Adventures in wet boots

Went for a change of scenery yesterday with a trog along the canal towpath. It was a nice bright autumn morning once the mist cleared, so I set off from Riddlesden, a leafy suburb on the Leeds-Liverpool canal, and set off up the valley towards Silsden. It was pretty quiet being a weekday so I still got plenty of space to myself, other than the occasional dog walker, or cyclist passing by. The canal at this point in the valley winds around the side of upper Airedale in a long flat ‘pound’ without locks, from Bingley Five Rise Locks to the other side of Skipton, and since it ceased to be an industrial waterway has undergone a revival in leisure use - the countryside it passes through is very English picture postcard, all rolling pastures and wooded hills. My route passed some new canalside housing and on the far side older large houses with long wooded gardens sloping down to their own moorings. I’m jealous. Leaving Riddlesden behind, I walked along a wooded corridor with open fields and the flat bottom of the Aire valley visible between the trees, and a good view of Keighley sprawling in the middle distance. I was amused by a flock of noisy mallards lined up along the canal bank, like they were queuing for a bus or summat.  The woods petered out after some way, so the canal was now winding through farmland crisscrossed by stone walls and squat oak trees, as I entered South Craven. A large black cow mooed insistently at me across the water - I think she wanted milking.  After about three and a half miles of plodding I stopped at a swing bridge just outside Silsden and sat down for a brief rest, enjoying the peace, then returned along the cut to Riddlesden. The pastoral views in the other direction were just as pleasant, and I startled a cock pheasant into flight as I passed its hedge. To say so little happened I seem to have managed to find a fair bit to drivel about - it was a nice middle of nowhere and I liked it. 

Tags: Hikes

I decided on a somewhat shorter hike today over less *cough* challenging terrain - a circular walk starting and finishing at Cullingworth, probably about four and a half miles, five tops. I parked on the edge of the village and set off along a rutted farm track past the disused railway line, which turned sharply uphill. I turned off along a bridleway between fields of cows, which then skirted a steep oak and birch wood with a dizzying view of a pond at the bottom of the valley glinting through the trees. A scramble down a steep path through bracken and brambles led to a gated field and a lane beyond, with a culvert to splash through and a couple of gates to climb, then another long uphill back lane which I climbed to Barcroft and the next stage of the walk.

After passing through a snicket full of nettles (the buggers got me through pants, ffs) I crossed the main Keighley - Halifax road and set off up another bridleway which soon became fricking steep as it climbed up the side of the crag to Brow Moor between flowering heather, bilberry and blackberries, with panoramic views of the lower Worth valley from the top.  From here I crossed Brow Moor to the top of Naylor Hill and some great views of Oxenhope and Haworth, passing in the distance the local quarry’s huge wind turbine. The route then took me along a winding back road dodging the occasional SUV, and up (gasp) another farm track/bridleway, which led past a couple of hilltop farms with sickly sweet silage bales piled in the adjoining fields before opening up onto Black Moor, a windswept expanse of heather dotted with sedge tufts. The path then led past a huge old quarry, now used by trials bikers for scrambling - it was like a moonscape - a manmade sandstone ravine chevelled out of the hill. I followed the edge of the quarry round back to the Keighley - Halifax road, which I walked along to Manywells Brow and the return section of the walk back to Cullingworth.

I set off along yet another bridleway past a landscaped former landfill site and down the bank to the old railway, now a designated heritage trail, through some pleasant woodland and over a viaduct back to the village, and the car. The landscape on this walk was less wild, but varied and pretty peaceful. Made a nice change from scrambling through bogs.

Tags: Hikes

Well, today I actually managed to get back out on the moors again. I was possibly a little ambitious - I’ve been wanting to do some longer hikes now that I don’t have to squeeze them into a two hour time slot since our youngest started school, so I planned a seven and a half mile route last night, but forgot that I’ve lost some fitness over the summer since I’ve hardly had the opportunity to do much walking (other than a couple of shorter walks with my daughter, and on one occasion with son number two as baggage  ) - so I was puffing like an asthmatic steam engine a mile in. It was worth it though. I parked up after dropping the sprogs off at school and set off uphill towards a rocky bilberry covered outcrop imaginatively named ‘Stones’. I was lathered when I got to ‘Top of Stones’ so I stopped to stick my fleece in my backpack and had to pick my jaw up off the floor - the view across the valley was bloody amazing. Its a seriously picturesque area, its just a good job the tourists don’t usually get much further than the railway or I wouldn’t have got it to myself.  At the far end of Stones I cut across the bilberry and set off down an old walled packhorse track, heading for the even more creatively named ‘Stairs’. 

This part of the walk was decidedly unnerving - there were working farms here, but there was a general Marie Celeste abandoned vibe, heightened by the ruined outbuildings and broken stone walls across the fields. Near the top of the lane it was gated with a welcoming ‘bull in field’ warning sign, but I was committed by this point, so I kept half an eye on the nearest escape route and went for it. No bull anyway. After the anticlimax I reached Stairs, which was actually a steep gravel track heading for the watershed, between lumpy sheep dotted fells. More nice views, including some fairly vertigo-inducing old quarry workings. Some puffing later I reached ‘Top of Stairs’, and rather than follow the path down the other side to Hebden Bridge I turned off across the open moor towards Oxenhope Stoop Hill and the Pennine Way, following the remnants of the old district boundary wall. This was not one of my better plans, frankly. 

The moor top turned out to be mostly bog, which fell into two categories - tussocky, with wet bits in between the clumps of sedge of varying depths of mud, and bare, which was treacherous peat bog, solidish ground looking almost identical to crusty black soup. It took me nearly an hour to traverse about a mile and a half of this shite, during which I sank three times and landed flat on my face in the mire, at one point dunking most of my leg in a particularly sloppy bit where the ditch I had been following disappeared into the ether. Finally I reached the Pennine Way and its lovely solid stone flags, and followed it along the hillside to the ruin, Top Withins.

I’ve been up there a few times now, and it hasn’t lost any of its appeal. The weather was glorious so I could see right across the moors, the Worth Valley and beyond, and the view is incredible - miles of desolate, blasted moorland cut with steep valleys. I must have been the only human for miles around. After a pause to enjoy the atmosphere I set off downslope to cross South Dean Beck and climbed the crag, heading along the cliff top and on towards Harbour Lodge. I followed a Yorkshire Water dirt road across Haworth Moor, then a mile and a half of pleasant rural road walking (mostly downhill, thankfully) brought me back to the car, and home for a good wash and a change of clothes.

I’m going to have to get a decent camera sorted out - if I could post pictures you guys would know why I keep banging on. I am dead lucky to have such an area on my doorstep. 

Tags: Hikes