Teesdale Rangering

Two bits of rangering to report on.

First was the Saturday Afternoon Special at Barnard Castle. We had Cathy Angel and Walter Taylor as stewards and five walkers.

The weather was less than promising, but didn’t do much more than a very light drizzle, although it did go quite dark for a while. Nobody died and we didn’t get lost or chased by cattle.

I seem to be attracted to taking pictures of signs lately – and found this example of a tin War Department sign announcing the existence of a firing range deep in Deepdale woods. The ash tree it was nailed to has folded the metal and grown around most of the sign. Its taken it about seventy years, I guess. If I come back in another seventy years, it’ll be a miracle. I suspect that the sign might not be here either, although it looks as though the tree has a chance to outlive both of us.

And today, after shodding the knipemobile with two new Firestones, me and Bruno went off to reccy a seven mile walk along the King’s Walk and paths around Hudeshope. (pronounced Hudzup)  This is where I discovered that the walk is only six miles. Maybe nobody will notice.(pronounced shortfall)

The King’s Walk is a long-established permissive path courtesy of the Raby Estate and is very pleasant if a bit slartyclarty at the moment.

The woods would be quite impressive if the sun shines as they’re in autumn colours at last. As it happened, today was dark and Pennine and I finished the walk in the early stages of nightfall.

Some of us quite like dark and Pennine, though.

 

No real problems with the paths apart from their sloppy state, which will probably not change next week unless there’s a big frost or something. There’s a few beck crossings, one of which could be tricky if the beck floods, and there’s a bit of hillside in the process of collapsing which we’ll have to skirt around.

The guided walk through Hudeshope is next Saturday. If anybody asks, its seven miles, see?