Proceeding beyond Calderdale
28th March 2007 Sunday was forecast to be dry and sunny, so it was a matter of seizing the opportunity and deciding where to walk. In the end, I plumped for the continuation of my Pennine Way adventure. I left the section between Littleborough and Marsden for another day and tackled the section between Burnley and Haworth. However, I actually did my walk in the reverse direction due to public transport logistics. In fact, when I was first drafting this post, it was fast becoming a public transport rant so that was put elsewhere so as not to ruin an account of what in fact was a pleasant walk, and it is the walking that I will always remember rather than any transport frustrations. I once had a planned trip to Wales scuppered by a train cancellation, so I headed up to the Lake District, and it is the memorable evening in the company of the likes of Loughrigg Fell, Grasmere and Rydal Water of which I will always have the strongest recollections. That was far from being a disappointing day.
Getting away involved catching the first bus from Macclesfield to Manchester. From there, the railway got me to Keighley with changes at Leeds and Shipley and another bus got me to Haworth. I suppose that I could have travelled on the Keighley and Worth Valley railway, but I stuck with my original plan, even if I caught a Transdev Keighley & District bus for the last leg with only moments left to its departure.
Haworth is certainly a charming spot, but it is not its rustic appeal that attracts the visitors; that is its Brontë connections. Unfortunately, I didn't have the time to linger there, yet there was enough Brontë-this, Brontë-that and Brontë-the-other to give me the general idea. In fact, the Brontë theme was to pervade for a lot of my walk.
It took longer to find than it ought to have done, but I picked up the Brontë Way and followed it until I left it to join the Pennine Way just east of Upper Heights farm. On my journey to that point, I had ambled over Penistone Hill and crossed the Brontë bridge at the foot of the Brontë Falls. Yes, there is a danger of Brontë overload here, and I wasn't finished yet. My trot up the Pennine Way was to take me to Top Withins, the site of the ruins of which is supposed to have inspired the fictional Wuthering Heights in the eponymous novel. There is a plaque erected here by the Brontë Society declaring to the same effect.
I left the literary connections after Top Withins to continue into wild country with broad moorland and big skies. There were wind turbines on the horizon, but I didn't care, though I normally carry strong reservations about the siting of the things. It was not long until I was in reservoir country again; on the way out of Haworth I passed Lower Laithe Reservoir and caught a glimpse of Ponden Reservoir, by which a future northbound Pennine Way excursion would take me. Now I was encountering the Walshaw Dean reservoirs, whose company I would have almost until I met the next public road. By now, the evening light was glorious, and I had to stop myself becoming engrossed in photographic exploits at the expense of my getting home that night; I think that I may have a photo that tries to portray Walshaw Dean Middle Reservoir as if it were a natural lake rather than the man-made construction that it is.
The nearest public road saw me leave the Pennine Way at the spot where I left it on my previous visit to the area, and I was to retread my footsteps on part of the Mary Townley Loop of the Pennine Bridleway until I reached Worsthorne. More reservoirs (Widdop, Gorple Lower, Gorple Upper, Hurstwood; yes, there are a lot around here all right) were passed on what was a surprisingly fleet-footed trek to Worsthorne, a village with a pleasant atmosphere on the edge of Burnley.
Worsthorne proved to be the end of the walking adventure for the day, but my travelling continued. A useful Transdev Burnley & Pendle service carried me to Burnley bus station. My journey continued from Burnley by train to Crewe, with a change in Preston. From Crewe, another bus got me home. It might be better if I had less waiting to do, then I would have got home an hour earlier, but it was a still a satisfactory end to a satisfying day.
Postscript: This was also the first hill day for my new Osprey Atmos pack, and it seems to have performed well. Apart from a little soreness at the end of the day, my back is none the worse and my shoulders were spared the usual torment applied to them by its Eurohike predecessor. So, a little more breaking in, and it looks as if this one will go on and on. I'll just have to try to stop it getting too muddy...
TransPennine Express customer service?
27th March 2007 The prospect of a fine, sunny day on Sunday had me heading off to Haworth so that I could take in another section of the Pennine Way. Part of my journey involved catching a train between Manchester and Leeds, normally a straightforward manoeuvre as there are frequent trains between the two cities provided by First Transpennine Express.
However, the 10:49 got delayed by a technical fault, but communication was next to non-existent as to what was happening; the sight of Transpennine Express staff huddled away from passengers did nothing to add to the company's reputation for customer service. Parking an out of service train in the station didn't help either, especially when it was at the same platform as an outbound service for which the train forming it was delayed.
Luckily, there was a train at 11:12, but passengers were left standing outside the doors of that for a while before they were opened to let them on, and the same applied to the 10:49 when it finally did arrive. The delay to door opening could be justified for the 10:49 because Siemens staff were having a look at it, and a staff changeover could have been the cause in the case of the 11:12.
Engineering works were preventing trains from reaching Manchester Airport that day, so all the staff changeovers could have been happening at Piccadilly instead. Granted these extenuating circumstances and the fact that it was a Sunday morning, the whole impression still reeked of laggardness; it was hardly a good advertisement for that rail industry and that's a pity because it continually needs it.
Thankfully, it was all a brief frustration as I got my train to Leeds and got to Haworth as planned, even if we did pass Wakefield along the way thanks to another set of rail engineering works. Nevertheless, the timeliness of the 10:49 would have helped me get to my destination earlier to start my walk, but all ended well anyway.
A new rucksack
22nd March 2007 I now have got a replacement for my Eurohike pack: it has turned out to be Osprey's 1380 gram Atmos 50 after all my musings on Karrimor and Gregory packs. Mind you, I still have my eye on the Gregory Z55 for multi-day trips so my heavyweight Karrimor Cougar may yet get retired as well. That said, I have been tweaking the Karrimor's adjustable back in light of the Osprey's fit to see if it performs any better.
Returning to the Osprey, when I went looking for an Atmos 50 on the online stores that we have in the U.K., almost every single Atmos 50 pack that I saw available was in red and grey. This might now be changing: I have since spotted a blue Atmos 50, my preference because I think bright red to be a little loud, on Snow+Rock's website. In the U.S., I think that the colour availability is better.
Having seen that Atmos' features were to my liking and that some good words written about it on OutdoorsMagic.com and BackpackingLight.com, I decided to see if I could get one in my choice of colour and fit (it's medium back length for me). Alan Sloman also is using one that he ordered from the U.S. for his Big Walk from Land's End to John O' Groats to raise money for Sue Ryder Care who looked after his late father and he seems to be getting along fine with it (at least, it's about his sore feet and beer drinking that we keep hearing...). My search started with my getting in touch with Osprey Europe who said that Snow+Rock and George Fisher should have what I was after. When I enquired Snow+Rock said they would have to get a blue one on special order, while George Fisher were expecting a delivery of Osprey packs, blue ones included. In the end, I ordered from George Fisher and the Atmos was with me in a matter of days, and very nice it is too.
It's all very well for something to look good but it has to function well also so I loaded the pack up with a 12 kg weight to give it a good work out and tried it around the house to get some idea of how it performs, going up and down stairs as well to see how it would behave going up and down a hill. Of course, the real test would be to take out in the great outdoors but I want to see how things go in case I needed to send it back. In any event, I don't think that muddy rucksacks can or should be returned and you can't be too careful while out and about, hence the apparent madness of wearing a rucksack while going around my own home.
The first impression that I had when I put it on was how good the fit was. The weight in the sack was supported by what seems to be a solid hip belt with no folding apparent, a complaint levelled at other packs when you load them up, and it doesn't compromise freedom of movement either. The shoulder straps function well but the hip belt reduces the amount of load that they need to carry, a relief to someone who has suffered from sore shoulders thanks to near useless hip belts (all they did was to strap the sack to your body). The curved back system, designed to improve ventilation, is also comfortable and having tried it a few times, it does seem to be getting more comfortable each time.
On the volume front, the pack also performs and the I found no problem so far with the curved back system impacting on what I can carry. The pockets on the back of the pack also work well with the big one taking overtrousers and a map case very easily; it's very useful to have both near to hand. Speaking of having things near to hand, both wand pockets are handy places to put water bottles and the hip belt pockets are a neat touch. I still use a film camera and they make useful places to put rolls of film so film changes can be done without having to take the rucksack off. There is also a place to take a hydration bladder but my use of water bottles and the wand pockets mean that I may never use this feature.
All in all, the pack seems really well designed and I look forward to taking it out and about. If there is any omission, it is the lack of a rain cover but George Fisher sent a me a rucksack liner with the pack and use of that along with a spot of care on the packing front should see me through. Even though I don't plan on walking in downpours, it has happened but thankfully not that often. In any case, I have always been able to dry out afterwards. Let's see how things progress from here.
Gallery Updated with Photos of Southern Scotland
9th March 2007 Last year's visits to Southern Scotland, Scottish Borders as well as Dumfries and Galloway, have yielded photos to my online photo gallery. As a result, what was formerly the Scottish Borders gallery has become the Southern Uplands one following a considerable overhaul. Please drop by to take a look.
Calderdale revisited
6th March 2007 For some reason, the West Yorkshire Metro calls the railway that passes through Calderdale the Caldervale Line; it's enough to confuse the likes of me. However, the local authority is Calderdale MBC and so it is Calderdale to me then.
Anyway, let's get away from the nomenclature and back to some walking. Last week, I was feeling a little burnt out, so I took Friday off to recharge my batteries in the hills around Calderdale. Taking in another section of the Pennine Way was also on the agenda.
An early morning departure from Macclesfield got me as far as Manchester Piccadilly station, from where I used the Metrolink to get to Manchester Victoria station. From Victoria, I caught a train to Todmorden. The timings were a little finer than I would have liked, but the departure from Victoria was delayed by 10 minutes due to its needing some attention; for once, a train was late when I wanted it to be that way.
Once in Todmorden, the walking started in earnest, and in glorious sunshine too. The Calderdale Way and the Pennine Bridleway took me from the heart of Todmorden onto Lumbutts and Mankinholes before rounding Stoodley Pike to pick up the Pennine Way. At this point, my previous hike in the area took me south on my way to Littleborough. This time around, I headed north and descended to the A646 at Charlestown. The only problem with mid-walk descents is that ascents usually follow, and the one from the A646 did take its toll on my legs as I continued on my northward trajectory. My amble continued with a spot of road crossing as I skirted Heptonstall on my way to and through Colden. There was a bit of down and up as I neared Colden, but I did take the chance for a spot of lunch by the stream that caused it. A pub wasn't far away either, if I felt so inclined.
Beyond Colden, the Pennine Way regained its wild feel after its passage through what is a very much inhabited and post-industrial area. The section around Heptonstall Moor was one of the most enjoyable of the whole walk, the only fly in the ointment being the cloud that was bubbling up in the sky. Eventually, I neared the Gorple Lower Reservoir and followed the Pennine Way as it dropped into the gorge carved out by Graining Water until it clambered out onto the nearest minor road. From here, the Pennine Way continues east, and it was at this point that I left it for the Pennine Bridleway, the trail that was to take me onto Worsthorne and Burnley.
I continued up the road and took the track around the shores of Widdop Reservoir, stopping for another food break along the way. After being dull for an hour, the day began to cheer up as I left Widdop, and it largely continued that way for the rest of my walk. On my journey, I continued past views of gritstone outcrops and Gorple Upper Reservoir. The final stretch to Worsthorne took me past Hurstwood Reservoir, with views over Burnley on the descent. Once on tarmac, things began to feel like a slog and I broke my walk into Burnley town centre when I encountered the bus that returned me to Todmorden, a welcome sight. Once in Todmorden, I commenced my railway journey upon the arrival of the next service to Manchester, delayed due to technical problems in Leeds. After that, it was the reverse of my journey that morning.
Though tired after the long day, the walk was good, and it has far from dimmed my appetite for future Pennine Way strolls. Immediate options are the section that starts near Littleborough and gets you near to Marsden, with other footpath options doing the connection honours. Continuing northward, perhaps onto Keighley or beyond on the next stretch, remains a very tempting possibility.
