East Yorkshire: Market Weighton Circuit (6.5 miles)

 Sunday, 25th October 2020

Clocks went back last night/this morning so I was up at the crack of dawn, literally.  Sometimes your body clock just doesn't understand the importance of a lie in at the weekend, or that we have BST/GMT in this country! 

I was fidgety.  It was gorgeous outside, even at the ungodly hour of 6am.  It would be wrong to waste such a day doing housework, or going back to bed, so I had a trawl through some of my "local-ish" walks with half a mind on trying out my new walking poles.  I settled on a route that started in Goodmanham, passed through Market Weighton and headed up to Londesborough, before returning back to Goodmanham again.

A quick rake through the cupboards had me noting I had no bread for a sarnie so I opted for a much more healthy(!) bag of crisps, rice crispy bar and an apple to accompany my flask of coffee.  Some might scoff at such a feast for just 6 miles. I, however, just scoffed 😉

It's about a 45 minute drive to Goodmanham, made longer by the 40mph speed restrictions for roadworks on the Clive Sully Way (can't wait for those to be done with).  I vowed not to return home that way.

After parking up in the car park at Goodmanham (free, and space for about 20 cars), off I set.  Wanting to get most of the road walking out of the way first, I took a right turn out of the car park and headed downhill, absentmindedly thinking this meant an uphill finish.

Soon enough, I turned off onto some pasture land:

I mooched along, enjoying the sunshine.  There were already some squishy bits so I needed to be a bit careful where I stepped as the mud round here is very clay/chalk and slippery.

Eventually I popped out onto the old railway line and headed into Market Weighton:

Really easy walking:

Giant Bradley statue:  

The tallest recorded man that ever lived, at 7ft 9in tall, born in Market Weighton.

Heading out of Market Weighton and onto the Londesborough track:

The 2 miles to Londesborough gave me views like this:

...as they followed the field edges to the A614 road.  

After a short game of frogger, I entered the Towthorpe Grange estate:

More easy walking on a lovely autumnal day.

Followed by a few more field edges that looked like this:

This part of the walk was by far the squishiest bit so far.

I joined the Intack Hill road for about 5 paces and remembered I was in chalk stream country: 

Towthorpe Beck, beautifully clear water.

So far, the walk had been along arable field edges.  This was about to change:

A giant nest of cows.  Splendid.  I stood for a good while observing them.  This was a cow nursery.  Some heavily pregnant and some mums and babies.  And, of course, they have to be right on the path!  I mean, why wouldn't you lay on a path when there's acres of undisturbed pasture to roam around?  To be honest, they weren't fussed about people and with this being on the Yorkshire Wolds Way, I couldn't imagine that frisky "teenagers" would ever be planted here.  

I stood long enough to hear some people coming up behind me so I thought I'd better move on (rather apprehensively!).  They caught me up and started chatting to me, sweeping me along in their group.  They had two dogs with them (on leads) and I can happily say that the cows didn't bat an eyelid, they cared not one jot, not even the ones laid down next to the path.  For sure, they had a good look at us but I think they were too heavily pregnant to care!

Safely through the "danger zone", I thanked the group for escorting me through as they continued at a faster pace than me.

So far, I'd been thinking that for a "Wolds walk" this was flat.  This was also about to change as I headed through the parkland, and spotted another crop of cows on the hillside I would be heading up.

The people who kindly escorted me through the last field, waited for me at a gate and asked if I'd like to walk with them through the next field.  Absolutely!  

This was the steepest part of the walk and I impressed myself by (a) keeping up with them and (b) being able to hold a conversation going uphill at, what was for me, a brisk pace.

Once again, the cows were completely disinterested and once again I thanked the group for their kindness.

The view from the top of the field was wonderful:

Although not as clear on the pic, the autumnal colours of the plantation was gorgeous.

After crossing Towthorpe Lane (quite a busy main road by all accounts!) I came across a small picnic area so decided to stop and have my snacks:

It looks nicer on the picture than it was in reality but there were a couple of tables and it would have been wrong not to.

Some more leafy lane walking:

Autumn doesn't seem to have reached here yet.

Passing under the old railway line this time:

... then a bit more field edge walking before the second steep bit of the day and an uphill finish as I returned to Goodmanham.  I really was impressed that I didn't need to stop and I wasn't really out of breath either.

The Church at Goodmanham:

Just a short walk down the lane now and back to the car.

What a lovely autumnal walk.  Glorious sunshine and warm too.  

I'll probably do this walk again.

Thanks for reading 😊

Lake District : Orrest Head (3.8 miles)

 

Sunday, 11th October 2020

After I’d checked out of my accommodation, I decided to do a short walk before I headed home.  The weather was absolutely stonkingly, unbelievably, amazingly good and it would have been a crime to leave without squeezing a little walk in before I left.  A quick looksee at the map showed Orrest Head being within walking distance so I set off up Troutbeck Bridge’s equivalent of The Struggle – the road by the side of the pub.

 

Looking back down it: 

 
 
Eventually I popped out onto the A592 Patterdale Road, crossed it and headed up a wonderful ancient lane:
 
 
 
I headed into Low Hagg Wood:
 
 
 
Lovely woodland.  It smelled all earthy and autumnal and I kicked through the leaves like a child.
 
I missed my turnoff and ended up in High Hay Wood.  I found a fingerboard pointing the way to Orrest Head (only half a mile) so wandered off in that direction – back up through High Hay Wood.  I may have wandered out of the wood a bit and up some grazing pasture, then back to the wood and then through some more grazing pasture.  I found another fingerboard pointing the way to Orrest Head (only half a mile) so set off in that direction.  I may have ended back up in High Hay Wood again, or it might have been a different wood – who knows! 
 
Some pics from this aimless ambling:
 
 
 












After a while I spotted some people coming down the hillside and looked beyond to see a gaggle of folks on the skyline.  I took a wild guess that they were on Orrest Head so just aimed for there.  I found a fingerboard pointing the way to Orrest Head (only half a mile).  For goodness sake!  Seriously?
 
Luckily, from here there were regular marker posts to assist the navigationally challenged.
 
And an impressive Pointless Stile:
 
 
 
Higher and higher I got:
 
 
 

Until, yay:
 
 
I actually had to queue!  Snowdon, eat yer heart out.
 
I sat and enjoyed the sunshine and a coffee and people-watched for a good long while.  It was really lovely to see so many people out enjoying the day.  All ages, all abilities.  Eventually though, the crowds became too much for me and my mind daydreamed back to the wild, remote Scandale Valley and I decided it was time to head back down.  I chose a southern exit and discovered this was The Tourist Route up to Orrest Head.  In reality it was a very easy track that meandered its way gently through woodland:

...eventually popping me out onto the A592 again.
 
A short walk along the road and I returned down The Mini Struggle Road back to my car.
 
A smashing short walk at just under 4 miles.  It’s definitely one to do on a sunny morning so the sun’s behind you, lighting up the fells opposite, and making Windermere look magical
 
My track recording looks like I’ve drawn a squirrel eating a nut.  And I don’t care.
 

A pano-vid from the top:

What a really lovely weekend.  I need to do this more often 😊

Lake District: Red Screes - Take 2 (9.9 miles)

 Saturday, 10th October 2020

After the last failed attempt at Red Screes due to horrendous weather, I decided to give it another go in the autumn to hopefully see some colourful plumage on the trees in the Scandale valley.

Primarily because of the Covid "rule of 6" relating to groups of people meeting, rather than post it as a meet again, I just invited the 3 guys who braved the awful weather with me last time.  I'd donned my emotional armour-plating in readiness for a lot of "errr, well, umm, there's a global pandemic you know" refusals and was chuffed to bits when all 3 replied saying yes!

After looking at the weather forecast for the weekend and seeing that it was allegedly going to be cloudy/sunny and brightening up in the afternoon, plus, the latest plague related lockdowns happening "after the weekend", we plumped for this weekend.

I had a half-hearted search for some accommodation that wasn't stupidly expensive and found The Sun Inn at Troutbeck Bridge had a room available for the weekend.  A little more than I would normally like to pay at £160 for 2 nights for a single room but it was en-suite, clean, breakfast included, had free parking and wifi. And, to be honest, the room was lovely.  It wasn't the usual box room stuck in the rafters as an afterthought, it was quite spacious, had loads of sockets, including those posh ones with USB ports, and it had a mahooooosive radiator (which came in useful!).  The food was superb too.

After a frantic packing of overnight stuff, rucksack and snacks I left work a little earlier and set off for the long drive up, arriving at about 7.30pm - just a little too late to have a meal but I expected this and had contingency plans.  I got settled into my room and decided this was going to be my "annual holiday"(!) and had a nice relaxing night and toyed with the idea of heading a slightly different way up the Scandale Valley as I hoped I'd get more tree colour time (plus it avoided that err, delightful walk up "The Struggle" - the very steep beginning of the Kirkstone Pass Road).  I can imagine a few clutches have burned out on there in the past!

So the day dawned.  I had a modest breakfast of scrambled eggs on toast and copious amounts of tea before setting off on the 15 minute drive to meet up with the guys.  Fifteen minutes - oh how I wish I was within a 15 minute drive of the hills where I live!  Paul and Karl were already there as I arrived and we chatted a while as we waited for Colin, who appeared a few minutes later.  I told them about my new plan of attack and off we set.  Along the looooooong Nook Lane to cross Scandale Beck via Low Sweden Bridge just after the farm:

I maintained a suitable social distance!:

The views starting to appear:

Looking back towards Windermere:

The plan was to walk this side of the beck up to High Sweden Bridge, then cross over to join our original outward track.  I think we all "noticed" the stile off to our right which we should have climbed over to get to the bridge and we all walked straight past it.  To be fair, the path we were on curved round sharp right and "looked" like it was going to the bridge.  It wasn't!  We had a quick conflab about retracing our steps and a quick look at the map showed a "path" continuing on the left side of the beck and seemingly rejoining the path we needed to be on at a sheepfold about 2 miles away (ish, mebby).  We decided to carry on as we were and see where we ended up:

Eventually that lovely track in the pic above petered out into a squelchy nightmare.  A fell runner passed us and I asked him what the path was like ahead - "very wet and boggy - I turned back - but the more intrepid might not be bothered" was his reply.  This filled us with confidence.  We carried on, picking our way through the squish and the newly planted trees, still in their plastic protective tubes.  Colin said they were hawthorn and beech.  The beech should give a fantastic display of colour once they get established.  We hoped there were gaps in the walls (there was).  

I was really quite taken with this side of the valley.  Even if the weather had been great the last time, I don't think we'd have got quite the same perspective:

It reminded me of a Scottish glen with the river flanked by bracken covered hills and mountains.  Yes, I think this "off-piste" adventure was a good choice, despite the squishiness underfoot.

We came across an absolutely gorgeous little waterfall:

It is marked on the map but, had we been on the other side of the beck on the double walled track, we wouldn't have even known it was here, or have been able to get to it.

I managed to get a sneaky pic of the guys who were admiring the waterfall too and they obediently turned to face me when I shouted "coooo-eeeeeeee" to them.  "Snap" the pic was taken - "gotcha!":

We started a steady climb out of the valley and I took one last pic looking back down from whence we came:

Ohhhh, how wonderfully wild and remote.  A soothing balm for my soul.

We eventually reached the sheepfold - on the other side of the beck - and we had to decide how to cross.  The guys were able to cross to the mini-island and get to the other side but me? No, I was a wimp and didn't dare so I investigated a gate with the idea of crab-walking along it.  Bad idea. REALLY bad idea!  After testing the top bar and finding it solid, stupid here didn't bother to look at the fact the gate was actually chained on to this bar.  So basically it was a swing.  And yes, when you stand on a swing and hold on to something solid, the swing moves.  My centre of gravity skewed somewhat by the weight of my rucksack only added to this impromptu gymnastic display.  Karl was trying to grab hold of me but if I'd have let go of the bar I'd have fallen in.  In the end I decided wet feet and legs was a better option than attempting to move my hands along the bar as my rucksack was adding too much "body weight".  I had a proper death grip on that bar and I wasn't letting go!  So into the water I stepped.  It wasn't as cold as I expected to be honest and luckily, it only came up to my mid calves.  Oh, in the meantime, Colin and Paul came rushing up.  I assumed, to help, but no, they were after a "You've Been Framed" moment!

Anyway, the beck was eventually crossed successfully and we continued on our way, stopping at the Scandale Pass as it was Banana-o'clock.  This was also a bad idea as I looked up the steep hillside and thought "we're going up there".  I quickly looked away.  This was about the only part of the walk where I wished the clag was down!

The next seven hundred hours were spent getting above the steep craggy bits and, once we had, oh those views.  Just look at those views:

And just to enhance the views, a nice rainbow:

All of a sudden I spotted the trig:  

The guys very kindly let me be the first to touch the trig.  I was closely followed by Colin who, I learned, had not "bagged" Red Screes yet either - he has now.  

Some pics from the top:

We had quite a lengthy break just beyond the summit.  The wind was quite chilly really and it was about now that Karl decided he'd lugged all his wild-camping gear along for absolutely no reason whatsoever.

After we were all suitably freezing we started our descent.

Looking down Kilnshaw Chimney to the Kirkstone Inn:

Another lovely rainbow beaming down on the Scandale Valley:

Rain shower in the valley:

An almost full length view of Windermere:

It was somewhere around this point where I decided to do a bit of floor-surfing.  A nice, grassy path so I was striding out and, whoosh, my left leg shot out in front of me on the slippery mud underneath and I ended up on my backside. No injuries, apart from my pride.  I was covered in mud.  Splendid!

The final bit of the walk was down the Kirkstone Pass Road.  We had to give way to these chap-esses:

A little pano-vid from the top of Red Screes:

Absolutely smashing day.  Cheers guys for agreeing to "Take 2".  It was just what the doctor ordered.

I wish I could do this every weekend.