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Saturday 8 February 2014

DCC Guided Walk to Race Head – Upper Weardale

climbing by sedling vein

This walk was badly timed, really, since the route coincided quite a bit with two other guided walks up Weardale within the last few weeks. This, and the duff, almost hysterical weather forecast on the Beeb containing monstrous amounts of heavy rain, turning to snow on the Pennines and huuuuge gales of wind to boot, may have been responsible for the fact that there were only seven of us on the walk, including the steward Ralph and the stand-in emergency appointment steward Richard.

bruno doesnt like the group shelter but he does like snow

sedling rake road is made from flourpar!

Me and the Dawg did the reccy a few days ago in nithering but otherwise fine weather. Bruno was pretty gruntled about the small amounts of snow on the tops but not all that happy about having lunch inside the big orange flappy group shelter.

upper weardale

And another thing ….  this walk will be repeated in October as part of the North Pennnines AONB Walking Festival and will start and/or finish at the Chatterbox cafe in St John’s Chapel, a fine establishment which provided me with a huge pot of tea and a teasted toecake with raspberry jam after the reccy. Unfortunately, as it was chucking it down when we finished today, nobody was motivated to make the dash from the auction mart car park to the cafe for similar refreshments today.

above ireshopeburn

Basically, the walk follows the Weardale Way from St John’s Chapel to West Blackdene and then a path on the hillside to Wearhead, followed by a lurch uphill to Sedling rake, returning damply to the start via Slit Wood and the riverside path from Westgate.

ralph and richard see to a gate

As we stopped in Wearhead to allow ladies to visit the ladies, a lady came out of a house to offer advice on where to walk in Weardale. We told her our route and she declared that there was “Nowt oop there” and that we would have to cross fields to get anywhere.

burtree diggings

Ignoring this advice, we took to the hills for a wind-assisted ascent to Race Head – a place with a bit of sloppy snow, a lot of flourspar and a cracking view of the approaching dark clouds over the Teesdale ridge the South. It rained a bit. Then it stopped as we paddled the Middlehope Burn, and started again as we left Westgate. By the time we got to Pheonix St Johns Chapel it was heaving it down.

I’ll be back in October.

In the meantime, me and Dawn are off to Moffat to get blown about and really wet.

race head walk

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4 comments:

Dawn said...

It could get interesting Mike!!??

Mike Knipe said...

Just seen the countryfile weather and I think we might get away with it. Snowy Tuesday am, but probably stopped by the time we get there. I'm taking spikes, though!

Anonymous said...

We nearly booked ourselves in at Moffat for half term week, but changed our minds and booked ourselves in at Dartmoor instead. Will be up around Moffat again at Easter. Might be drier around Moffat than Dartmoor next week though.

Mike Knipe said...

Go to Moffat - you know it makes sense... The South West is a bit wet, apparently