Morley to New Pudsey 20/02/16

8.3 miles, via Gildersome, Cockersdale, Tong, Fulneck & Pudsey.

Second walking day of the year is always glummer than the first, and this one proves to be no exception, and whilst I know I have plenty of fresh trails to blaze in the territory of West Leeds, getting away from Morley on paths not walked before is getting a lot more challenging, especially in this direction, with only three possible places to cross the M621. So first steps away from Queen Street at 10.30am, lead me behind the town hall and on past the leisure centre, and on Scatcherd Lane, all a case of so far so familiar, until I detour into the residential streets of East Park Street and The Roundway, located beyond the Sports clubs and their fields, just because they lead to the footpath that skirts the perimeter of Bruntcliffe Cemetery, all sought because it's a different route up to the A643/A650 crossroads. Over the M621 on the Wakefield Road once again, but detour into the Gildersome Spur industrial estate to seek the other remnant of Gildersome Tunnel, the uncapped shaft and smokestack that still endures in the yard of one unit, dressed in brick it strikes an incongruous and yet pleasing sight, largely because the west portal was needlessly landscaped away near the Showcase cinema at Birstall. Back to the trail and on along a different path across the industrial estate, which is overgrown, muddy and rather too well hidden as it sneaks between walls, fences and undergrowth, but it does provide a tiny smidge of the GNR's former Ardsley - Laisterdyke line's embankment on the approach to Gildersome Street station. Emerge dirty and prickled on the A62, and another path is made into Gildersome, again between industrial units before meeting the playing fields' perimeter and a dirt track behind a variety of council houses. Gain pavements on Vicarage Avenue, and then Finkle Street leads to Street Lane, a familiar corner and its on past the Friends Meeting House once again before turning onto Church Lane, where the parish church hides modestly and the Baptist church makes a much bolder statement.

Morley to Bramley 14/02/16

7.8 miles, via Gildersome, New Farnley & Troydale.

Once the Superbowl weekend is done and in the past, the Early Season can get underway, weather permitting as usual, and the first good day to come along is Valentines Day, and what better occasion could there be for reacquainting myself with something I love. Not wishing to push things too hard when I have new boots to break in, the initial stretches will all start from home, allowing me to not lose precious hours of daylight with travelling, and so the first steps of the day are made away from the familiar corner on Queen Street, in front of the Town Hall just before 10am. Routes northwards are getting less clear after so many trips made in the direction of Leeds, and so steps are made across the apron of Scatcherd park, passing below the war memorial and among the posh houses on Gladstone Terrace to the unfamiliar cluster of bungalows that have been dropped in off Bright Street, completely misreading the cul-de-sacs to arrive three-quarters of the way down the cobbled causeway that drops out by Hillycroft Fisheries by the A643 at Morley Hole. Avoid the most direct route to Gildersome, by taking Nepshaw Lane rather than the more recent Asquith Avenue, wandering down this older lane until new builds arrive where the motorway severed it, and drift back to cross the M621, and taking a sneakier detour in the slanted Dean Wood to pace the half mile or so above Dean Beck and the BMX tracks to get a look at the surviving east end of Gildersome Tunnel, formerly of the L&NWR's New Leeds Line of 1900-1965, and now a heavily flooded portal hidden away from view deep in the woods, finally seen in person after an article first posted in 2007 piqued my interest. Depart the way I came in, leaving the private land that is still very popular with local dog walkers, crossing the main road to enter the more accessible half of Dean Wood, where a right of way has developed along its southern edge, muddily making its way in the direction of the Gildersome Spur industrial estate, before meeting a sounder path that takes us over to the A62.

Out of the Dark Season and Onwards!

New Boots (#5), Subtly Different from the Old Boots (#4)

Superbowl weekend arrives, and that can only mean passage out of another Dark Season, the most useless and testing three moths of the year, and as I've not had my walking boots on since Hallowe'en, it's time to start planning for 2016's Walking Season once again. Last Year had a lot of miles, indeed a handsome personal best, but I don't think a pace of 600+ miles is something I need to try matching. After all, I'd like to be a bit more personally sociable along the way of this year, taking time out for drinks and such, and I'm going to have to be breaking in Pair of Boots #5 as I go, Pair #4 having been retired with over 1,000 miles under their soles, and ultimately unusable due to being worn through on the heels and loaded with leaky seals. So bring on the latest pair from Mountain Warehouse, acquired after an odyssey that took in the stores at Batley and Guiseley, and even though they appear to be exactly the same as my last couple, they go by the name of Python, rather than Viper, and they seem ever so slightly narrower, so might be snug and need some breaking in, when previous pairs had been 'plug and play'.

The Conclusions of 2015

The Festive season passes and so does 2015, slipping into history, and with a New Year underway, it's a good moment to look back to the last walking season, already further away in the past than the next one is in the future, and the best news to report is that everyone made to 2016. There had been significant doubt that My Dad had many more days left in him during the darkest days of October but now, six weeks on from his discharge, He's giving every impression of being able to be around for quite a while yet, and thus we are still a complete family as I look forwards to the coming year, but before we go on, the question has to be asked; What did we learn in 2015?

The Aire's Fury 28/12/15

A Stroll along the Aire from Whitehall Road to the Royal Armouries.

As anyone should be aware, on Boxing Day 2015, rain in the wake of Atlantic storm Eva brought flooding to many parts of Lancashire and Yorkshire, causing record peak flow on many rivers and causing at least six major rivers to burst their banks to bring devastation and misery in their wakes. I managed to personally avoid the worst of the weather, having been celebrating Christmas with My Parents in Leicester but on return to the North Country it made sense to put on my boots and do something useful, though personal involvement in the clean up operations was probably beyond my scope. Travelling to aid my friends in Mytholmroyd was out of the question with the town centre still underwater, and heading out to Kirkstall was improbable due to the flooding of the A65, and so I had to limit myself to where was straightforwardly accessible, and that would be the banks of the Aire through the city of Leeds. Even two days after the rain had passed the river was still elevated and full of fury, providing a handy reminder that when nature chooses, all of the will and engineering of humanity can do little to contain it, and the implacable natural forces unleashed will do their thing with little regard for what has been put in their way.



Upstream from Whitehall Road bridge, the Aire may have dropped from its peak but it still
rides well above its usual level and roars with a fury that you wouldn't normally hear.

Rumination: The End... For Now

The 2015 season reaches its end.

And then, the Rain came. Another walking year thus draws to a close, ultimately undone by precipitation, and whilst this has been a year that has been generally warm, there has been quite a lot of wetness in amongst, I feel I have been fortunate in having avoided most of it, only four days over the entire nine month season have been affected, and only one unduly. So when the rain does come, and coming on pretty hard on as of 7 o'clock this morning, the immediate instinct is to roll back into the warmth of my bed and call time on the season, the weather projection of heavy rainfall until at least 1pm has my enthusiasm dropping to absolute minimum. It doesn't honestly matter that the sun has returned brightly as we write now, a soaking at the start of an autumnal day would dampen any joy that a stretch of exercise might have otherwise engendered.

That's the season done, then, I've managed to keep dry for so much of it, and have no desire to take a three hour dousing on the trail between Outwood and Micklefield, and unlike 2013, when I hoped that the year might offer me another day past my regular stopping time, this year all targets have been met and exceeded, and then some, with me feeling no loss at all at missing out on the last day. 600+ miles on the 2015 season is quite enough, and virtually every day since the high days of Summer has had me struggling to get my enthusiasm stoked up, but every day has had me getting going eventually, and that's been the motto for the year really, 'Just Keep Going', as sage a piece of advice that I could offer to myself, and to anyone else for that matter. This walking season has been a lot of fun, but my focus can now shift elsewhere, as once past my 41st birthday, I'll be off down country to see My Parents, to see what help I can offer now that My Dad has been shifted from the Stroke Unit and into the care of Rehab Medicine. Initial indications suggest that his physical rehab is coming on well, and if 'Just Keep Going' is a motto that has served me well, I hope it might be one that serves the whole family well in the coming days, weeks and months.

Next Up: What have we learned in 2015?

Glasshoughton to Cross Gates 31/10/15

11.4 miles, via Cutsyke, Whitwood, Mickletown, RSPB St Aiden's, Swillington, Colton
 & Austhorpe.

Back up country for the last couple of weeks of the season, feeling secure to be here as news from Leicester had been mixed, with the result of my Dad's MRI scan showing the possibility of him having a brain tumour, but the team at the Infirmary deciding to put him into the process for discharge to the Rehabilitation unit. Anxiety inducing news for sure, but the lack of urgency at their end is enough reason to feel that things may not be immediately serious. So I return to my familiar haunts, with the walkable season fading fast, with a plan to stitch the two halves of my walking season together, attaching the late season lands of Wakefield district to the early season territory to the east of Leeds.

Today brings me to yet another fresh station to check off the WY Metro list, starting out from Glasshoughton, between Castleford and Pontefract at 9.25am, early enough to get ahead of the crowds who alight here to visit Xscape and the Junction 32 retail park, many of whom would probably be unaware that this was a colliery site only three decades ago. My ancient E289 shows none of the developments that have grown since then, but the eye can still be drawn to the dark soils of the spoil tips to the south of the railway line, and there's a post industrial feel to all the rough land along the side of Thunderhead Ridge (yes, that is the road's name), and the big clue to this site's use is the considerable colliery memorial sculpture located on the A639 island, reminding the visitors of the industry which endured here from 1869 to 1986. Pass onwards, along the main road between the local branches of Wakefield College and Asda, and downhill to the railway crossing at Cutsyke, with intention to walk the greenway that has recently developed on the L&Y Cutsyke - Methley line, previously seen from above but now accessible, once I've found my way to it via the terraces on Granville Street. Despite having been open only 16 months, it's already looking pretty much settled in with the vegetation having covered much of the recently turned earth, and foliage obscuring most of the sight lines in the early going, but things get more interesting once the deep cutting below the Lumley Street bridge is met, the access ramps being almost as impressive feats of engineering of the cut of the railway itself. Pass on to the Barnsdale Road bridge, a much more modest structure, and soon enough the path ends, less than a mile on behind the edges of Castleford, but a nice start to a track that should grow to meet the Methley Joint Lines, at least once someone finds a bridge to replace the missing one at Whitwood Junction, hidden away but still accessible beyond the trees. So back to the roads, following the A639 through the estates at Whitwood Mere, and to the edge of the Calder, a location I have already seen many times, but this is the first time I will actually make my way across the river.