Torver Trundle to White Maiden

Tuesday took us to Torver – me and the Pooch and the Bro. We parked nicely in the chapel car park and took off up paths and lanes to bag the Tump they call “Banks”. This is just above Torver, in fact and has a handsome cairn overlooking the lowlands below and a long, round ridge ending in a slightly higher spot than everywhere else. So far, so good.

Target #2 was a Birkett – High Pike Haw – which lay just over there ----> and was a nice, little pointy-topped hillock with a bit of a crag on one side. I couldn’t help noticing several camping spots on the way, and all with water quite nearby. Just seven Birketts remain to complete the list. However, one of these is Pillar Rock and this may well be beyond the Pieman’s nervous abilities, sooo….

Onwards and upwards… we followed a slightly scrambly route up to the summit of White Maiden, noticing even more bijoux camping spots on the way.  And all the time the sun beat down… or, at least it was sunny and fairly warm…

From White Maiden, we drifted over to White Pike and then down stupidly steep grass towards the big quarry below, discovering on the way an old slate quarry containing a dam of deep green water of the type you might like to dip in had it been just a bit warmer, or, at least had time to warm up (e.g. in August after a hot summer)

On further descent, the Bro collected Lag Bank, which I failed to do in a moment of Summer Snoozing Lassitude (SSL) during which I waited by the fence and ate flapjack whilst Lucky made a nest in a patch of Juncus and went off to dreamy sleepy snoozyland. Bugger. I’ll have to go back.

Tussocks, brambles and bracken followed which we abandoned at a stile into the forest and soon, by use of  a handy bridleway, we were back on easy ground and, on the further descent towards the valley, I managed to identify and bag the little Tump they call Bracelet Moor, not so much a moor as a sheep field with a summit marked by a polythene feed bag.

Down on the main road, we spotted two lambs stuck in the hedge, with Mum having a bit of a ewe-wobbler on the other side. Various manoevres released one lamb back into the field whilst the other escaped onto the main road. Lucky, however, demonstrated his collie genes and helped to send the lamb back towards the gate where it was reunited with it’s mum. Job done.

We descended to the railway track which we managed to follow for a mile or so till we came to a blockage, where a diversion to an old back road brought us back to Torver.

Ten and a half sunny miles. One Birkett and two Tumps for me, Two Birketts, One Nuttall, and two Tumps bagged for Lucky.