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Monday 9 April 2012

Stanhope and Shittlehope Denes and the Bit In Betweens

melting snow park head

I’m aware about the constant repetition of the same walks in the pieblog, so, by way of a change, and just to re-emphasise my utter lack of imagination, this post is about two walks up Stanhope Dene and down Shittlehope Dene wot I did six days apart but substantially by the same routes.

This, by the way, is also the same route I did two or three times last year and which was, on the last occasion, joined by TGO’s peripatetic editor of walks in other places who gave me my Leg End plaque for ten TGO crossings a couple of years ago. Ten TGO crossings plus an intended eleventh, plus the half crossing in 2001 during the Foot and Mouth debacle may well also show a determined lack of ideas about where to go walking. And the walk appeared in TGO mag, so there’s no need for me to bang on about where it went…..

I just told they spelled my name wrong...

Anyway, last week, me and superdawg parked in the Dales centre, wandered up Stanhope Dene in icy drizzle, used the right of way which crosses and recrosses the beck, just to see what it was like (wet and slippy), up to the CtoC railway line where it was doing the snowy equivalent of drizzle, on to Park Head, where it started to blow a hoolie, down the incline where the blizzard started, along Crawleyside Edge where I couldn;t find shelter for me cheese butty and the dog was shivering, and down Shittlehope dene which was a bit more sheltered. This was a reccy for the proper walk which happened yesterday.

along the ctoc to parkhead

In between, it snowed quite a bit, the electricity at knipetowers went off and various vehicles had to be abandoned to snowdrifts along the Crawleyside road.

three heart attacks hill

Yesterday, ten people turned up and we did the walk again. It was the same route, apart from going around a certain slope failure and calling in at park head cafe for a cuppa and a hot beef sandwich. There were sloppy old snowdrifts and just a little drizzle, but, in general, the conditions were much more benign. In the woods, there were primroses and violets and wood anemones and in the fields the spring lambs were butting each other and jumping around for a laugh.

wet dog in shittlehope

It was nine miles, or eighteen if you do it twice. I’ll not be back here for a while. The sheep are getting suspicious.

Its quite a good walk, though, and there’s a cuppa in the middle.

dvcrs walk 2

8 comments:

AlanR said...

Looks an Interesting walk Mike with the Engine and quarries. Weather looked a grim higher up going off the pics.

John J said...

You're a lucky lad, living near to all that fascinating countryside.
And all those sheep.

JJ

Mike Knipe said...

lead mines too, Alan. The engine was for hauling trains full of limestone up the incline. The sandstone quarries are a bit of a mess to be frank.
Its great, JJ. Some of the sheep are quite pretty...

chrissiedixie said...

Bruno looked like he'd done the walk one too many times and fancied a change of scenery.

Mike Knipe said...

The soggy doggy pic is from the first walk. I think we were both a bit wet and fed up. He chirped up after drying himself on the back seat of the car....
I'm not allowed to have a dog whilst leading a walk, so he wasn't there on the sunnier second one.

Andrew W said...

You have too much countryside to walk through.
I did notice that huge milk spillage just near the start.

OK, I need sleep!

Mike Knipe said...

I thought somebody had split a bag of sugar, Andrew.. Could happen...

Dawn said...

Interesting Mike.