wood Bottom Road.

Halifax to Apperley Bridge 29/05/21

12.7 miles, via North Bridge, Claremount, Stump Cross, Northowram, Stone Cross, 

 Shelf Hall, Shelf, Beck Hill, Buttershaw, Wibsey Park, Wibsey, Brown Royd Hill, 

  Little Horton (Chapel Green, Holme Top, & Little Horton Green), Bradford city centre, 

   Wapping, Park End, Undercliffe, Eccleshill, Greengates and Dyehouse Fold. 

Out with the old Boots #7,
and in with the new Boots #8!

As my Spring Jollies at Home week ends, but my Ten Day Weekend concludes, there are some feelings of frustration to be had as we shift back into the regular scope of walking from home, firstly, is that fact that the 20+ miles of walking time lost due to horrid weather conditions over two days at the start of the month have resulted in my missing the opportunity to breach my first 5,000 mile target of my walking career this weekend, standing at only 33 miles distant as we open out today, meaning the chance to gather the family, or at least have Mum stick around at mine for another day, to force a celebration of sorts, is gone. Equally annoying is the fact that Pair of Boots #7 have given up the ghost quite spectacularly, with the extensive gluing applied to their uppers in the late portion of last year having failed to prevent their demise in the face of the all the mud and wetness that they have encountered since being revived a month ago, when I'd hoped that they too would see me past 5,000 miles, and thus Boots #8 has to be purchased, going back to the suede and mesh styles of my initial pairs, after encountering the poor wear of the uppers on Mountain Warehouse's all leather styles, as well as being put off by their suddenly increased cost. I've no idea at all if these Storm boots will endure like their 5,000 mile sole guarantee suggests they ought, or whether I'll have bust them up by the end of 2022, but they're £40 less expensive than a like-for-like replacement and are going to need a breaking in walk as my feet have gotten used to rigid uppers and heavier soles over the last few years, and thus we'll have to adapt our walking plans around the risk of blistering or other foot trauma, meaning urban walking is the order of the day, allowing us a more limited route mileage and multiple opportunities to bolt from the trail, if needs be.

Batley to Baildon 01/05/21

17 miles, via Healey, The Crofts, Heckmondwike, Littletown, Lane Ends, Gomersal, Birdacre, 

 Field Head, Lodge Beck, Hunsworth (sorta), Chatts Wood, Woodlands, Mill Carr Hill, Bierley,

  Goose Hill, Bowling Park, East Bowling, New Leeds, Barkerend, Beech Grove, Undercliffe, 

   Bolton Outlanes, Five Lane Ends, High Field, Idle, Thackley, and Buck Mill Bridge. 

It's taken a while to get here, but our arrival in May finally has it feeling like we are safe to declare 'Serious Business' on the year, as we're three weeks out from my second Covid vaccine dose and this country is now equally far out of its tightened lockdown restrictions which means our local bubble can be escaped and the season pushed further afield, not that I've got a mass of pre-prepared routes readied, as my cautious nature knows how these pandemic conditions have played out already and where the best laid plans often end up. Thus we look to travelling from the Calder valley to the Aire valley, by as many paths as we can find, as it's the major trajectory across West Yorkshire that we've been ignoring for the longest, and our first of these has us alighting at Batley, at a remove from the actual Calder because Dewsbury lacks obvious fresh routes north, for a 9am start, with a generally westwards path to initially trace, downhill along Station Road among the proud Victorian warehouses, and across Mill Lane and Bradford Road with a surprising amount of ease. The rise out of the valley of Batley Beck then starts as we hit Hick Lane, rising up below the imposing former Methodist chapel and then taking a turn away from the town's main street by the Union Rooms to follow Wellington Street as it passes its eponymous pub and a whole lot of not much else, until we meet the old public baths and technical school, across the way from the Fox's Biscuits factory, which along with the Variety Club is one of the main reasons for the town's national profile, The Pleasures of Batley indeed. It's uphill still beyond there, up to the Healey Lane corner and on along the path previously traveled past Jessop park and into the landscape of suburbia that has crept up the hillside, passing through the estate ahead of taking the turn off West Park Road to follow the old road alignment as it wanders into the concealed village of Healey, where some of its rustic flavour still endure around the George Inn and its own version of Healey Mills, just like it namesake down by the Calder to the southeast of here. 

Dewsbury & D.R.C. Walk #1: Dewsbury to Birstall 02/04/21

9.1 miles, via Eastborough, Crackenedge, Hanging Heaton, Croft House, Soothill Wood, 

 Howley Hall, Howley Park, Cliff Wood, Birkby Brow Wood, Howden Clough, Copley Hill,

  Birstall Fields, Fieldhead, and Oakwell Hall Country Park.

Long Distance Trail
means Selfies!
#1 at Dewsbury Minster

With the 'Stay Local' lockdown restriction ending on 29th March, we are now officially released to cautiously approach the idea of walking further away from home again in 2021, and with a promising-looking long Easter weekend coming up, it's the perfect time to pull the Dewsbury & District Ramblers Centenary Walk off the To-Do list, as I've had the route guide on my shelf for years and it sat as a plausible fall-back route for last Summer until I decided to go full bore into the Pennines, so its moment is now, easily dividing into three legs that are only modestly long, and with none more than a straightforward ride away from Morley either. Good Friday morning thus has us up, but not with the lark, to ride a still under-populated TPE service down to Dewbury station, to alight at 10.05am, and making our way to the start line via the western side of the town, across the A638 Ring Road and down Wellington Street, by the Dewsbury Reporter flatiron building and the Elim Chapel, across Daisy Hill and down Southgate to the bus station on South Street, before spilling out of Church Street and across the A638 again to the official beginning of the trail at Dewsbury Minster, the ancient church of this parish. Away we go then, anti-clockwise on the trail, along the side of the ring road, eastwards below the looming Town Hall, past the Sports Centre, Job Centre and Bingo Hall complex, and the Matalan dominated retail park, all located on the former goods yards of the L&YR and the GNR, all completely scrubbed from the landscape aside from the name of Railway Street bisecting the two sites, as we rise up to cross the foot of  Wakefield Road and carry on up the side of Old Bank Road to trace the Kirklees Way route on paths seen seven seasons ago. Up the toe of this hill we travel, along the wooded Hollinroyd Road, above the terraces of Eastborough before Sugar Lane drops us onto the A653 Leeds Road by the Crown Inn, with the way leading us on into Caulms Wood park, where we infamously lost the trail in 2014, but this time we are prepped, and find the correct route from the main path across this lofty green space over the town, as we meet the circular arboreal feature at its heart where we are led up into the eponymous woodland.

Middleton & Cross Flatts Parks Circuit 27/02/21

11.1 miles, from Morley Station, via Newlands, Owlers, West Wood, Middleton Park 

 (via The Urban Bike Park, Middleton Wood, Belle Isle railhead, Broom Pit, The Lake, 

  The Carriageway, The Rose Garden, Wood Pit, & Park Wood), Cross Flatts Park, Beeston,

   Millshaw (& the playing fields), Broad Oaks, and Daisy Hill. 

Throughout this pandemic, it had been a small point of pride to me that I had managed to not be unwell through it's first 11 months, but that long streak came to end this week as I somehow got afflicted with a head cold, despite all the personal precautions that have been taken, which blighted my working Thursday and knocked me out of Friday completely due fierce sneezing and a persistently running nose, leaving me feeling rather flat but not showing up any symptoms that could be a harbinger of something worse once the weekend rocked up. So I might be only feeling about 80% charged on Saturday morning, and the impetus to rise with the lark isn't there either, but we need to get some oxygen back in the blood for a few hours and thus we start out a bit late, hopeful that the afternoon will bring the sunshine that isn't apparent as we descend down to Morley station for the 10.40am jump-off on my next parks circuit, targeting the major pair in South Leeds, with our route starting us off out of the valley and up the steps flight to Albert Road. From there, we immediately we start our track eastwards, through the small industrial zone that has grown on the site of Morley Main colliery, and then on among the houses that have recently been developed over the sites of the old spoil tips and alongside the estate that arrives as we merge in with the end of Peel Street, turning with the lane corner to meet a local pavement that oddly hasn't landed below my feet before, down to Wide Lane between the nursery in the former Low Common End farm and the recently rebuilt Newlands Primary school. Meeting the B6123 by the Gardener's Arms, we're on to the red route out of town soon enough, between the Newlands and Owlers estates, and into the fields that development hasn't claimed just yet as we run on to meet the Mcdonalds by the roundabout on the A653 Dewsbury Road, which we have to cross to get onto the track of West Wood Road as it descends among the fields to pass over Mill Shaw beck before rising to meet the railway bridges, both contemporary and former. We split from the track here to take the rough path up through West Wood, which feels more familiar now after last year's visits, rising though the tree cover and getting a better look at the lost GNR line thanks to the lack of foliage before we emerge out into the pasture on the western fringe of the Middleton estate, where no horses seem to be grazing today, which at least opens it up for the locals for some free dog running, as trace our way around its perimeter, tracking north until one of the few formal paths into the estate appears to send us eastwards again.

Out of the Dark Season... and Onwards?

Snowy January in Leeds.

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

The Conclusions of 2020

Wrapping the 2020 Walking
Season at Morley Hole.

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

Rumination: Lockdown 2.0

Pandemic Thoughts - November 2020

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

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

Mytholmroyd to Brighouse 31/10/20

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

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

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

   St Anne in the Grove, and Brookfoot.

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