My Mountain page

I must apologise for the severe lack of posts on the blog, so far this month. We were away down in Oxford for the first two weeks having a well earned holiday, the cottage where we were staying had a broadband connection, and I’d made sure before we left that all the necessary software etc was loaded up onto my laptop. I’d checked everything was working ok before we left home, but for some reason, which we couldn’t work out, I was unable to log onto the admin account for the blog, everything else seemed to work ok like access to the FTP server but I couldn’t work out what was wrong, when we got home I tried accessing it from the desktop PC and it logged me in straight away, very strange!
The holiday was a very relaxing one, we hadn’t planned to do a great deal while we were there, normally we would have gone to the Lakes or Scotland to do plenty of walking, but I needed a complete break from everything to re-charge the batteries. We did manage a few shortish walks, which we really enjoyed, even though we had to fight our way through overgrown paths and mud. There was also a lake close by to the cottage so I also managed to get a few spells of fishing, in between the heavy showers and rain, over the two weeks the level of the lake must have gone up by at least 150 mm.
I did spend some of the time reading up on how to use ‘style sheets’ to format the layout of the web site and this blog, it’s something I’d not looked at before but knew I couldn’t put it off forever. Once I’d got my nose into the book, it wasn’t as bad as I’d first thought and pretty quickly I’d managed to write myself a style sheet for the home page, including a new navigation bar, which I was very pleased with. This means that now I’m not using any ‘tables’ to determine the layout of the page and it’s all done by the style sheet, which will help greatly with future changes etc to the design/layout of the page. I’m slowly going through the whole site updating the pages so that their layout is determined by the new style sheets, this is going to take a little bit of time but I know it will be worth it in the long run.
I’m currently looking at a new ‘theme’ for this blog, which is going to take me a while to put together, I want to spend some time thinking and planning on the layout etc, as I know from when I started the web site I jumped in feet first without planning it and ended up changing the theme/layout several times before I was really happy, as a result some of my older web pages look odd, which I want to avoid on this time.

Sunday, 27 July 2008
6.0 miles with 690 feet of ascent

We planned on a short walk today, as the weather forecast was for another hot day we thought that all of the usual spots would be very busy, we also needed to start sorting stuff out for our holidays next weekend. So the plan was hatched over breakfast to drive up to Hury Reservoir, in Baldersdale, and walk over Cotherstone Moor to Goldsborough, it had been several years since I was last over there and Sheena had never been. It was very easy walking, but very tyipcal of the north pennines, the first section over the fields was straight forward, with the actual paths been as shown on the map, this usually helps! Once we were on the open moor there was a vague path but it was easy enough to navigate and we were soon on the Pennine Way heading towards Goldsborough, which is a rocky outcrop sticking up in the middle of an otherwise flat moorland, there is a similar occurance about 3 miles to the west, called Shacklesborough.

The climb up onto the summit was really easy, but the views were outstanding, the bulk of Mickle Fell, the highest point in County Durham, was far away to the west, to the south was the vast expanse of Bowes Moor while to the north Teesdale was spread out in all its glory, I could have sat there all day just soaking up the beauty.

From the summit we picked up the Pennine Way again and followed this down to the farm, where we turned off and headed across the hay meadows to pick up the path that runs runs Hury Reservoir, which we followed back to the car.

Friday, 25 July 2008
7.0 miles with 1990 feet of ascent

I had the day off work on Friday and since the weather forecast was looking really good I decided that I would take Tim for a walk over in the Lakes, rather than go shopping to get a few bits for our holidays, which had been the plan.
I set off reasonably early and the traffic wasn’t to bad on the A66 at that time in the morning so I was parked up in the car park, at Cow Bridge, ready for walking by a quater to nine. I knew it was going to be a hot day as the sweat was running down my back after five minutes walking, I didn’t appreicate exactly how warm it had been until I was driving back alongside Ullswater on the way home and the external temparature sensro on the car was reading 27ºC!

My route was to walk upto Boredale Hause then up onto Anlgetarn Pikes, from where I would drop down to Angle Tarn before going over to Brock Crags. The climb upto Boredale Hause starts off not to bad but it really does steepen the closer you get to the Hause, my legs were feeling like lead, I wasn’t sure if that was still the after effects from the cold??? I’d had for the last couple of weeks or from the long walk we did last weekend. Either way I was dripping with sweat, and puffing like a billy goat, by the time I was up the steepest bit, it was a good job there was no one around as I don’t think I would have made a pretty site.

From Boredale Huase I headed right along the C2C path which I followed for a short way, before heading up onto Angletarn Pikes, where I enjoyed a coffee stop, sheltering from the strong wind just down from the summit rocks, the view across Patterdale to Helvellyn and Fairfield was well worth the effort and beat been at work.
After the coffee is was a simple stroll down to the tarn, instead of heading along the eastern side of the tarn on the C2C path, I decided to go round the western side, there’s a bit of a vague path and its wet in a couple of places, but easy enough. As I started the last little climb up to the summit of Brock Crags my legs felt really heavy again and I was alomst on my knee’s before I got to the top. Ant thoughts I had about possibly continuing the walk round the head of Hayeswater onto High Street etc quickly disappeared, I knew there was no way I was going to make it the way I was feeling.
From Brock Crags I walked over to Satura Crag before heading down to Hayeswater where me and Tim shared a pork pie for our lunch, maybe not the best walking food but Taylors (a local butchers) can’t be beaten, especially if they are smothered in english mustard. We sat there awhile watching a poor fisherman trying his hardest to fly fish, but the strong winds made that just about impossible, and after about 10 minutes he gave up and found a sheltered spot for a bit of sunbathing!
From Hayeswater is was a simple task of walking back down the access road to Hartsop village and then back to the car.

Sunday 20th July 2008
14 miles with 1745 feet of ascent

Today saw us back on ‘local’ ground in Teesdale, I’d agreed many months ago to lead a walk for the Wainwright Society and the day had arrived. I wasn’t to sure on how many people were going to turn up, several people had emailed me to say they were coming, but the walk had been published in the Societies magazine which has a circulation of several hundred! The agreed meeting spot was Holwick village on the south side of the valley, however, I decided to park over the other side of the valley at Bowlees, about half a mile away, this was so I could give Tim a bit of a run off the lead before we met up with everyone, I wasn’t sure how he was going to get on with lots of people on his walk, but as it turned out he was fine, I don’t think he has enjoyed himself so much on a walk.

In the end there were ten of us on the walk, including three dogs, and after a quick group photo we were off across the fields to our first objective of the day Low Force, which os only a 10 minute walk from the village. The route I’d planned was to walk along the River Tees from Low Force all the along the Pennine Way as far as Cronkley Farm, passing High Force on the way, then staying on the south side of the river we would follow a path upto Cauldron Snout. From here we would cut back over Cronkley Fell on the old drovers road ‘The Green Trod’ which would take us all the way back to the start of the walk at Holwick.

When we arrived at Low Force there was a lot more water in the river than you’d expect at this time of year, probably down to the recent heavy rain. After lots of photographs we were soon off upstream towards High Force, this is one of my favourite stretches of the river, with meadows, wild flowers and juniper bushes, which I’m led to believe have been there for nearly 300 years! High Force proved to be as spectacular as ever, which led to another round of photo taking!

Above High Force the valley starts to become a little ‘wilder’ the only downside if the ugly quarry workings on the opposite back. Just after passing through Cronkley Farm we left the Pennine Way and headed off up the south bank of the river, it wasn’t long before we reached the ruins of an old pencil factory beside the river where we decided to have our lunch stop. From here the path stayed very close to the river, in places we had to walk over ‘duckboards’ to cross some of the boggy bits, and further along even those stopped and we plogged our way slowly towards Cauldron Snout, but the effort was well worth it, it wasn’t that long before we were standing looking at the water tumbling doen the 200 feet long cascades of Cauldron Snout.

From Cauldron Snout we back tracked along the river for about a mile before picking up the old drove road’ The Green Trod’ this would take us back over Cronkley Fell and Holwick Fell back to the start. As we crossed over Cronkley Fell we passed by the protected enclosures where hr ‘gentians’ flower during the spring, alas today there wasn’t one to be seen! But the views across upper Teesdale certainly made up for it, the vast panorama of some of the highest summits in the Pennines were spread out before us.

The way back was relatively easy compared to some of the path we has walked eariler in the day, and we soon picked up the track heading back down into Holwick, it was on this section that we spotted the Golden Plover in the long grass beside the path, and I was lucky enough to get a couple of freally good photos, we’d come across these birds a few weeks ago up in Blanchland but they weren’t as obliging in posing to have their photo’s taken. Sadly we were soon back at the cars after a cracking walk, I’d just like to say a big thank you to everyone that joined us on the walk for your company and conversation, it made the day very special, I can’t wait for the next one!

Sunday 13 July 2008
5.5 miles with 1800 feet of ascent

We managed to get back over to the Lakes today, after a break of six weeks, it was really nice driving over the A66 this morning seeing the fells shrouded cloud, having been away from them for so long it really makes you appreciate their beauty even more.

The plan was to park up in Rosthwaite and head up Grange Fell, across the Great Crag skirting around Dock Tarn before heading over to Ullscarf, I was a little doubtful if I could manage it, as I was just getting over the sore throat I’d had all week, but if you don’t try you don’t know if you can do something or not!

We were parked up and walking by ten to nine, for the first past of the walk we followed the bridleway over to Watendlath, up Puddingstone Bank. I found it very heavy going, it was obivous that my throat/chest weren’t fully recovered, by the time we reached the top of the climb, I was finding it hard to breath, and by the time we’d got to the summit of Grange Fell I was about finished for the day. So the plan to do Ullscaraf, which would have finished off book 3 of the wainwrights was out of the window, rather than going back down the way we had come up we decided to see if after a coffee stop and something to eat if I could do Great Crag, that would mean we wouldn’t have to re-cover some ground, which is something we try not to do if we can help it.

So after the coffee and some dried fruits we headed off towards Great Crag, it was very boggy as we crossed the flat ground between the two summits, after a bit more huffing and puffing by me we were soon standing on the summit of Great Crag. I must agree with AW’s commnets that the summit is the right place to be, the only thing we didn’t have was the warm sunshine, but we did have the heather on full flower the views in all directions were excellent, Skiddaw (to the north), Helvellyn ( to the east) and Scafell pike (to the south).

From the summit we headed over to Dock Tarn to do a bit of exploring, we managed to find ourselves a nice little spot for a future wild camp, not easy amongst all the boggy bits, before following the main footpath down towards Stonethwaite. I’d only ever been down this way once before, on a cold wet November day and it wasn’t a pleasant experience, the path is stone pitched all the way down, but the rocks are set at the same angle as the slope which isn’t great for getting a good foothold. As it turned out today the path was just about dry and we had no real problems, apart from the steepness of the descent.

Once we had reached the valley floor it was a easy stroll back along the Cumbria Way to Rosthwaite, Tim was very excieted along this section, as the farmers were driving a huge flock of shepp along the lane on the other side of the river, he couldn’t see them but he could hear the dogs barking etc and he kept barking and wagging his tail all the way back to the car. I’m not quite sure what he would have done, if he was faced with several hundred shepp coming down the lane towards him, and I don’t really want to find out!

Saturday 5 July 2008

We’ve had a bit of bad time with Tim with week, on Monday night when we came home from work he couldn’t walk properly, and when I managed to let me have a look at his back leg I found that one of his pads a very swollen and very tender. So it was a trip to the vet’s, which he’s never to happy about, he can still remember when we sent him for the snip a few years ago! The vet thought it was an allergic reaction to a wasp sting, they bandaged his leg, to stop him licking his paw and gave him a course of anti-biotic’s. These seemed to work and when we took the dressings off a couple of day’s later the swelling had gone down loads and he was walking nearly normally.

So this mornings walk was going to be a fairly short one to see if he was fit enough for a longer walk, my plan had been to drive over to the North Yorkshire Moor’s and have a walk over The Wainstone’s, a place I used to climb, but hadn’t been for a few years. The weather forecast was lousy again, so and early start was planned to try and beat the rain, but when I opened the curtains and looked across to the moors, which we can just about see from the house, the sky was dark and threatening already. A quick re-think and we were soon heading off along the river from the village, upstream towards the next village, Piercebridge.

It is a lovely walk through the woods and across the fields, and the village itself is also really nice, with a large green and lots of colourful cottages. This morning we also took time to have a look round the remains of the old roman fort, which is something we normally walk straight past, shame on us!

As we walked back, along the road to the house, the rain arrived, so we were glad that we hadn’t gone with our original plan, the NYM are very exposed and not recommended in bad weather.

Tim got round the walk with flying colours, back to his usual self, jumping over the stiles and trying to chase a few rabbits, if he got the chance, so fingers crossed we might try a bit longer walk tomorrow!

Sunday 29 June 2008
10.25 miles with 1630 feet of ascent

After are walk on the moors yesterday we decided to give the walk we had to put off last Sunday, due to the heavy overnight rain making the river levels high, a go. So after a quick bacon bun for breakfast we put the rucksacks and boots in the car and drove over to the forest. Its only about a 25 minute drive, depending on which car park we use, today we were going to The Grove (in the middle of the forest).

From the car park we headed along a quite forest path which took across into the Euden Back valley, where we followed the beck for a mile or so before climbing on a zig zag path to the summit of Black Hill. Many years ago when I first started walking in Hamsterley this part of the walk had very little to offer in the way of views as the tree’s where very tall and obscured everything. Now all of the tree’s have been felled so you can enjoy the view for the next 10 years or so until the new tree’s have grown up!

At the summit of Black Hill the nature of the walk changes as we headed out onto the open heather clad moors, this is one of my favourite area’s to walk, you can see for miles, right down to Teesside on a good day! We crossed the moors to The Meeting of the Grains, where we crossed South Grain Beck to enter the old enclosures of Ayhope Shield, a long abandoned farm, Tim loves these fields as they are full of rabbits to chase.

today, rather than following the footpath alongside the beck, which involves a bit of heather bashing, we stayed on the land rover tracks, used by the grouse shooting parties, a lot of these have recently been repaired and they stand out for miles as they are bright yellow, but eventually they will weather and won’t be as bad.

We stayed on these tracks all the way around the head of the moors to reach Doctors Gate, where we turned south and headed through the old quarry workings on Cabin Hill to re-enter the forest, near to another abandoned farm. From here it was only a short walk along the forest roads back to the car park, stopping along the way to let Tim play in the river!!!!

Saturday 28 June 2008
8.5 miles with 920 feet of ascent

Today we headed north into Northumberland, well just over the border by a little. It had been several years since we had last done any walking around Blanchland so we decided to do a walk from the village out over the moors, through the Slaley Forest and then back over the moors to Blanchland.

The weather forecast wasn’t to bad, the overnight rain had to clear and sunny spells develop, which seemed to be right as we packed our gear into the car. But as we drove along the A68 the dark clouds were sitting on the hills in front and it wasn’t long before the windscreen wipers were going, so much for the weather forecast! It was an easy drive, and we arrived in the car park and were ready to walk (including waterproofs!!!) in just under an hour.

The first couple of miles of the walk in along a lane from the village to the farm at Pennypie House, to start with it is tarmac, but once you pass the cottages and ruins at Shildon it turns into a gravel track. Its uphill all the way, but its very easy walking and the views across the moors improve as you walk.

Once past Pennypie House you are out onto the open moors, still following the track, which after the overnight rain was full of puddles, which Tim really enjoyed, he kept trying to lie down in the biggest ones, only to get shouted at by me!

We eventually the track entered the Slaley Forest, this was the turning point for the walk, we would only be in the forest for a short while, emerging back out onto the moors to walk back on a parallel path to our outward one. While we were in the forest we found a quiet spot beside a small pond, where we decided to have our lunch, big mistake, we forgot about the midges!!!!!

After our very short lunch we headed back out onto the moors, this was the most eventful part of the walk, first of all a female grouse with her chicks ran right across the path in front of Tim, and even though he was on the lead he made a dash for them! we weren’t sure if he hurt any of them, but there was lots of squawking and flapping of wings for a few seconds. This bit of excitement made us miss the branch in the path, and it took us several minutes to realise we were on the wrong path, so a bit of back tracking was required to pick up the right one.

After all that the rest of the walk proved easy, just a nice pleasant walk over the moors and back along the river into Blanchland for and ice cream from the village shop.

Sunday 22 June 2008
5.5 miles with 975 feet of ascent

The weather forecast for today was awful, heavy showers accompanied with winds gusting to gale force, we had originally planned to have a walk in Hamsterley Forest, but the walk we wanted to do involved a couple of river crossings and after the heavy rain overnight we didn’t think that was a clever proposition. So over breakfast we decided to head into Swaledale again and do a walk that neither Sheena or Tim had done before, Whitcliffe Scar. We parked up in the Round How car park, which is just outside Richmond on the Reeth/Leyburn road, and after paying for the parking and putting our boots on we were soon off walking.

The first part of the  walk followed a quite lane which took us to Lowenthwaite Farm, we then headed into Whitcliffe woods which where the path was very muddy, after all of the recent rain. About half way through the woods there was an option to use a permissive path through the riverside meadows, which we picked, to avoid the muddy paths. Tim wasn’t best pleased when he wasn’t allowed his usual play in the river, but the Swale was running very high after the heavy rain yesterday and we were concerned that he would be swept away!

We continued walking through the riverside fields, crossing several stiles some of which we had to lift Tim over as they were very awkward for even him to jump. We eventually arrived at Low Applegarth farm, where we turned north, leaving the river and walking up the dry valley of Deepdale to reach the top of Whitcliffe Scar.

It was here that we felt the full force of the wind, it hadn’t been bad along the river, but now on the edge of the escarpment we found it difficult to walk at times, luckily the wind was in our backs so it pushed us along rather than having to walk head long into it. The walk was supposed to go all the into Richmond and then follow the river back to the car, but the forecasted showers had started to appear on the horizon and coupled with the strong winds we decided to cut the walk short by a couple of miles.

It was a great little walk, and its one that we will repeat in the near future when the weather isn’t as bad, but next time we will do the full walk taking in Richmond and the delightful walk back through Hudswell woods.

I’ve been looking tonight about trying to import all of my old posts from my ‘blogger’ site, at first I thought it was going to be really easy, just click on the import button and away I would go! I fell at the first fence, Google doesn’t seem to want to recognise my web site and so won’t allow a secure connection for the transfer, maybe its just me, I will have a bit more investigation and may be another go over the weekend.
As for the few posts that I wrote on my web blog I’m just going to add these as new posts on this blog, I don’t think any one is going to mind if the dates are little bit out, and there’s only four posts, unlike the fourty odd on the other site.
A couple of other things that I’ve done tonight is to install the anti-spamming software on the blog, so hopefully I won’t get loads of spam comments posted. I must admit I don’t have a clue whats its supposed to do, (something else I will have to learn about) its a matter of fingers crossed and hope it works, but I was advised by Geoff of V-G Backpackers to add it asap to help prevent the spamming. The other bits were just playing around with the sidebar and adding smoe catergories.