Pennine Way Weekend in Teesdale

One of the projects I’m proposing to do in the summer as part of the Durham County Council guided walks programme is to complete County Durham’s bit of the Pennine Way from Tan Hill Inn to Cauldron Snout. I think this will take five walks, each of which will be circular.

So this weekend just past, and after one weather-related postponement, I’ve been exploring circular-ish routes in Teesdale to see what happens….   Bruno came too, and on Sunday, I was joined by Louise and her collie pup Rosie.

Saturday’s ramble started from Forest in Teesdale school, wandered up the Pennine Way to Langdon Beck, Widdybank farm and , finally , scrambled up the very noisy Cauldron Snout, all in a fierce headwind combined with that ever-familiar driving drizzle that’s been a feature of this year’s winter. In fact, it was howling most of the time and, having my hood up and head down and not paying sufficient attention made me miss a turn and, so a small chunk of the Pennine Way. It’ll be all right on the day….

We returned damply from Cow Green reservoir over a bit of moor to Binks farm, down through Harwood in exceptional and unreasonably fierce and unbalancing hail –loaded gusts and back along the Tees. It was nice to be pushed along by the gale for a bit, though.  The fields are sloppy and wet, and, taken together, it developed into a bit of a scrap with Mother Nature. Basically, we got a bit roughed up.  It’ll be all right on the ..er…. it will be July and the hay meadows will be in full flower and the curlew will be wheeling and calling on the moor in a warm sky…

Anyway, Sunday, and after a night for the kit on radiators,  I met Louise and her dog in Middleton and we fought a slightly reduced headwind, but this time in bright sunshine, up the Pennine Way beside the Tees, to Low Force, High Force and up to Forest and back along old back lanes and riverside paths, where it eventually went dark and forced us into a road walk of a mile and a bit, or so. So, I missed another bit of path which I’ll likely have a short walk to see in a week or so. There’s no panic, really. The last bit of path was up a seventy metre hill through pastures, and I think we’d both had enough calorie-burning by that point in favour of a plod down the B6277 with the Petzl on strobe, which is an odd experience and makes reflectors and road signs appear to flash from a great distance. It does make sure you get noticed by traffic, though.

Bruno and Rosie enjoyed themselves once again, bouncing around, choosing sticks and, generally doing doggy stuff.  There’s more sheep on the return route, though, for some reason (its probably a bit warmer on the North side of the Tees…?) and canines had to be on leads. Rosie is specially interested in seeing how fast sheep could run, given the chance and does sheep-dog poses from behind gateposts. Bruno, on the other hand, only notices sheep if they make a point of running away. He’s much too old for that sort of thing, really. Its that time of year when flocks of sheep tend to follow us across fields anyway, which is a source of some puzzlement to a canine codger like Bruno.

Anyway, I’ve managed to reccy the Pennine Way from Middleton to Cow Green, so there’s just three more routes to do…

Total miles for the weekend was 12 + 14, (that’s 26, folks…)  with 2200 feet of up. (that’s not a lot of up for 26 miles…)

More of this later this week but today I might have a bit of a rest…….

 

A Bit of Buttermere Birkett Bagging and a Pork-based rant

The temperature difference between County Durham and Buttermere was eleven degrees centigrade today – minus 5.5 at the bridge over the Wear at Witton and plus 5.5 at Buttermere. There were still flows of ice over the Whinlatter road, and the Buttermere – Newlands road was closed, which caused a bit of delay at the start.

But eventually, me, the dawg, the bro and his Dutch/Irish co-walker Rea (not sure if that’s the correct spelling) slithered off over the icy path to Scale Force and over the slightly less soggy bit on the left hand side of the Very Soggy bit to the steep little climb up to Floutern Cop – a mainly grassy but distinctive nobble which is a good place for lunch as it provides effective shelter from a nithering wind blowing over from the Isle of Man.

It was about this time that we realised that we didn’t have enough daylight for our original plan which was to climb Great Borne and Starling Dodd, along with three minor lumps, so we went for Banna Fell, which was on the original itinerary. Banna Fell is a nondescript bit of moor with a good view of the foot of Ennerdale. And then we retraced for a bit, but skirted around the side of Hen Comb by a descending traverse, then up for the bagging of Scale Knott, which is but a pimple on the side of melbreak, but with a very fab view of Grasmoor and Crummack Water. It was on this traverse, that Bruno demonstrated his fence-jumping skills, sailing over top wires and landing gracefully and without breaking step, but coming a cropper when crossing the beck by a misjudged leap to the insufficient extent of his retractable lead and receiving a chilly dunking in a small pond as a reward for his lack of planning and, frankly, for being a clever dick.

Back to Buttermere by the outward route – there’s a path from Scale Knott to Scale Force.

We did nine miles and about 2000 feet of upness, and bagged just three Birketts, bringing my Birkett Bagging Total to 482 Birketts out of 541. Unfortunately, the final digit (a “one”) will be Pillar Rock. I am unlikely to be able to bag this, partly because at this rate, it will take me another ten years to bag the rest of the unbagged ones, and partly because I iz a wimp when it comes to climbing about over beetling drops. So, I’ll never finish the Birketts.  But am I bothered?

No.

Incidentally, the two pubs in Buttermere were firmly closed, but we did spot this sign outside one of them. Six quid for a bacon butty!  Six quid!

Locally sourced bacon, though. And it’s in a rusty bun…. There must be a supermarket selling bacon and rusty buns nearby – probably in Cockermouth or Whitehaven…

Six quid…! Some kind of joke, surely….

 

Big Pup on the Haute Route

Ok, As a route, it’s not very “haute”, in fact, it’s highest bit of hautness is 1153 of her Majesty’s Imperial feet above datum. But, it’s hauter than the other route, which is lower. It is, in fact, yet another walk from Wolsingham to Tunstall, but a different one from before, at least, some of it is different….  Its a reccy, anyway.

After a hurried breakfast, which ended at approximately lunchtime, I bundled Bruno into the back of the knipemobile and hurtled off to Wolsingham.

It was frosty. The ground was frozen hard. The lunchtime temperature was just minus two. We skiddled and skited over the hardened mud up to Baal Hill and Thistlewood and along the High Way towards Salter’s Gate, Tow Law’s premier dogging spot (gays during the day, couples at night). We didn’t visit but battered on over the sunny moors to join with the old railway line which used to go from Crook to Sunderland, collecting iron and steel and coal and fireclay on the way. (There was a coalmine at Saltersgate which is of little local interest nowadays, apparently…)

I noticed that there were cattle on the moor above Thistlewood, and a large herd above Tunstall, right on our descent route. Both me and superdawg sensed bother and prepared for a diversion. I waited by the gate so that the cattle could spot us and so that I could precipitate anything that might happen with a quick escape route. Nothing happened. We walked gingerly through the middle of the herd. A few watched us, most were busy with their hay supply. These are sucklers. There’ll be calves here in the summer. I might not try this again when there are calves…  It seems odd not to have these moocows in their sheds at this time of year. But I’m not a cattle farmer, so I have no idea, obviously…

The rest of the route was along the eastern shore of the reservoir and by High Jofless, Park Wall and Fawnlees, a reverse, in fact , of the route we’d done a few days ago. This will be a new County Durham walk for the summer programmes. Its a good walk.

There’s no stock on the high moor and many of the fields are empty too. There were some sheep flocks, who gathered and followed us across their pastures but in the stockless places, Bruno could bounce around, carrying lumps of ice and crunching them up; finding sticks and running about like an old dog should know better.

I did eight miles. Bruno did about twenty.

Sunny Walk to the Border

Finally, after what seems months of wet and windy, warm and muddy, and, frankly, ‘orrible non-winter weather , we get a pristine day of blue skies, bright sunshine and frozen ground.

Today was the day for doing the walk that me and Louise did (along with Bruno and Rosie) last week – the one where I broke me specs… you remember….  I had an egg butty…

Anyway, there were nineteen people on the walk including me and the two stewards Ray and Richard and a bunch of other, off-duty rangers who have appeared in the pieblog on previous occasions.

This time, the bogs that we’d squelched over were mainly, though not entirely frozen and the mud of the riverside paths and fields had dried out a bit and/or frozen. And we took the lunch stop in a sheltered lane, and, the sun was actually quite warm. And there was an over-enthusiastic skylark singing. How good is that?

And, this time I managed a few pictures although if I’d been by myself I’d have taken more.

We had a good day, although we completed the route a bit quicker than I’d planned.

I’m hoping this weather sticks around for a while. If the winter finishes like this it will be just perfect and I have plans. I always have plans. You need to have plans. Just a tip for anybody who doesn’t have any plans – Make Some Plans.  Do it tomorrow after you’ve cut your toenails and been to B&Q. Gwan!

Plans!

 

Cold Fell… where it was cold actually…

Cold Fell is a boggy, soggy, heathery lump at the very top end of the Pennines. It is, in fact the very last Pennine you would come across if you were walking up the length of the Pennines. After this, it’s Hadrian’s Wall.

And another thing about Cold Fell is that it’s part of the RSPB nature reserve Geltsdale. This is a Good Place if you’re a hen harrier or a black grouse. Geltsdale also goes by the name of the King’s Forest of Geltsdale, an ex-hunting forest belonging, at one time, to the Scottish crown.

And it’s got an ancient cairn on the top which has been fashioned into a big, neat cairn and a small and scruffy wind shelter just big enough for three people and a small dog.

And so it was today that three people and a small dog sploshed up from the car park at Clesketts into that familiar Pennine Driving Drizzle and into the sheltering arms of the Cold Pike’s Cairn. The three were, of course, me, John and Brian and Bruno.  We only stayed long enough to scoff a butty and a mars bar and to take a pic of some lichen which was flowering on the stones. I suppose that this is exactly the kind of weather that lichen likes. It seems likely.

Lashed by a bit more driving drizzle, we descended a different way over a windy and drizzly moor to better visibility and an old tramway which lead back to where we’d started.

It was all very damp and the Belted Will public house nearby was firmly closed.

We did six and a half miles. Longer walks are available when there’s more daylight and less precipitation. It’s always going to be soggy underfoot, though.

Onwards and upwards…..