Watery Weardale Walk with One’s Wow wow

Y’see , when we were in Wales, I noticed that toddlers and their mums referred to the dog as a “wow wow….)

pause for tumbleweed to roll past………

Waterfall at the entrance to Slit Wood, Westgate

Anyway, it seems to me from reading various blogs and other sources that many people are just a bit fed up with the winter so far. It has been damp, after all, but, you know (sounding like Margaret Thatcher now….) faint heart never frecked a pig and it really is best for all concerned if one or two of you out there could just stir yourselves from your cosy armchairs and have a refreshing wander o’er moors and dales. Its only water, y’know. Thats why we have waterproofs. Its just early winter.. Its like April, but a bit darker….

Flood damage Slit Wood

The unlived who never climbed up a hill ever experienced that brief moment of joy at finding there that small and untidy heap of stones. But those that have lived (the dislived?) and are still abed (or at least a’armchair) may think themselves cursed that they were not here, as Ken Shakespeare once said

I bring you an eight mile walk in Weardale which didn’t have an untidy pile of stones, but did have several rainbows, some sunshine and some Pennine stuff chucked violently against the hood of my Paramo. But fun. all the same, and the dog liked it too.

And so, me and superdawg went up to Westgate in Weardale and tramped the now familiar Slit Wood – the beck being almost in spate and having, it seems, done some recent damage to the path, it nevertheless saved us from the attentions of an over-attentive cow on the opposite bank, whom, by the time she’d built up courage to cross the torrent to attack us, saw us disappear up the hill and far away.

I can see a rainbow

We sheltered briefly against an icy squall inside the ruin of a stone shed. A banana was fatally damaged.

We progressed to the top of Scarsike Head and then, down the road towards Rookhope, we turned off over a stile (see video!) and through a nature reserve, boggily and battered by brief but spiky storms with rainbows – to Rookhope village where, due to forgetting to bring any money, we ignored the pub. (foolish!)

An old railway trackbed took us back towards Westgate, where we were joined briefly and energetically by a horse with her foal (I expect they wanted food…) but we took a long shortcut over the hill and then steeply back to the start. It was a long shortcut because , whilst shorter than the main and more level Weardale Way path, took longer because it was uphill through lots of soft rush – which is hard to walk through.

Another squall in Weardale

There was sun and rain and a cold wind and more sun and a bit of hail and a cheese ploughmans sandwich. If you ever see a cheese ploughman, I ate his lunch. Squally showers were still processing along Weardale. There must be a queue of them somewhere.

8 or so miles and 1300 feet of uphill. It were fab. You should try it sometime.

So rise up from your cushions my soft furnished friends; gird up thy gaiters and walk!

Watch the vid – its got sound! – But, its only superdawg making a dog’s breakfast of surmounting a stile.

Dead Stones Delivery

In a couple of weeks time, it will be The Winter Solstice, after which, of course, the amount of daylight increases every day – just that little bit longer each day. Its the turning of the year and deserves a little celebration.

Peat haggy ground on the way to Deadstones

There is, in the wind, a little expedition up to the summit of Deadstones, to witness the dawn of the new year (notice I didn’t say New Year).

More rough going

Deadstones, I should explain is a 2300 foot subsidiary top of Burnhope Seat and is most easily got at from Killhope Cross, where the main road crosses from County Durham into Cumbria. This is at an altitude of just over 2000 feet and is about 2 miles North of the said Deadstones.

Why Deadstones? Well- its fairly easy to get at, and it has a fine view of the East coast on a good day, and it has a little shelter on the top, with a fireplace but nothing in the way of a door. Four people who are close friends could probably fit in. The one nobody likes would have to stay outside.

Deadstones howff

And so, I parked the knipemobile at Killhope Cross and struggled through the snowy peat hags the two or so miles to Deadstones and deposited some luxury supplies – that is to say, some kindling, a fire log and some log..er..logs… All in all enough fuel for a warm fire lasting about four hours.

When I got back to Killhope Cross it was just about dark.

There are a few problems:

1) If its snowy, it could be very hard work getting there – it took me 90 minutes. In the dark and with soft snow, this could be at least an hour longer. (worra struggle – 5:00 am start, I think)

2) The roof is looking a bit dicey. Several tonnes of gritstone slabs are currently being held up by a shaky and split beam, probably very ancient oak, I shouldn’t wonder – and a fence post. If it snows heavily, this lot could shutter in. This will be no worse than a lead mine shutterring in, so maybe we shouldn’t worry too much (ie we wont know much about it if it does)

3) It was full of snow. Clearly, the snow has come from the “wrong” direction. Perhaps we’ll need to excavate….

4) I’ve hidden the fuel, but if some pillock finds it, I bet they set fire to it. To counteract this/get revenge – there’s an evil curse on the fuel and anybody who nicks it or sets fire to it before we get there will crash and die on there way home. It only seems fair.

Not entirely sure who’s coming on this trip…..

The view East

TGO Challenge Planning

Despite the fact that its a beautiful sunny day here in beautiful and sunny Crook, I’ve been spending my time doing some more TGO Challenge planning.

I’ve submitted my route to Roger Smith, who says he will try to give it to a sympathetic and lucid vetter (that cuts a few of them out…)

In the meantime, I’ve been planning my food plan, which is something I always do before a trip like this – i.e. what meals I’ll need to carry on each stage and where I’ll get them from.

It looks very much like http://www.outdoorsgrub.com/ will be getting an order from me shortly – I need to start off with 3 days food, and I need to send two days food to Dalwhinnie – then there’s my April practise trip – all-in-all, around 9 days food.

I hope the table makes some sense – I copied from Excel. I know what it means anyway….

					home	train	mallaig
				Meals	Breakfast	Trail	Dinners
Thursday	13/05/2010	travel to mallaig		take from home	3	3	3	book bed in Mallaig 13/5/2010
Friday	14/05/2010	mallaig	lochan a mhaim		mallaig	1	1
Saturday	15/05/2010	lochan a mhaim	lochan a mhaim		1	1	1
Sunday	16/05/2010	lochan a mhaim	loch arkaig		1	1	1
Monday	17/05/2010	loch arkaig	lairig leacach		1	spean bridge	1	shop in spean bridge
			buy in spean bridge		2	2	2
Tuesday	18/05/2010	lairig leacach	ben alder cottage		1	1	1
Wednesday	19/05/2010	ben alder cottage	dalwhinnie		1	1	dalwhinnie
				parcel to dalwhinnie	2	3	2	book hotel dalwhinnie 19/5/2010
Thursday	20/05/2010	dalwhinnie	upper feshie		dalwhinnie	1	1
Friday	21/05/2010	upper feshie	bynack lodge		1	1	1
Saturday	22/05/2010	bynack lodge	braemar		1	1	braemar
				buy in braemar	1	3	1
Sunday	23/05/2010	braemar	Callater Lodge		braemar	1	callater
Monday	24/05/2010	Callater Lodge	burntshields		callater	1	1
Tuesday	25/05/2010	burntshields	kirriemuir		1	1	kirriemuir	book b&b Kirriemuir 25/5/2010
				buy in kirriemuir	0	1	0	book b&b Lethem 26/5/2010
Wednesday	26/05/2010	kirriemuir	lethem		kirriemuir	forfar	lethem
Thursday	27/05/2010	lethem	scurdie ness		lethem	1	montrose

Monkeying Around Swaledale

I set off for Fountains Fell this morning. I was a little biut late due to having to rescue Bruno and Tammy from the claws of Tommy, next door’s cat, whom they’d somehow manage to corner in the back yard (not a good idea..) – then the petrol pump at the petrol station wasn;t working, then the roads were a bit flooded and all the local farmers had decided to drive around slowly with horseboxes – so by the time I got to Richmond, it was getting late.

I dredged up a plan B and went to Reeth where it was snowing.

Not a specially good start

But me and superdawg had a nice little trundle through the floods at Grinton (two feet deep) and over the moor to Harkerside, which has some kind of iron age defensive work on the top.

Harkerside earthwork

The path from Harkerside runs along the hillside for a couple of miles and has cracking views of Upper Swaledale. Eventually, after a draughty lunch of yesterday’s cheese butty and banana in a shooting butt, we crossed over the moor into Apedale. I really should have saved the banana for this bit.

Bruno killing some snow

Anyway, from the foot of Apedale we completed the circle (13 miles and 2000 feet of climbing).

It snowed soft, wet snow in short but fierce squalls on and off pretty much all day, but not much was sticking around. The only thing it really achieved was numbing one half of my face. Higher tops to the West and South were bright white under the hillfog, though – I expect FF had a nice white cover. (bugger!). Bruno likes to attack snow, and he did manage one short game of bite the snow I think it was beginning to freeze as we came down the road into Grinton.

Bruno, bell pit, Apedale beyond

Not Fountains Fell, though. Will FF turn out to be another Shelf (?Ledge) route? I won’t be having another go at it till at least February, cos I iz so bizzi, innit? I have a Christmas Tree to put up and dress tomorrow – its sitting in the back yard just now.

Apedale shooters huts

Anyway, if you’re ever in Reeth and at a loose end, this walk is a blast – easy walking, gentle gradients, easy navigation, nice views, no pub. Pity about the flooded path at the start.

The route on the map is anti-clockwise (doesn’t do arrows….)

A Foul Weather Alternative

Crook (aka Blogtown) Darren must be at home – all the flags are flying

Last night, I packed a cheese and tomato butty and a banana and all kinds of lovely things with the intention of carrying out my threat to go and bag Fountains Fell

The local MET office girl on The Beeb said that it would rain towards the Southern part of the Dales (ie not on Fountains Fell) and that it would be cold and windy and cloudy up here in the North Pennines.

The National weather forecast, however, given out just a few minutes earlier said that it would probably be wet and windy but that the heaviest rain would be elsewhere in the Pennines and on the North Yorks Moors and that it would snow on high ground later on.

Whilst, it would be really great if the MET office could give out the same weather forecasts, even if they’re wrong , on balance, its was probably what you might expect for late November, probably not too bad and I resolved to go.

But at seven this morning it was chucking it down. Poking the head through the door revealed icy rain. I spotted a gritter moving along the road up at Stanley Crook. Bruno looked at me with that kind of “you must be joking.. kind of look. The cat refused to go out. Breakfast for me and then see what happens. Would it brighten up a bit? Would it at least stop raining?

No.

So, I was fairly pleased by elevenish, over yet another hot coffee, with a warm and semi-comatose canine next to me on the sofa, that it was still raining. In fact it was heaving it down. There were splatters of sleet on the window.

An exploration of Crook in the early afternoon with an ever-so-slightly reluctant superdawg confirmed that the rain was on the point of not being liquid anymore and it was, frankly, quite ‘orrible. Brian rang and told me about the wet snow they’d had up at Nenthead.

I may go to Fountains Fell tommorrow.

I still have the cheese butty and the banana.

Or I may put up the Christmas tree.

In the meantime, I’m building up motivation to nip down to the Crook Boozerama for a bottle of vino collapso to cheer meself up.

Of there’s anybody out there reading this from The Maldives – I hope you’re bloody warm enough. You really wouldn’t like it here just now. (Its Tony from Sheffield by the way)

Brrrrrr……