Sculpture At Crown Point, Bury Shall we take the boys on a walk to see this some time ?

Walking, Saturday 8th March A slight change of plans to accomodate some of the boys, we'll meet up at Grimwith car park at 11.30am and do a flat hike around the reservoir and save Whernside for the next time.

3 Peaks In Three Weeks ? The boys sound keen to have another go so let's go for Whernside this Saturday the 8th. Meet up will be in Chapel-le-Dale, I don't think there's a car park so we'll just have to make do, meet for 10.30am, don't forget to bring lunch / hats / complete change of clothes for the boys.

Hurrah, A Day Off, To The Hills Then Or hill, I had Monday off work and walked up Ingleborough in the sunshine, nice. It was a day for big skies, this is the first view of Ingleborough that you see as you approach from the Horton-In-Ribbledale side. Looking back from the same point, this was the view across to Pen-Y-Ghent, the lion looking dark and brooding under it's cloud cap. It was a gorious day for walking, bright and sunny, enough to raise a sweat as I marched up Ingleborough's flank. To complete the set, a view of Whernside from the rather cold and very windy summit of Ingleborough. There were quite a lot of walkers up here today, all sat at the 'shelter' trying to stop the filling from blowing out of their butties. I walked back down the hill for a mile or so, back into the sunshine and sat eating my sandwiches in the warmth of the lee of a dry stone wall. At this point, the obligatory mad running Septugenarian went bounding off past me and up the hill, I was unswayed by this show of aged resilience and continued to eat my roast chicken and mayo on home made oat and sunflower loaf, then I had a chocolate biscuit. Then I just sat in the sun for a bit. On the summit though, there is a mystery..... Who is Ingleborough Sue ?

Walking Yorkshire : Brimham Rocks Brimham Rocks is a National Trust property close to Pateley Bridge in North Yorkshire. It is within the Nidderdale Area Of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The Brimham Rocks formations sprawl over 400 acres, so you could easily spend half a day, or longer, here with the children playing and exploring, do supervise though, there are one or two hidden falls and cliffs. The weird formations are made from millstone grit, a sedimentary rock laid down roughly 320 million years ago, the odd shapes and formations have been brought about as a duel result of glacial erosion and weathering. Many of the stone shapes suggest other things and have been given folk lore names over the years, the Dancing Bear, Druid's Desk, Blacksmith and Anvil, some are rather more obvious than others. After wandering around the rocks area for a while I struck out West, there are numerous footpaths around the rocks, I took a woodland path out to High Wood Farm (203647), where I saw this cute little chap. Are you thinking what I'm thinking ? Mmmmm, rare breed pork chops. Snowdrops blooming next to Fell Beck. I walked on through the woods and came out onto the road above the hamlet of Fell Beck (199663) and then followed the road NW out on to Pateley Moor. There is a tourist feature marked on my map, South Oaks Pottery, but it seems to be closed / converted into a vast private home. Looking across Kingstone Farm to a smoke plume on Skell Gill Bank. This is normal winter burning off, a controlled burn of old heather to make space for new growth, with the ground so wet there is no danger of uncontrolled fire, unlike the blaze on Ilkley Moor last summer which got down into the peat layer. I thought I'd walk out to watch the burning, but when I got there the flames had died down, so I walked on, and when I looked back a couple of miles later it was burning again, pah. The moor just in front of the burn area is called Burnt Heath. Red Grouse on Pateley Moor, the moor was alive with grouse, pheasant and rabbits. Grouse often managed to startle me when I'd striding across the moor, they wait until you are almost atop them before they burst into the air with a rapid drumming of wings. A quick fly by from the RAF, great, I got a picture of one at last, usually the Tornado's are dots in the distance by the time I have got the camera out. Standing stone looking out across Bishop's Moor. (174675). I pressed on along the road north to the junction at Bonfire Hill (199706) where I took the road east to meet the Ripon Rowel Walk at Skelding Grange (216697) and followed the walk as far as Eavestone Lake where I came back to the road again. Inquisitive sheep on the Ripon Rowel, it's compulsory to take pictures of sheep you know. I had pottered on parts of the walk and now I realised that I would have to press on if I was going to get back to the NT car park before they locked my car in for the night, so I fairly yomped back along the road, pausing only to snap this lovely sky scene. If you are inspired to come and visit my beautiful county because of the stuff I write and the pictures I post, please do, however...... I was changing out of my boots in the car park when a scutter car pulled in, you've seen the type, small car with blacked out windows, huge exhaust and spinning wheel trim thingies. The car sits there for a few minutes, then two of the windows open and the scutter occupants eject a heap of litter out into the car park, then the car pulls away leaving their pile of debris behind them. Take nothing but photographs and memories, leave nothing but footprints, if you're a scumbag, please stay away from the places I love. This walk can be found on OS 298 : Nidderdale, as always, wear proper boots and kit, there were some boggy sections and two fords that would be dangerous after rain. The walk was 23k done in about 6 hours.

Swinsty Reflections

Too Stubborn To Stop Whilst I was out and about wandering around the Washburn valley last week I fell to wondering about people who come walking, two sorts of people annoy me, there are the litter droppers, these people come out to the most beautiful areas our country has to offer, then leave their crisp packets, coke bottles and sweet wrappers to blow around the hills and Dales. I'm never shocked about the amount of litter you come across even in fairly remote places, but it does make me angry. The other sort that winds me up are the day trippers or unprepared walkers, especially those muppets that have to be rescued by the hard working folk of the various Fell Rescue teams. Nearly every time I get halfway up one of the Three Peaks I come across a plonker in jeans, trainers and t-shirt, no map, no rainwear, no compass, no common sense. The weather in Yorkshire is often described (especially on this hills) as changeable, bright, sunny, safe days can shift to cold, wet, foggy and dangerous conditions in a matter of minutes, and you must be prepared for this. Why do hikers wear boots and not trainers ? Ankle and foot protection, comfort and grip. Why don't hikers wear jeans ? Because they double their weight when they get wet and then they don't dry out. Even sensible hikers sometimes get into trouble, this can happen to anyone. Every hiker probably has a minor slip two or three times on every walk, you catch a rock that is greasier than you expected and your feet shoot out from beneath you. Sometimes you stay upright on your hiking pole, sometimes you end up on your knees or backside with no worse injury than dented pride. Sometimes though, just a little slip or loose footing can turn an ankle and cause more serious injury. You can't rule out injuries, they happen, but it really makes me mad when people have to be rescued for being lost, or just because they are exhausted. Now again, both these things can happen even to experienced hill walkers, but they happen far more frequently to the perosn who things "I fancy going up there" when they look up at Ingleborough on a cloudy day. Hours later the fog has closed in, it's cold and wet, the cagoule they thought would keep them warm is plastered to their skin in the rain, teetch are chattering and they realise that with their vision cut to twenty feet in the gloom they have no idea where they are. If you are going out in the hills, you must have a map, and you must be able to read it, you should also have a compass and be able to use that as well. I've done Ingleborough on days when vision has been about ten feet and for all the good that your map is doing you may as well have left it at home, at these times it's good to be able navigate by your compass. Fitness is also vital, and I believe that a goodly amount of pig headed stubborness will help you out as well. Hills and mountains are steep and strength sapping, peaks that you can see in the bright sunshine from the car park are much further to reach by foor than you might think, particularly when the weather starts to turn. Before Steve and myself did the 3 Peaks last summer we trained hard and made sure we had done some hikes of similar length and climbing height before we set off. I'm so glad that we did, the day turned out to be one of the worst days I have ever hiked in, constant heavy rain all day driven into your face by strong winds made for deeply unpleasant walking conditions. We had trained though, and knew each other's fitness levels and determination, even then we had a serious discussion about doing Whernside, but decided we were Ok to carry on. Mountain Rescue reported one of their busiest emergency days on that day. This where mental attitude comes in, are you strong enough to walk yourself out of trouble ? I'm mostly a solo walker, I love the solitide on the hills, but it does mean that you must be confident in your own abilities. I'm confident in my own walking ability, that also means that I know my own limits, it's when you have no idea of your limits that you get into trouble. When the weather turned badly on me on Mallerstang last year I had to walk out of possible trouble, vision was poor, the weather was appalling and I managed to painfully twist my knee on a descent, it would have been easier just to sit down in a sheep fold and await help, and people do, they get close to their limits and cold, wet and in pain they give up. Mental toughness will often get you through though, if you refuse to be beaten, refuse to allow the driving sleet or painful ankle to get to you, you'll eventually just plod back down and get to the pub. "What was it like then ?" they ask. "Oh, not bad you know, a little windy up top, but better than watching TV."

Walking Yorkshire : Washburn Valley The river Washburn runs in the next Dale north of Wharfedale, much of the upper valley is dammed to provide drinking water for Yorkshire, the valley is an attractive mix of steep moors, woods and water. There are four major reservoirs on the river Washburn, Thruscross, Fewston, Swinsty and Lindley Wood, all owned by Yorkshire Water. There is a walking site on Yorkshire Water dot com which even has an mp3 download section for the Swinsty walk. It's an overcast day today, but warm enough and still, the clouds give Swinsty a gunmetal look. I parked in the West car park and walked through Swinsty Moor Plantation to the water's edge, across Swinsty Embankment (the 'dam') and around the reservoir, then into the woods at the eastern edge. I kept my sandwiches for myself, unlike this generous chap seen trying to feed a sizeable flock of Barnacle Geese. These ruins are on the south side of John o' Gaunt's reservoir and are known as John o' Gaunt's castle, they are the remains of a medievil hunting lodge built for the 1st Duke of Lancaster. Gorse flowering on the banks of Beaver Dyke Reservoir. At the end of Beaver Dyke I left the Dales Way and headed south for Scargill Reservoir where I stopped and ate my lunch. I have to admire our recent ancestors, when they built this reservoir there was no need to make any part of it as ornate as this bridge, it probably cost a lot more for all the stone cutting and carving and to put the matching top pieces all around the reservoir, but everything they built was made to be attractive and fitting as well as fucntional. I doubt that similar structures built today would have these pleasing lines or look so complimentary to the natural landscape. Further on from the reservoir there is a collection of ramshackle huts and a radio pylon. What strange experiaments were carried out here ? There was a distant rumbling, the sky darkened, I blinked and looked again...... ......and then hurried on, away from that dark place. On to the road for a short way to the Stainburn Plantation car park and to Little Alms Cliff. It says on the map that there is supposed to be a cup and ring marked rock here but I had a good look around and couldn't find it, there is, sadly, plenty of more recent vandalism though. Hint for vandals, if you have some artistic talent and are about to add something to the environment, go ahead, if on the other other hand you are a mindless fuckwit, please do not scratch "Tez woz ere 06" all over the bloody rocks. Part of the plantation around the Norwood Edge Transmitter has been recently cleared giving the ground a sort of post artillery bombardment look and feel, lots of big ruts covered by branches that you can easily sink thigh deep into. There is a good view from the cleared area across to the Yankee spook base at Menwith Hill. This tree in the fields below Scow Hall Farm must be the most popular local feeding spot for woodpeckers. Scow Hall farm is also home to Organic Dales Yorkshire Dairy. This bloke is an annoying prat, he's been buzzing around various farms all afternoon, flying very low, flying backwards and sideways and generally just being a dick. You don't make friends by hovering in a noisy helicopter over barns full of nervous dairy cows, idiot. Then it's back along the shores of Swinsty, this is a Great Crested Grebe on the reservoir, I watched it for a while whilst it dived for food, it could stay under the water for quite some time and would often re-appear over a hundred yards away. This walk was about 19k / 11 miles, it is mostly on good paths with hardly any steep climbs, this area is on OS Explorer 297 Lower Wharfedale & Washburn Valley.