Spending a day going from Bamford to Hathersage via Stanage Edge
7th June 2020 Not only does this trip report the last of a trilogy describing three different visits to the Peak District during the autumn of 2017, but it also is the last one from that year that still needed writing. 2018 is next and 2019 follows, though my hill wandering appears to have stopped mid-year for a number of reasons that I can recall readily at this moment. Still, these were different times compared to what we are going through at the moment, so it is good to be transported. Hopefully, we can enjoy more like them again sooner rather than later. Old memories are most useful, but the collection always needs augmenting.
After days spent around the Great Ridge and Ladybower Reservoir, another idea prompted me to devote one to the countryside around Stanage Edge, and that is what this trip report describes. It was a return after a break extending back to the early years of the century, there were several day trips to this part of the world, and they brought home to me how hard it can be to find a marked right of way on pathless ground. There are times when general direction of travel is all you need, so map and compass work without so much regard for legality is then the way to proceed.
That meant there was an experiment ahead of me on arriving in Bamford, though I picked my way along lanes at the start. Designs on going up a bridleway through Bamford Clough were dashed by signs indicating excavations as part of maintenance works on the electricity supply network. Others were more courageous (or foolhardy, depending on what lay ahead of them) while I stuck with tarmac tramping for a little longer before I found an alternative footpath leading me from Ashopton Road to New Road, thus achieving a not dissimilar outcome. Doing so might have granted me less restricted views of my surroundings, though, and one of those appears above.
Eventually, I found the desired path that would lead me away from New Road and into the wilder emptier countryside that I planned to revisit after such a long absence, especially since it was to grant me ample amounts of the solitude that I so needed at the time. It also was bringing some challenging route finding that I wanted to use for testing GPS navigation on a fine crisp clear sunny day, albeit one with a stiff chilling wind to give the endeavour more of a wintry feel.
Going through abandoned quarry works that nature was reclaiming proved a little too intricate for dependence on a GPS receiver, but added map consultation and backtracking to salve any qualms at lack of route adherence were sufficient to achieve the required combination of peace of mind and onward progress.
Eventually, it was time to cross pathless moorland, with some useful features like walls being so broken down that their visibility and usefulness get diminished. That though sends my mind back to a laden with memories of unguided cross-country tramping in failing light that eventually landed me in Bamford after scaring me more than a little. That day, banks of heather started to look like walls, so that is why their appearance on an OS map may not give you the handrails that you need. This was no saunter for those who depend on human landmarks for way finding guidance.
Such mirages were not to present themselves as I used the GPS to find the right line on the ground as I continued towards Stanage Edge over ground that at times had the consistency of a soggy bog. Neither waist-high rushes together, or dead bracken were to drive me from my course as I made my way from Bamford Moor to Moscar Moor and then onto Stanage End. The chill of the way was inescapable, so headgear and gloves were pressed into service, along with the warm fleece that I was wearing.
Though offering plenty of solitary hiking, the endeavour brought a time penalty since it was clear that it was nearer the end of the hours of daylight than was ideal. While the supposed proximity of the urban outskirts of Sheffield offered a possible alternative, I stuck with a return to Hathersage that took me past High Neb and along Stanage Edge itself. Light was declining all the while as I traipsed the trail, with some parts being boggier than others. None did anything to take away from the satisfaction of the stroll.
As the day approached the onset of its gloaming, I left Stanage Edge and the route of the Sheffield County Walk, to drop onto a byway that would lead me towards Dennis Knoll. As I did so, climbers were coming away from crags where they had spent time on what was a sunny day, one that lured out many an outdoors enthusiast. It was as if I were in the midst of other outdoor lovers at either end of my walk.
After Dennis Knoll, I resolved to stay on the lane descending all the way into Hathersage as some insurance against the looming loss of daylight with its attendant need for use of a head torch to light one's way. There are times when things need to be kept simple, though it was only on the outskirts of Hathersage itself that I recall losing all daylight. Finding my way through the village after recovering from a minor route deviation, I was at its train station in plenty of time before the next train to Manchester, so I was repeating what had happened in Bamford the previous Sunday when I missed a train by mere minutes. A two-hour wait was avoided (a new timetable halved service frequency) so I could begin my journey home after a satisfying day laden with good memories.
Travel Arrangements
Outbound train journey from Macclesfield to Bamford followed by a return journey from Hathersage to Macclesfield with both having changes of train at Manchester.
Pondering time’s passing
6th June 2020 Earlier this year, I spent a stretch of time perusing guidebooks while pondering and plotting a summertime North Atlantic escapade. U.S. states like Montana, Wyoming, Washington, Oregon and Colorado all came within the scope of this armchair knowledge gathering. Of the lot, it was going to be Colorado that was getting my nod for a July 2020 excursion with Denver and Boulder offering themselves as likely basis. Of course, the arrival of a global pandemic has eliminated the possibility of any such thinking becoming reality for this year but ideas remain live in spite of this so another year may offer and I now need to wait for that.
Another guidebook for Colorado may await and there are others for California and Ontario too but guidebook reading has been parked for now even if continue to get through a backlog of travel magazines. After all, there now is plenty of time to get back to it again. In the meantime, I have returned to other nature and travel books. The planet's northern reaches have become part of this with Malachy Tallack's 60 Degrees North and Gavin Francis' True North having been completed and I am now in the middle of Peter Davidson's The Idea of North before going on to Barry Lopez's Horizon. The time feels right for reading these since guidebook reading for me involving website address gathering and I just want something engrossing that will help to relax me in these testing times.
In parallel, outdoor reading in local parks during the now departed spell of warm sunny weather saw me complete Edward Thomas' Icknield Way before making a start on his In Pursuit of Spring. The first of these documented a journey on foot trying to retrace the route of the eponymous long distance thoroughfare while the second describes a journey by bicycle from London to the Quantock Hills in Somerset. If anything, the latter happens to be the more readable of the two and I intend to get it completed even if warm sunny weather does not return to us all that soon.
The reason for the title has nothing to do with the forestalling of trips away by current necessary travel restrictions though. It was caused by my listening to a program hosted by Don Letts on BBC Radio 6 Music last Sunday night in an effort to curtail restlessness at bedtime last Sunday night. What occurred to me then was the passage of recent decades and the way that I have not caught up in some ways.
This matter brings up the subject of music and that is not customary for this blog. It reminds me of how the 1960's felt to me in previous decades. During my childhood, it was a mere 20 years before and figures like Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger and David Bowie were active as part of what felt to me like an afterglow of that decade. This was before the revival of interest in music from the same decade during the 1990's when it was just 30 years before. Now that the last decade of the last century itself is pushing on for being 30 years ago and it was the decade when I began to find my feet in life, the 1960's feel even more distance and that realisation gave me something of a shock when it hit me.
An upshot of all this is the added need to collect new experiences as restrictions are lifted. Such is our current situation that I will not be in the vanguard of wider travel and that especially is the case given my dependence on public transport. Nevertheless, those expanded horizons discussed at the start of this entry again begin to loom larger after other places nearer to hand are revisited before them. These will be in Britain first before other European destinations around Scandinavia or in the Alps get tested first. There may be a need to do these in a new way, not only because of our changed world but also because of my changed perspective. More time may allow me to further develop what that might mean.
Green, Blue & White
31st May 2020 This was an entry that I meant to write last year but other intrusions got in the way. The need to face some fears surrounding a stay around Vancouver were among these. The latterly unrealised possibility of meeting a bear on a hike was uppermost but the length of the transatlantic air journey was another one as was my reproving myself for spending so much on a holiday. It turned out to be a year for major discretionary expenditure but all was paid off in good time.
The way of the world was another matter with an unwanted political change in the offing and business rules threatened my contracting enterprise. In the end, neither turned out to be as existential as feared and have been trumped by the ongoing pandemic in any event. That has added unnatural tension with which I have been learning to deal. It remains a work in progress and has encouraged me to get out and about in any sunshine.
The Spring Bank Holiday weekend was so good to me that I am left wondering if I can wait too long before having another longer break from work. Given current restrictions, travel will not be all that extensive and my dependence on public transport makes it more so even if I dream of short bus trips away from home. Even without this, I still see the benefits of taking a week or more away from work.
It helps that it is a time of year when colours that I find appealing are in such abundance. Many of my favourite photos are based around blues, greens and whites so I have started to wonder why. It may be that my tastes are simpler but these are calming colours as well. Other outdoor photographers may decry the summertime with early starts and late finishes being needed if you want to make images in the golden hours of sunrise and sunset. Others again look to autumn, a season that I find more challenging for photography with its directional light and added colour complexity. Then, winter can have tricky lighting conditions of its own but it does have its fans.
For me, springtime is my favourable and it has been glorious this year. Ironically, the pandemic restrictions and added sense of tension have been more enough encouragement to get out and experience what is there. Once I find a quieter spot and that is challenging when people cannot travel far, it is relished all the more. The feeling of added relaxation is as much a bonus as seeing the countryside at its best.
The main drawback of all the sunshine is that places are looking a bit parched and utility companies are asking us to conserve water. It is as if the transition from green to brown starts in summer with winter being its zenith before spring eventually greens things up again. That of course is the cycle of life as much as the lengthening and shortening of days.
June is ahead of us tomorrow so the solstice looms, a time of a little sadness for me since it marks the zenith of daylight hours before we start on an inexorable journey to their nadir. The winter solstice oddly marks a time of hope for me because days start to stretch after that. With all this, it is best to take each day at a time and marvel at how we adjust and adapt. That has been an ever present feature of the last few months for me and the bittersweet time beyond the summer solstice may be counterbalanced by any hope given by things opening up more and more as the year progresses.
Then, we might be able to contemplate a wider range of possibilities. July this year might have seen me go to Denver and Boulder in Colorado but that kind of escapade will need to wait. We never really know the times for making use of opportunities, something that is being driven home to us in this year. It is one where remaining in every moment and taking things day by day looks more sensible. It also causes us to make the most of every one of these and stops us merely passing by it all. That could drive how 2020 gets remembered: happy satisfying moments in the midst of a challenging time.
A November day spent around Ladybower Reservoir
26th May 2020 If it not for other intrusions, there could have been many an account from previous years making their appearances on here in an effort to clear a backlog. Some even might have thought it to be a retrospective like what Cairngorm Wanderer is doing, but that would be the wrong impression. Other missives might have share sunny moments from those previously limited opportunities for outdoor exercise like what Tarmachan Mountaineering has been doing. Alas, the worries of the moment overwhelmed me so it only is now that I am getting to flesh out this post for your perusal.
Thankfully, things are looking up a little now and the Spring Bank Holiday weekend saw me finding emptier corners for solitary relaxation. As you would expect, they turned up in some lesser frequented spots like around Pott Shrigley, Rainow, Higher Sutton, Bosley and North Rode. Each did me the world of good and there was no need to deal with human encounters given the added alertness required of the time in which we find ourselves.
Back in November 2017, none of this could be foreseen, and my task then was to recuperate and recharge after a stressful few years that life had sent me. When opportunities arose, I got out then and found quieter spots, but encounters with humanity had none of the edge that they do nowadays. The stroll described here had an immediate forebear and shared with it echoes of my early efforts at hill wandering. That came from my first-ever encounter with Ladybower Reservoir being on Holy Saturday in 2002 and this hike allowed plenty of time to admire that attractively placed body of water.
Returning to Easter 2002, the whole weekend had me spending a lot of time in the Peak District. It started on Holy Thursday when I tried out the Doctor's Gate Footpath and a little part of the Pennine Way before returning to Glossop. Good Friday then was spent around Glossop and nearby Hadfield with a first visit to Longdendale, a place which appealed to me in spite of the electricity pylons. Though the collection of reservoirs hardly were so intrusive, I was left wondering how it might have appeared before they were built, and any appearances have done nothing to forestall return visits.
Though it similarly is a piece of human landscape engineering, that thought about wildness in Longdendale never really enters my mind when it comes to Ladybower Reservoir. The more natural appearance of the setting might have something to do with it and the absence of electricity pylons has to help as much as sights of steep-sided valleys with fingers of water reaching into them. At least, that is how it always seems to me whenever I think of this area and the photos accompanying this piece of writing may confirm that.
In many ways, the hike from November 2017 that is described here also reprised parts of a journey taken on a damp autumn day in another of the early years of this century. Then, the day improved as I continued all the way to Edale, but the 2017 counterpart had no such need as it remained sunny all the way until sunset.
Both walks, though separated by more than a decade, took a similar course: on arriving at Hope train station, I started to make my way towards Win Hill. It may have been a place that I have visited on numerous but every time has been different. Such is the spread of seasons and variability of weather that it is difficult if not impossible to see it and its surroundings in the same kind of light more than once.
This time, my chosen route took me past Ryecroft and Thornhill Carrs on a variety of footpaths chosen to reach the top of Win Hill from the east. As I went over the top, the views all around and below me looked resplendent in the autumn sunshine. That I was not stopped in my track by the sights would be a surprise except that I had a circuit in mind before nightfall so that kept me moving, but the scenery was much enjoyed too, and the portfolio included views over Bamford and Yorkshire Bridge towards Stanage Edge as well as what you see above.
Once over the summit, I dropped down to Hope Cross, after which I started my descent to reach the River Ashop in the Woodlands Valley. From there, I continued to Ladybower Dam while enjoying the fading light of day and with my legs feeling less energetic than might have been desired. There was nothing for the task but keep going up and down as the track shadowed the shoreline. Along the way, a farmer was out to see his livestock while my journey continued.
At the dam, curiosity overcame any physical fatigue to see where the northern end of the Derwent Valley Heritage Way was to be found before retracing my steps and following it as far as the A6187. All the while, daylight faded to darkness and my head torch was used not only for navigating the gloaming but also in the dark of night, with a field being negotiated without rancour or error.
That added challenge may have cost me time on the way to Bamford train station though and I missed a train departure by a mere minute. The next day came sunny too, as if niggles come in pairs. However, the fact that I had enjoyed a superb day out was more than enough recompense for any forgettable irritations.
Travel Commentary
A day when the railways faced major disruptions hardly was one to travel from Macclesfield to Hope for a walk in the Dark Peak but no one was to know ahead of time and it did not delay my arrival in any event. As it happened, the journey home was slightly blighted by my missing a train at Bamford by less than a minute. That forced a wait of an hour for me, and getting back to Macclesfield from Manchester also was complicated by disruption elsewhere in the rail network. Even so, rail travel travails on that day have done nothing to deter me from trying again; these things ebb and flow.
Confinement
24th May 2020 Looking back on last year now, it strikes me just how I never went walking the countryside as much as I might have done. However, there were preoccupations weighing on my mind. Ongoing political events were among them but a then forthcoming upheaval in my working life was a more pronounced concern. The latter continued into this year but was sorted in March though it had limited excursions in January as much as the weather did likewise in February.
Whatever tricky challenges I had imagined for 2020, they became nothing compared to a new viral disease that had sent us all into lockdown. In my case, it also brought added tension that got the better of me in April. Chats with clinicians have helped and I am moving beyond the episode now thanks to clarification of thinking as much as daily relaxation exercises.
Throughout all of this, I ventured out of doors every day for physical exercise in the locality. Some days, I have contented myself with local parks (Riverside, Victoria, South and West) but my horizons have expanded on other ones. As well as walking, I have returned to cycling too in an effort to make the current time feel less confining. While fairer weather and the time of year add encouragement, it also is amazing how a level of restriction causes you to make more use of what you have and that applies to me too.
All the while, I have been seeking our quieter places for an added sense of relaxation. Generally, I would have sought solitude anyway but social distancing is another motivation. Living in Macclesfield, I am fortunate to have nearby hill country into which I can escape. Of course, others can have similar ideas and that is why I limit travel along both the Macclesfield Canal and the Middlewood Way.
Tegg's Nose and Croker Hill have seen encounters along with a variety of local places like Henbury, Gawsworth, Bollington, Prestbury, Rainow, Siddington, Marton, Alderley Edge, Chelford, North Rode and Bosley. The latter list sounds fairly extensive in its disorderly arrangement but it is good to have such surrounding countryside when so many are staying close to home.
Some places like Henbury can be busier that might be expected so it is taking some time to learn how to ensure social distancing is ever improving. Cutting down on touching of surfaces and bringing hand sanitiser on an outing is part of the way of things at the moment though there have been little moral boosters as well.
It might any some but the pervasive of sunny days is a blessing too and I have been making photos as I go. It is amazing what new sights you can find on a local patch. For instance, Macclesfield's South Park offers views of Shutlingsloe and Croker Hill that add to a sunny evening stroll. There are new rights of way to find and travel as well as amenities like Bosley Reservoir. It all helps to lift a mood and can grant you a quiet relaxing cycling or stroll if you get things right with timing. Going out when others are not inspired to do the same remains a possibility as much as finding where they have not been inspired to go.
