Morley to Mirfield 10/06/23

10.4 miles, via Troy Hill, Fountain Street, Scotchman Lane, Howley Mill, Lady Anne Crossing,

 Upper Batley, Batley, Clerk Green, Mount Pleasant,  Batley Carr, Boothroyd, Moor Bottom,

  Dewsbury Country Park, Ravensthorpe, Calder Bridge, Sands, The Beck, Hopton Bottom,

   Lower Hopton, and Ledgard Bridge.

We seem to have arrived on the first hot spell of the year, in mid June, as we reach the end of my first worked five day week in a while, and there's no telling if the energy levels are going to keep up for regular walking days as we attempt to push on towards the Summer, as my body has gotten used to working shorter weeks through May, though we're not getting too ambitious with our planning yet as there are at least 14 destinations around West Yorkshire that could be plausibly walked from home and added to the local Tier of Relative Proximity, and we've sights set on three of them for today as we set out, aiming ourselves towards Kirklees district for the first time in a while. There's no morning chill to be had as we arrive at our start line, at Morley station naturally, at 9.05am, and thus attempts to stay ahead of the swell of warmth count for nought, despite getting out an hour earlier than usual, and I can already feel like I'm getting a work out as we set off away up Station Road, noting Dartmouth Mills getting reconstructive works after suffering a fire last year, and rise up the angled path that leads up to Albert Road, where we join Troy Road and pass over Troy Hill by the still derelict St Mary in the Wood, around to Commercial Street, which we quit via Little Lane by the library and the the unity hall, down the ginnel that leads to Queen Street and the looming presence of the Town Hall. Pass behind that pile via Wellington Street and up through the Windsor Court shopping centre and on through Morrisons car park up to the civic complex on Corporation Street, where we hang a left past St Francis of Assisi RC church and the Fountain centre, as well as the WMC and the GNR goods shed, to join Fountain Street to lead us off to the southwest, pacing the sunny side of the street for a change in an attempt to get a different perspective on a local landscape that we've observed up close a good many times already as we track a way down from the Morley Academy to the Fountain Primary school, with all the terraced fronts and ends lying between, down to the former chapels on the A650 corner.

Cross Gates to Allerton Bywater 19/02/22

6.3 miles, via Austhorpe, Colton Common, Swillington Common, Mount Pleasant, 

 Goody Cross, Great Preston, Hollinhurst and Wood End (Allerton Ings, 

  Castleford (Bridge), Glass Houghton, Pontefract Park, and Tanshelf). 

As we alight on Saturday walking for 2022, already two weeks overdue incidentally, we find ourselves in the wake of a couple of North Atlantic storms, Eunice and the already forgotten Dudley, which gave the UK a proper battering over the preceding days, but as the weekend landed, a strange sort of calmness seems to have settled in, making the day seem far more approachable that might have been expected, and that's the mood we'll take with us as we set course for the first of a bunch of visits to the so-called Five Towns of the county's eastern quarter, riding out to Cross Gates for a start after 10am. We rise from the brick-clad bowl of the railway station to Station Road and set off to the southeast as the A6120 Ring Road Halton makes its course out of the bottom right corner of Leeds, penetrating its way between the housing estates of Austhorpe and Whitkirk on a generally uphill track, passing the LDS church before landing on the Selby Road traffic island and starting the push out of the city past the retail park at Colton Common and the tangle of traffic at the interchange at the top of Bullerthorpe Road. Approaching the M1, the Thorpe Park development is passed, still expanding its commercial developments all the way up to Manston and Penda's fields as the spread of the city eastwards continues, coupled to the building of the new eastern relief road, which are left in our wake as we pass around Junction 46 and over the motorway to find countryside beyond, with the A63 taking us past warren House farm and into the last hamlet of the greater city at Swillington Common, with the Providence Place terraces still forming some curious outliers before passage across the Selby Road dual carriageway proposes its own set of problems. Split off the main road to rise southwards with Swillington Lane, where the very last suburban ribbon follows as uphill, all east facing with back gardens to absorb the afternoon sunshine, which we aren't seeing any of as we come up to the Leeds Lane corner where we shift easterly, finding plenty of evidence of the recent rainfalls in the road and fields as we look north to the spread of Garforth, cresting over the early day's summit among the fields and hedgerows on the way over to the A642 Wakefield Road.

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. 

Rumination: What is This? I Don't Even... 10/07/21

The Following is For Reference Only.

Every walking year seems to hit a point where my walking resolve starts to crumble, either from internal factors like mental or physical fatigue, or from external reasons like terrible weather, and we've definitely met the latter on those in 2021, but at quite the most unexpected time of year, as while early July can offer have weather that settles into roasting hot or markedly changeable, we have not seen consecutive weekends of awful weather in all of my walking years, having to go back to the infamously recalled year of 2007 with its latter half of constant rain and greyness for something comparable. Weather projections for this walking day had suggested we were due a day of sunshine and showers, that hard to read forecast that could bring weather that is sunny or damp, but when we rose in Morley we were greeted with fog, hanging low on the ground and not having been predicted to occur at any point in the week, which you wouldn't expect to endure at this time of year, so the walking resolve was steeled to go out and make the best of the mediocre conditions. The mental resolution for the day then started getting its beating right at the outset as we set out to hop on the #425 bus at Morley Town Hall, only to find it inexplicably cancelled and thus a half hour wait had to pass until the next service was due, putting me behind schedule and adding to the frustration that comes with a long enough wait of 20+ minutes for the #681 service at Bradford bus station, where it's painfully visible that the persistent damp gloom has not lifted even as we roll past 9.20am. The Halifax via Shelf bus is boarded, to ride us back up onto the Calder - Aire upland, and there's no sign of any improvement coming in the air, and indeed things look like they're worsening as we roll up at Odsal Top, as the skies darken and a sudden downpour comes on as we ride through Shelf, giving me an impromptu dousing as it runs in through the open bus window, and as we approach Northowram, conditions outside look no better than they did when I quit the path a week ago, and I stay firmly in my seat as my stop comes and goes a 10am, only moving on as we roll into the Halifax bus station terminus.

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.

Ravensthorpe to Bradford 15/05/21

12.7 miles, via the Greenwood Cut, the Calder Valley Greenway, Northorpe, Crossley, 

 Finching Dike, Norristhorpe, Liversedge Hall, Lands Beck, Hightown, West End, Scholes, 

  Stubs Beck, Oakenshaw, Victoria Park, Toad Holes Beck nature reserve, Woodhouse Hill, 

   Staygate, West Bowling, Ripleyville and Broomfields. 

It's immensely frustrating to lose a weekend's walking in May, especially when it's due to foul weather, with a double-raindrop sort of day completely blanketing Saturday, and brain fog coming on to completely discourage me from the idea of aiming at 16+ miles on a Sunday, or any other distance for that matter thanks to the issues with Sunday train services hereabouts, and thus hopes for a tilt at my first 5,000 career walked miles target before the end of the month fade from view, having just entered the final 100 miles on our last excursion out. It's already looking like this might be the worst May of all my walking years so far, barely able to string two nice, or even warm, days together, and I'm immediately feeling anxious that we might be looking at 2021 turning into a repeat of a garbage year like 2007, when it rained from June right through to its conclusion, as we ride the train out to Ravensthorpe, to alight at 9.10am under glum skies and a persistent light drizzle, taking in our spartan surroundings for plausibly our last visit to the station on its current site before we set off properly. The day's plan is to make my second trip from Calder to Aire via the city of Bradford, and our initial steps take  us out over the former river, and onto the north bank if it, having finally located the accessible path that slips down a cobbled hairpin slope to find the way upstream that I completely failed to locate when tracing the length of the C&H Navigation in 2012, and as we pace along the riverside, below Ravensthorpe's industrial band, it's clear that someone has recently been down here to keep the grassy track mown, keeping the damp leaves from soaking my legs in the early going. It's positively damp with atmosphere down here, with the path coming around to Greenwood Lock, at the start of the Navigation's Greenwood Cut, slicing off a corner of the river above Shepley Weir, forming another quite green strip along the waterway that conceals the industrial buildings on both sides as it lead us up to and under the Low Mill bridge and flood lock, and on around the long curve of the sweeping Calder before we rise away to join the side of the A644 by the sole riverside house in the area. 

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.