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.

Todmorden to Colne 28/08/21

16.7 miles, via Cobden, Willow Bank, Hole Bottom. Whirlaw Stones, Stony Lane, 

 Mount Cross, Stiperden Bank, Stiperden Slack, Hoof Stones Height, Black Hameldon, 

  Hare Stones Hill, Gorple Gate, Clough Head, The Brinks, Flaught Hill Tom Groove, 

   Hey Slack Clough, Boulsworth Hill (Lad Law, Weather Stones, Little Chair Stones, 

    Little Saucer Stones, & Great Saucer Stones), Pot Brinks Moor, The forest of Trawden, 

     Hollin Hall, Trawden, Winewall, Cotton Tree, and Colne Field.

Another August weekend proves to be unusable thanks to another bout of unseasonably awful weather, which at least allows me a clear couple of days to be domestically sociable as My Mum travels Up Country on a flying visit, though it frustratingly denies me the opportunity to abuse my Parental Taxi privileges while I continue to tilt at the passage over the northwestern hills of West Yorkshire, so enforced rest comes on as I quietly curse out what has been easily my most disappointing Summer so far, at least until the long Bank Holiday break turns out to be the first warm one in six. Thus we get back to early starts on our trailing, and alight at Todmorden station at 8.20am, arriving in the upper reaches of the Calder Valley under the brightest of skies, a sight which we've really missed and will enjoy all day as we start out descending, down Station Approach and finding the shortcut path that I knew existed beneath Todmorden viaduct, taking us down to the A646 Burnley Road by the bus station and the new branch of Aldi, turning up the valley to follow the road into the quarter of town, nominally Cobden (or Patmos) that we haven't seen too much of previously. Past the shopping parades and Todmorden Community College, we get a frontage of townhouses along the main road, and we manage to distract ourselves from out intended route out of the valley by missing our northward turn as we traipse past the cricket field, crossing by the lodge house of Centre Vale park and rising into the landscape of post-industry and terraces, up West Street and Blind Lane to get back on track with Victoria Road, taking us under the railway as it rises up the Copy Pit line, and get our ascent really going as we hit Meadow Bottom Road. Rising up the clough of Willow Bank with short terraces flanking the road, we soon land by the site of Todmorden Laundry, with one cottage using its former chimney as a turret house of sorts, beyond which the lane starts a twisty path up hill, passing around the cottages and farmstead that have been dug into the rising hillside, and getting some early shade as we elevate up towards Hole Bottom, giving us some respite from the breath-testing ascent before we tangle up with the Calderdale Way path as it takes its turn up through the trees.

Sowerby Bridge to Todmorden 24/07/21

16.8 miles, via, Sowerby, Wood Bottom, Luddenden Foot, Luddenden, Oats Royds Mill, Booth,

 Luddenden Dean, Dry Carr - Slack, Clough Hole, Garnett Edge, Midgeley Moor, Back Clough,

  Low Brown Knoll, High Brown Knoll, Flaight Hill, Robin Delph Flat, Gib Slack, Crimsworth

   Dean, Lumb Bridge, Shackleton Knoll, Rowshaw, Walshaw, Rowshaw Clough, Hebden Dale,

    Gibson Mill, Gibson Wood, Knoll Top, Colden, Colden School, Blackshaw Head, Hippins 

     Clough, Great Rock, Great House Clough, Cross Stone, and Priestwell. 

Having been NIW and Down Country for the week, travelling without walking plans and ending up doing a whole mess of not much as we endured a blast heatwave conditions, we return to the North Country feeling like we ought to get back on the trail as things cool down and gloom over again, as some more mileage needs to be put down among Calderdale's hills and valleys while it's not raining, not least because July needs to be redeemed after that damp spell got it going on completely the wrong foot, and having had too much enforced R'n'R. With a lot of miles planned, we travel early, to alight at Sowerby Bridge at 8.05am, under skies that look like they'll be keeping the sunshine at bay all day, as we start off with the morning chill still hanging heavy as we decline down Station Road, past the builders yard in the coal drops, and the old police station, down to the crossing of the mouth of the Ryburn as it flows under the railway to merge into the Calder, taking a left as we meet the A58 and crossing over West Street by the Sowerby Bridge flat iron to start the ascent to Sowerby village. We're coming this way as the options for low down and westbound routes up the Calder Valley are rather thin on the ground, and so we rise sharply with Quarry Hill, passing the Royal Oak inn and St George's church on the sharp rise up to Fore Lane, which skirts us around White Windows house, and St Peter's Avenue pushes us between the suburban and council estates on the hilltop, giving us a view over the lower Ryburn valley towards Norland Moor,for a change, before we pass the grounds of Ryburn Valley High School, with its old schoolhouse almost concealed in plain sight at the roadside. Arrive at the site of the Victorian village school, across the way from St Peter's church, which shares some of the neo-Classical vintage of its companion downhill, and pass through the old heart of Sowerby village by the shopping parade and the Old Hall, before the turn northwards and downhill comes by the Church Stile inn, taking us down Pinfold Lane as it clings on to the high edge of the Calder Valley, which opens out ahead of us, drawing our attention across the way towards Luddenden Dean, our first target for the day, as it merges in between the high hillsides, west of Halifax and below Midgeley Moor.

Bronte Way #2: Thornton to Wycoller 24/05/21

16 miles, via Thornton Cemetery, Well Heads, Denholme Clough, Black Edge, Thornton Moor, 

 Stony Hill Clough, Leeming Reservoir, Back Leeming, Oxenhope (Lower Town), 

  Old Oxenhope hall, Haworth, Penistone Hill, The Slack, Bronte Bridge, The Height, 

   Buckley Green, Ponden Reservoir & Hall,  Whitestone Clough, Silver Hill Bank, Jarnel,

    Watersheddles Reservoir, Cross Bent, Smithy Clough, and The Atom.

Long Distance Trail means Selfies!
#2 at Bronte House, Thornton.

For leg #2 of this trip across a Chunk of West Yorkshire's literary history, I've got my Parental Taxi in attendance, so there's no need to make the frustratingly long bus ride via Bradford Interchange to get out to Thornton, as Mum can drive me out here, getting in behind the rush hour traffic, and not putting her out of her way at all as she can continue on to visit friends of hers in Skipton without having to put much more than a dozen miles on the round trip from Morley along the way of acting as my shuttle, like she would normally have done if we were having normal Spring Jollies. So alight on Thornton Road at 9.45am, and scurry back up Ball Street to mick up the trail once again at the Bronte House, where Rev. Bronte recalled as having spent the happiest years of his life (mainly because all the members of his family were alive whilst residing there), before we set off with the trail up Market Street, taking in more of this pleasingly rural vintage village, as we roll up to the Black Horse inn on the West Lane corner and rise up to meet the suburban spread of the village above, taking us past the Thornton Mill redevelopment and up to the chapel and Sunday school on the James Street Corner. Cross here and rise to the path on Reservoir View, the last terrace in the village at this altitude, and enter the equestrian fields and meadow beyond, perched up the valley side above the tapering west end of the village, affording come fine views up and down the valley, as well as to Thornton viaduct as it descibes it less than straightforwards passage up from the south, before we enter Thornton cemetery and trace its wide promenade path across its width, between the raked terraces of graves up and down the hillside. A rough track and field path guide us on, from Bottom of the Row farm, and up to Close Head farm, as we look down to the passge of Well Heads tunnel, its portal hidden in the wooded pit below, and still no closer to being revived than int was in 2013, and we'll start on that year's route again as we rise up to Well Heads hamlet, with its stone terraces stretching down from the White Horse inn, atop the rather blasted feeling ridge that rises between Thornton's valley and the next one over to the north.

Lockwood to Littleborough 05/09/20

16.3 miles, via Yews Hill, Crosland Moor Bottom, Paddock (Foot, Brow & Clough), Royds Hall, 
 Cliff End, Longwood (& the Edge), Salendine Nook, Mount, Outlane, Gosport, Stainland Dean, 
  Firth House mills, Knowsley Hill, Ringstone Edge reservoir, Withens End, Booth Wood, 
   Pike Clough, Rishworth Moor (Pike End, Blackwood Edge, Dog Hill, Green Withens Edge, 
    Flint Hill Drain, Rishworth Drain, & Old Packhorse Road), Blackstone Edge Moor 
     (Aggin Stone, BSE Pasture & Roman Road), Lydgate, Gate House, and Durn.

September arrives with us still deep in our schedule of Spring walking plans, and with me wondering if this garbage Summer is actually going to offer us something that resembles The End of Summer as we shift over into markedly cooler days and lower angles of sunshine in the shifts of the season, not that it really matters as I have a slate of four walks to get into that had been intended as a prelude to a Summer of burning as many Trans-Pennine route as possible between West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester, a plan that we can only nibble at now before we start to run out of long enough days, a mere month in the future. So our routes Over The Top for this month start in the vicinity of greater Huddersfield, still travelling early as we alight at Lockwood at 8.15am, with the day promising to be chillier than it is bright, landing on the Holme valley side again, though just barely, as glimpsed as we pass under the railway for the downhill view before starting off northwards, up Winton Street to make our way over the top of the terrace-clad Yews Hill, along its eponymous top lane and down Moorbottom Road before splitting onto the footbridge path that leads back over the railway, revealing the north portal of the tunnel that penetrates it. We then move on into the Colne Valley through the tangle of terraces which lead us out to the bottom of Blackmoorfoot Road, a familiar corner of Crosland Moor Bottom, crossing the A62 junction by the Griffin Hotel and diving downhill via Birkhouse Road to meet the Narrow Canal, by the IronWorks flats, and the River Colne, both crossed in short order among the Paddock Foot industrial zone and under the shadow of the iron spans of Long Royd viaduct, and our long ascent away starts as we rise up Shires Hill road to meet Market Street, a major suburban lane of West Huddersfield. We seek the interesting green lanes and split levels of this town though, so we quickly slip away down Brow Road, which is Colne Valley leafiness incarnate beyond the Wren Street corner, with the few suburban arrivals getting that countryside feel in  the heart of the town, concealing that fact that it was once wholly terraced on the length of its sweep around to the rise over the railway line to Manchester in its deep cutting, with us progressing on up Clough Lane to the Paddock Clough traffic island, home to both the Angel and Royal Oak inns. Get back onto a clear trajectory as we rise onto Longwood Road taking us on through the terraces and house of the Royds Hill estate, past the old Co-op store on the Quarmby Road corner and on up through the runs of terraces that sit above the valley side, before we drop some through the corner of Cliff End, which gives us some upstream views towards Scapegoat Hill, and is in usefully close proximity to the former Longwood & Milnsbridge station before we are angled along Vicarage Road, and into the dry valley of Ballroyd Clough.

Sowerby Bridge to Walsden 22/08/20

15.1 miles, via Scar Head, Wood Nock, Triangle, Mill Bank, Lumb, Cotton Stones, 
 Lighthazles, Blackshaw Clough, Syke Hill, Soyland Moor, Manshead End, Collin Hill, 
  Cold Laughton Drain, Byron Edge Drain, Whiteholme Reservoir, White Holme Drain, 
   Turley Holes & Higher House Moor, Withins Moor, Warland Drain, Langfield Common, 
    Gaddings Dam, Basin Stone, Rake End, Salter Rake Gate, and Birks Clough. 

Our morning ride out for today's excursion, breaking the theme of the revive season by staying wholly in the Calder catchment, show us the we can have no clear expectations of what the weather is going to bring, as we board our early train from Morley in bright late Summer sunshine, which gets replaced by a fierce rainstorm as we pass through Brighouse, which has passed as we land in Sowerby Bridge, under skies so dark and overcast that all the street lights have come on, making 8.05am feel a lot earlier than it is in reality, and gets you wondering what the day might bring before any footfalls are made. We have the 69th and final unseen railway station in West Yorkshire as our destination, with a lot of Calderdale to cross to get there, so haste needs to be made, away from this one and it curious mix of vintages, hitting the rise of Norland Road as swiftly as possible and getting the pulse going as we head up the double-arrowed lane, before rising with the footpath alternative to Boggart Lane as it heads up to Sowerby Croft Lane, immediately regretting the choice as the steep setts and steps are as slick as after the recently passed downpour, but at least the views reward as we ascend to the high east side of the Ryburn valley. We'll hang on this edge as we go on for the initail stages, passing through the elevated hamlet of Scar Head before joining the high track of Long Lane, a road that really looks like it ought to go somewhere but is only used for remote farm access as it settles in among the angled fields, not too far away from the Rishworth branch line, which hides under the tree cover below as we pass the path tops that we had intended to use to access it, coming around to the high reveal of the valley ahead, looking up to the field we walked above a few weekends back, and down to Bank House farm, somehow crammed into the angled fields below. Rise as the lane chooses to crest high, before our gradual descent starts, beginning as we drop down to the junction at Lane Bottom, where all of the ongoing routes are not recommended to motorists, take the lower road, which takes us past the pair of Wood Nock farmsteads, again clinging to the valley side, looking like desirable country retreats these days, with the road ceasing to be driveable beyond, and pretty much unwalkable too as the steep run of uphill cobbles looks unappealing and slick, but an alternative is presented that features no ascent at all. So footpath it instead, guided through to the top edge of Dodge Royd wood, through which the railway cutting gouges, following the contour around as it passes through the open fields and meets the descending track from Oaken Royd farm, a wise corner to cut off as we are quickly led to the bridge over the throat of Triangle station, and a route is retraced as Stansfield Mill Lane drops us down past the cricket club and over the Ryburn, past the eponymous mill and up to meet the A58.

Huddersfield to Honley via Deer Hill & West Nab 21/09/19

15.2 miles, via Longroyd, Crosland Moor, Crosland Hill, Crosland Heath, Blackmoorfoot, 

 Laund, Deer Hill Reservoir, Holme Moor, West End, Deer Hill Moss, Horseley Head Moss, 

  Raven Stones, West Nab, Meltham Moor, Meltham, Meltham Mills, Knowl Top, 

   Honley village,  and Newtown.

As Summer officially ends, we get the first day of Autumn promising us a day of unbroken sunshine and temperatures over 20C, which is a fine direction to send us out in search of an open moor walk and a hidden summit before we run out of viable days for doing such a thing, and so it's a bit of a surprise to set out on the train and find that beyond the Batley end of Morley tunnel, the Calder and Colne valleys are shrouded in cloud as an inversion has settled in before the warmth of the day has had a chance to dissipate it. Thankfully, it looks like the fog is already breaking up as we roll into Huddersfield at 8.50am, getting an early start thanks to wonky services on the TPEs, a time gain that isn't well used as we set off from St George's square and up the Gothic-y Railway Street, and onto the deeply nondescript Market Street because we have to nip into Sainsbury's to buy extra drink as I've managed to travel light, a store which stands on the site of the circular Cloth Hall of 1766, which has been lost from the landscape since 1929 (though the gatehouse and clock endure in Ravenknowle Park, as seen back in March). Beyond the High Street junction, we're soon out of the under populated town centre and into the municipal district, passing along the walkway between various offices of Kirklees Council and the Magistrates courts before we cross the Castlegate inner ring road, spotting that Castle Hill is still hidden in the mist before we make our way down Outcote Bank to meet Manchester Road by the Chapel Hill student flats blocks, perched just above the Narrow Canal and opposite the Bankfield terraces, and just downstream from St Thomas's church. We head west from here, past the motorcycle dealership and the local branch of Wickes, already low down in the valley of the Colne as we come around past the Bridge Inn and spot my regular train on the Penistone line travelling over Longroyd viaduct as it passes high overhead on its mix of stone arches and steel spans, and we are soon over both river and canal via the Longroyd bridges and following the A62 uphill among the runs of terraces and industrial units to pass under the railway at the south end of its elevated passage. Split off Manchester Road and continue our long rise out of the Colne valley as we follow Blackmoorfoot Road on its long ascent, keeping to a consistent pitch uphill as we have long run of terraces to the south of us, and a varying landscape to the north, passing the enduring site of Crosland Moor mills and the completely built over grounds of Crosland Lodge, a landscape that denies us contextual views in any direction, even at road junctions along the way, though the fog seems to be still in the air if we do look back to the path just travelled.

Hadfield to Marsden via Black Hill 03/08/19

15 miles, via Padfield, Runal Intake, Devil's Elbow, Torside Crossing, Torside Reservoir,   
 Crowden Great Brook Clough, Laddow Rocks, Grains Moss, Dun Hill, Black Hill, 
  Black Dike Head, Good Bent, Dean Clough, Wessenden Head, Hey Cote Hill, 
   Hey Brinks, Rigg Shaw, Rams Clough, Binns and Bank Bottom.

After my Summer Jollies, it seemed wise to take a weekend off, as I'd been going at it on the trail for every weekend since the middle of April, and once back in work we experienced the most horrifying temperature spike, pushing temperatures up past 30C, which were then followed by the most dramatic shift downwards as the last weekend of July came around, more than 12C cooler and with both days blighted with rain that fell for many hours, scuppering any plans for getting out regardless of how modestly they might have been scaled. As it happened, we probably wouldn't have gotten out as it was, as an impromptu drinks get together was had on the Friday evening of the 26th July with my good friends IH & AK as we needed to have one last turn around with M&SW before they move away to Edinburgh at the end of August, which was a nice break from routine and had me snoozing off the booze for much of Saturday as the rain pelted down in a way that seemed entirely inappropriate. As M&S had scheduled up a final session for the next Saturday along, being available for that would be appropriate having enjoyed 23+ years of friendship with them, but a return ticket to Hadfield was starting to burn a hole in my pocket, with the August weather looking just a weird as July's, getting in my statement walk of the year, the one with West Yorkshire's actual summit in it, had to take priority, involving a 2+ hour trip out to the part of Derbyshire that isn't threatened with being underwater after a week of storms, a journey that would be so much easier if we could get the TPEs to stop at Guide Bridge and not have to make the connection at Manchester Piccadilly. So alight at 9.40am, feeling that it's slightly odd that it should be here, about as far south as is possible, that I have chosen to make my contact point on the west side of the Pennine divide, admiring the once mainline station that now sits at the lonely end of its branch line, starting out be retracing steps to the Trans Pennine Trail, admiring the views over the suburban rooftops to the moors to the north of Longdendale before passing under the old Woodhead Line at Platt Street bridge. This leads us into Padfield, among the old terraces and newer arrivals that have clustered around the largely still industrial site of Hadfield Mill, rising with the long uphill terraces of Post Street, which seem to be the way of such things on the west side of the Pennines, heading up past the former Wesleyan Chapel to meet the old rural village on Padfield Main Road, around the Peels Arms inn and displaying a whole wad of rural charm on the lane up to the Whitehouse Farm B&B.

Ravensthorpe to Dodworth 05/05/19

14.4 miles, via Thornhill Lees, Thornhill (Combs), Horbury Bridge, Netherton, Great Cliff, 

 Dennington, Woolley Edge, Haigh, Kexborough, Barugh, Barugh Green, and Higham. 

The planned two days of walking over the long May Day weekend gets scuppered before we even get to Saturday, as it seems that our impromptu Lakeland Fell climbing excursion has done me some damage, leaving me with sore muscles in my thighs, the ones that usually don't get exercised when I walk normally, which still ache as we press on though the early days of May, and thus cause me to drop plans for Monday and move my main walk on to Sunday in order to get a day's rest in before hitting the trail. So we rise with a plan to do West Yorkshire to South Yorkshire again, and only out of force of habit do I check the train times for my return leg before travelling, and find that there will be no trains at all on the Penistone Line, when they had been plainly advertised just the day before, and as the replacement bus services are running earlier that the normal schedule that means we'll have to do this trail at the hurry up, so as to not endure a too late finish. So onwards to Ravensthorpe, that odd station between Dewsbury and Mirfield that doesn't seem to have a lot of obvious purpose, where we depart at 9.15am, with a route projected to take us from the Calder to the Dearne and the very southern edge of its catchment, the river here hidden by the former goods shed and the enduring industrial plant on its bank, as we rise to join Ravensthorpe Road and set off eastwards, away from the industry that sits on it north side and on amongst the long parades of semis that form the outer reaches of greater Thornhill and greater Dewsbury. Thornhill Lees is the sort of place to really ponder how suburbs develop, especially the older ones that so obviously sit at a slight remove from their neighbours, and despite having paced much of the length of Lees Hall Road on a previous trip it seems deeply unfamiliar as we pace on, between council houses and stone terraces, with the lane feeling extra quiet thanks to it having been closed to all traffic for some serious roadworks. The looming proximity of Thornhill's wooded upland isn't really felt until we've passed the Morton House club and the Thornhill Lees village hall, and the suggestions of the possibility of a bright day is teased as the sun tries to break through the band of cloud above to illuminate the curved terrace on the Ingham Road corner, but frustratingly the prevailing light wind looks like we aren't going to have much more sunshine to walk directly into as high grey cloud rules the day to the west.

Grisedale Pike 28/04/19

4.2 miles, from Braithwaite to Whinlatter Forest Park.

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

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.

Burley in Wharfedale to Bolton Abbey station 17/06/18

13.4 miles, via Greenholme Mill, Askwith, Hundwith Beck, Denton Moor, Lippersley Ridge,
 Stainforth Gill Head, Gawk Hall Ridge, Middleton Moor Enclosure, Round Hill, Fell Side,
  Kex Beck, Hazlewood, Storiths, Bolton Abbey, and Bolton Bridge.

Six years ago, on 16th June 2012, and after taking a frightening soaking on the trail between Horton and Kettlewell, I learned what might have been my important walking lesson, namely 'If you're planning to walk a long and remote trail on a day that promises lots of inclement weather, Don't.', and that came lesson cam around again this year as the height of June once again failed to bring the weather that you'd hope it should, and I took the choice to hibernate whilst rain fell over the distant hills of Wharfedale. Not that a weekend will be lost to such things, and a reshuffling of the schedule brings up the other trip for the top of the year, over a slightly more modest distance and not quite so far away, which makes it ideal for a Sunday, even if the rail services don't allow me to make the super early start I might have wanted as the earliest I can get to my jumping off point at Burley in Wharfedale is 9.35am, which has the clock ticking for us even before any steps have been made. As the only way north to the moors is via the stepping stones, our route choice has to be creative to see a different face of Burley, which means starting off down Prospect Road, Hasley Road and St Philip's Way to get my fill of the local suburbia of council houses and many bungalows before we meet the more engaging landscape of terraces down Lawn Avenue on our way to meet Main Street, which is located from down the narrow land behind the Lawn House residential home. Cross to meet Iron Row, a very nicely presented terrace that sits on the former driveway to Greenholme Mill, which now provide access beyond the mill gates to the local playing fields and the passageway bathed in orange light below the A65 bypass road, from which we meet the lodge house and the way to the former Worsted mills, which isn't the way we need to go as our route leads us down Great Pasture Lane to the very oddly located cluster of semis and the way into the woods at the mill's perimeter. This popular track for local joggers and dog walkers leads us to the track alongside the mill's long goit channel, and the way to the Burley steeping stones, our passage point over the Wharfe which is looking pretty busy after yesterday's rains, even though these are not stones to intimidate anyone when crossing as they sit at a nice stride length across, even for a short-arse like myself. The way then leads to Askwith, but by the bridleway this time around, elevating us away from the noise of the river, and the A65 eventually, as we trace a path away from the local cattle and among the sheep as the moorland rises boldly on the southern horizon, while offering no distant elevation at all to the north, hitting the village by the Manor House farm, and showing up the Askwith Arm as currently up for sale and offering a unique business opportunity for anyone who'd want to run a country pub and restaurant in a not too distant corner of North Yorkshire.

Keighley to Skipton 28/05/18

11.5 miles, via High Utley, Low Utley, Holden Park, Silsden, Bracken Hill, Skipton Moor 

 (Millstone Hill, Standard Crag, Vicar's Allotments & Cawder), Horse Close, and New Town.

Return Up Country with 40% of the Leicestershire Round off the slate already, and a slightly less downbeat assessment about the progression of the onset of Parkinson's disease on My Dad, but also bring back a right foot that has suffered unprecedented blistering, and a calf muscle that suffered quite a strain in my attempts to not put pressure on the foot below it, but after three days of relative rest away from the trail, I'm ready to go again once Bank Holiday Monday morning rolls around. So slap on the plasters and the support bandage and get used to the new railway timetable as I start out late-ish for the latter stages of my Spring trails over the hills between the Aire and Wharfe, as this last week has had too many hours walked in the cool and overcast mornings before the day takes a turn for the warmer, so we depart from Keighley station at just before 10.35am, with most of the day's gloomy opening having already passed as we depart for the day on a north-westward track. Pause to admire the MR vintage tilework at the station before heading out and down Bradford Road to cross to Cavendish Street, home to the long shopping parade with the glass canopy down its full length, home to stores that don't quite deserve their setting and altogether a frontage that wouldn't look out of place in Harrogate, and also wonder if the styling of the car park of the Airedale centre is a cheap version of that at the Victoria Gate centre in Leeds, or if it might be the other way around? Meet the Cenotaph gardens and the town's municipal buildings, where a false owl lives in the cupola above the public library, before turning onto Skipton Road and passing the pair of cinemas, the contemporary Picture house and the former Odeon, home to Gala Bingo, before heading out into Keighley's Victorian villa and terrace district, opposite the castellated entrance to Cliffe Castle park and on to the B6265. Instead of following Skipton Road exactly, we'll wander a little to get a bit more landscape interest along the way, dropping down to get some improved views up to the looming Rivock Edge across the valley from the terraces along Arctic Street, and by heading up Green Head Road to pass Keighley University Academy and to get some contextual views up the Aire from the village suburb of High Utley, where St Mark's church is its best feature. Off the main roads we descend to meet Low Utley, with an ancient farm and cottage cluster at its heart, with suburban growth all around, with the cobbled Keelham Lane leading on over the railway, the A629 and behind the town cemetery, and on down to the bottom of the river valley as the road leads us over the Aire via the most obscure of bridges and on into Holden Park, nowadays home to Keighley golf club, where the golfers teeing off pose the most immediate risk to the walker.

Keighley to Baildon 11/11/17

8.9 miles, via Thwaites Brow, Transfield Top, Druid's Altar, Bingley, Eldwick,
 and Baildon Moor, Hill & Bank.

Well, I'm happy to say that we've made it to the final weekend of the 2017 walking season, having had worries that we might not get here after the physical and emotional beating that I've taken over the last few weeks, but my fortitude has held strong and gotten me out every weekend through the fading days of October and November, so my planned finale can run on the day allocated to it, and what's more the sun is expected to shine on it, so let's give Season #6 the ending it deserves. After doing most of the season in Bradford and the lands north of the Wharfe, Airedale seems the most apt place to conclude this year's trekking, midway between the two, and a sub 10 mile day doesn't require the earliest of starts, arriving at Keighley at 10am, to look to the K&WVR platforms and not that they've already been running for an hour by now, and wonder why I've never asked friends of colleagues out for a social occasion on this most lovable of preserved lines. Emerge into the crisp morning, that's going to feel like early evening all day as the sun never gets that high, to take a right turn out from the station, to admire the backdrop of Rombalds Moor before turning onto Dalton Lane to get the flavour of the towns commercial and industrial quarter, where there's still a lot of business going on around Dalton Mill, that large and dynamic structure that really ought to be at the heart of Keighley's civic pride and industrial heritage. The lane leads on, over the River Worth and on to meet Thwaite's Bridge, passing over the railway and the site of a former MR station that the internet seems to have no visual record of at all, before we split left, past the yard with a steam crane in it, to hit the ascent of Thwaite's Brow Road, a steep, cobbled and very minor road that twists sharply up the bank on the south of the Aire, offering a test for the legs and some fine views into the valley as we go up, encountering more descending traffic that I'm honestly happy with as we go. The views are worth the effort, though and the scattered houses of Thwaite's Brow give the road a bit more purpose as it winds on uphill to meet the terminus of the bus that serves it and Long Lee, beyond where the road gets a bit more normal and the houses a bit more suburban and ordered, still not sure why people might be drawn up onto a hillside like this but you start to ponder that once development space runs out down in the valley, up on these hills is the next obvious place to go.

Otley to Pannal 17/06/17

10.9 miles, via Farnley, Lindley Bridge, Braythorn, Stainburn, Almscliffe Crags,
 North Rigton, and Burn Bridge.

Finally, the high season amblings can get underway as attention shifts to the lands north of the Wharfe for most of the summer, and it seems to have taken a long time to get here having first trailed it at the start of May, and having been plotted for 2016 before my attention turned elsewhere, only getting going as the last weekend of Spring arrives, promising to bring a day of unbroken sunshine with it. So naturally there's a mood of disappointment in the air as my arrival in Otley is greeted by overcast skies that seem far too common in Wharfedale, with our course being set from the bus station at 9.15am with a very long day ahead of us, starting off down Mercury Row to reveal more of those ancient side streets that deserve a more detailed explore, and crossing Kirkgate to take a circuit around the Parish church of All Saints as it hasn't had an up close look on my previous visits, and also finding the Bramhope Tunnel monument in the yard, commemorating the 24 men killed during its construction. Then follow the passage that leads across to Westgate to wander on to the riverside through the yard of a presently disused mill complex, arriving on the high bank above the Wharfe below the shade of many trees and starting the eastwards tack to drop down into the Manor Garth gardens, where a hard path is joined, leading us to probably the best spot to get sight of Otley Bridge, stretching long and low across the wide and placid river. Cross over and ender Wharfemeadows Park, forming a garden apron in front of the riverside terrace before we reach the weir which livens the river up a bit, and beyond the play area we move away from the bankside to find the way to the northeast, passing us through the town facing gates of Farnley Hall, before turning away from the parkland and through the suburban enclave of the Riverside Estate to join the B6451 Farnley Lane to push us out of town and on into North Yorkshire. General gloom means the view back to The Chevin and its companions aren't that great, and so we press on , accompanied by the long wall of Farnley Park, longtime seat of the Fawkes family, where no good views are forthcoming until we meet the estate houses and the walled garden, framed by the hills to the south, but the house will remain unseen as we go on, obscured by a thick woodland that keeps on all the way to the north entrance, and thus interest has to come from elsewhere, like the tiny Farnley church, peeking out from across distant fields, and the complex at Home farm, which has had about as impressive residential makeover as any 18th century farmstead in this county.

Lose Hill & Mam Tor 23/10/16

9.7 miles, from Bradwell, via Hope, Lose Hill, Back Tor, Barker Bank, Hollin's Cross,
 Mam Tor, the Old Road, Castleton & the Cement Works.

No real need for a super early start on our Sunday stroll, Dr G might need to dash out so he can cycle solo across the Dark Peak and back, but the rest of us can take a more natural pace as we organise The Girls for a trek over the best (and only?) ridge walk in the Peak District, which will be my first proper hill walk in more than two years, so here's hoping that I'm in better condition for it than I was when we assailed Pendle Hill in 2014. Out of Lillegarth cottage on the edge of Bradwell after 9.45am, and descend the Smalldale lane, pass Ye Olde Bowling Green inn and take in our surroundings of old cottages and rural retreats before meeting the more workaday houses around the green on Gore Lane, it seems that Bradwell might be the largest settlement in the Hope Valley whilst also being one of the least known. We meet the Main Road towards Brough (not that one), and soon find the quieter lane beyond the Samuel Fox in to take the shortest route towards Hope, between the former workings that have become angling ponds and the vast pits associated to the Castleton Cement works, which will be a constant feature on this day's horizon. Spying the hills that will be our targets for the day is fun, whilst trying to not draw The Girls' attention to them so they might not get dispirited, and as the descent comes on towards Hope we get the bold shape of Win Hill and the spire of St Peter's church to draw the attention in the autumnal sunshine. Meet the village, and drop the predictable 'To Live in Hope is to Live in Derbyshire' joke, and this looks like another village worthy of more attention in the future, wearing a darker face than Castleton as we move our way across the White Peak - Dark Peak divide. Hit Edale Road to head for the upper branch of the Hope Valley, and it's going to feature just a bit too much road walking as we head off among the farmsteads and cottages hanging above the River Noe, Passing under the bridge of the Cement works railway branch and note that the Cheshire Cheese inn is an unusually popular pub name in these parts.