Snow Chance! - Snake Pass part 1

Our plan today was to head up Snake Pass to the Pennine Way and along up to Bleaklow. Driving along snake pass the weather was treacherous, snow was smashing into the windscreen, the wind was blowing the side of the car, and visibility was terrible.

We opted not to stop near the Pennine Way, as the last thing we wanted to be doing on a freezing Sunday would be digging the car out of a foot of snow. We continued down the road until we found a better place to park.

The car park we found was opposite Snake Woodland, so we zipped up our jackets, put on our gloves and headed into the wood.

The wood provided us with some fantastic scenes, trees lightly powdered with snow, the rushing river splashing over the shiny rocks, and the brown and yellow of the trees and mud. We went a mile and a half into the wood before emerging at the other side to join the road we had driven down an hour ago.

Crossing the road, we decided to take a little rest, brush the snow and rain off our clothes, wrap up and tuck in for the walk ahead. This is when my glove flew off a wall and down a very snowy riverbank. Obviously, I was to retrieve it, but it was no easy task. I must have slipped over 4 or 5 times, with Jen stood at the top of the bank, wincing and pleading for me to come back. With the soaking glove in hand, I climbed, on my knees, back up to the road, ready to press on.

Unfortunately, the wind and snow made the walk into the Moors almost impossible, so we decided to walk along the road, back to the car, to warm up, have our lunch and drive back to the Pennine Way.

We stopped at the footpath, and covered our faces with scarves, and attempted our walk for a final time. The elements defeated us, and we surrendered. The wind made it almost impossible to breath, the snow was slippy and it was absolutely freezing!

We fully intend to come back soon to attempt the walk again. However today's adventure turned out to be a driving adventure as we explored the Snake Pass, Castleton and Winnats Pass from the warmth of our car. On foot we managed 3.50 miles, with no real change in altitude. It still counts towards our 1000 miles in 2019. 987 to go!

Thankfully, we got some lovely pictures of Snake Woodland.

Lumb Falls and Hardcastle Crags

Another Sunday, another adventure. Instead of using our usual crumbled page from Country Walking magazine, we opted to use technology. We downloaded the wonderful ViewRanger app, loaded up with all the Ordnance Survey maps you could wish for, and with trails fully mapped out for you, added by users and experts. The app also maps out the route you take, and gives you statistics about your journey.

Lastly, the app has challenges which you can take part in. Jen and I have opted in, and have challenged ourselves to walk 1000 miles in 2019, starting now!

The remains of The Church of St Thomas in Heptonstall

We find ourselves in a beautiful little village, Heptonstall. Walking around this hilly, idyllic, beauty, we notice a few 'For Sale’ signs on some houses… we can dream, can't we?

Heptonstall is home to the ruins of the church of Thomas a'Becket, which we spent a good chunk of the early morning looking at. The Church, built in the 1200’s was ruined by storms in 1847, and it must have been some storm! The Church is completely open to the public, and, along with it's fascinating graveyard, is well worth a visit.

Our hike began on the east side of the village and instead of climbing up, as is usually the case at the beginning of a walk, we found ourselves making our way down a loose path and over a road into Lee Wood. Following paths we crossed a bridge over Hebden Beck, the easiest river crossing of the day, more on that later.

We followed the river as best as we could, emerging from the woods and heading through fields along roads and passing some lovely houses. Bearing north and staying with the river we entered another forest came to a fork, left or right? We opted to go left, which took us deeper into the forest over a small wooden bridge and back on the west side of the river. Minutes later, and seeing no clear path, we consulted the map on the app. We should have gone right! We didn't turn back, we continued on, forging our own path. Our feet were to get wet for the first time as we crossed the river, once again, jumping from rock to rock, trying to avoid the deceptively deep water. We failed, we got wet, it was slippy and windy (and fun).

A hundred metres on, we came to a bridge, a nice easy way to cross the river, and had we have gone the right way, the only crossing we would have needed. But where is the fun in that?

The Hard Way

The Easy Way

We re-joined the trail marked on the map and followed the much easier route out of the woods and into the fields. An easy walk north finally brought us to Lumb Falls. A famous little set of waterfalls cut into some beautiful rocks. The inspiration for poetry and, on warmer days than today, a great spot to do some wild swimming.

Lumb Falls

We left the falls the way we came in, and headed west when we emerged. We found ourselves ascending to some derelict farm houses, which we just had to tiptoe in and explore. It made for some wonderful views, the green hills set against the brown ruins of the buildings, we spent a while here. The weather urged us to keep moving, though, it was getting a bit cold.

A walk through a couple more open fields, on easy to follow paths brought us into Hardcastle Crags, a national trust owned forest with so much to see and do. A great place to bring kids, a dog, or come alone and take it all in. There are paths and stairs and hills to climb, forest clearings with logs to play on, waterfalls to enjoy, streams and rivers and stepping stones to get your feet wet. If you intend to get your feet wet, however, wait until summer. A crossing of a waterfall left me with very wet feet and a very very angry wife!! I didn't have the heart to tell her we would have to cross the river one last time before we got to the finish point!

We misread a sign to Heptonstall, and went up a very muddy, very steep hill into some deep forest, before emerging to find a dry path that we could have taken all along, but where is the fun in that? Have I already said that? The difficult path is always the most fun, we are certainly starting to love a challenge.

Thanks to our new found technology, I can give you some stats on our trail. We walked 9.12 miles in 5 hours and 50 minutes. Our total ascent was 2,774ft, with a total descent of 2730ft, and our highest elevation was 1210ft. Even though we didn't follow the route very well, the app certainly came in handy to keep us on track and get us the best views of a beautiful little part of West Yorkshire.

991 miles to go!

See you soon

The starter mountain!

“I'm sure they said this was a beginner mountain”

“The key word to focus on isn't 'beginner’, it's ‘mountain’!”

On the final stretch up the side of Skiddaw, we found our breath long enough to exchange these words.

Skiddaw

Now, I realise this is only our second mapped hike, and that puts me in no position to offer advice, but here is some advice: do your research.

I get that it's probably more of an adventure if you wing it, and getting lost is so much fun, but when it comes to mountains, no matter how “easy” they are, they deserve respect, and they deserve some research. That said, our climb up Skiddaw in the Lake District was so much fun!

A couple of days after our trip up the 2 gorgeous hills from our last blog entry, we found ourselves with an unexpected day off work together, and still itching to explore, we loaded the car up the night before to get up early and tackle something a little taller. We scanned through our Country Walking book again and found Skiddaw, which was described as a good mountain for beginners, and without reading any more, we got an early night ready for our “easy” climb. In bed, I then spent an hour and a half putting together a Spotify playlist for the 2 hour drive to Keswick. My playlist was superb, but 6am came and I had no intentions of getting up. 7am came, and I still wasn't moving. By 8:30, however, we were on the move.

We stopped at Tebay Services for a wee and a sausage roll. If you haven't been to Tebay Services, you really must. A strange review for an M6 service station, I know, but it's an absolute anomaly. A picturesque building with a wonderful cafe and a farm shop, plus a great view of The Eden District of Cumbria. The sausage roll was sublime, too. A good job, because we had a trek on our hands.

After stopping in Keswick for a few minutes to pick up a compass and a torch (we were behind schedule, and it's better to be safe than sorry) we drove down the beautiful A591 towards the Old Sawmill Tea House where our adventure awaited!

Our trek began, as you would expect, by walking up. Through Dodd Wood, along a marked path, which was soft and dry, apart from the odd puddle. Random breaks in the trees to the left gave us a new and wonderful view of Bassenthwaite Lake each tme. We continued North, deeper into the eerie Forest. There were plenty of cars in the carpark, plenty of hustle and bustle around the tearoom, but nobody seemed to be in the woods. We took a slight detour to an Osprey observation viewpoint, where we finally saw some people. No Ospreys though. This would be a fine walk in itself, through the thick forest and high enough to get some great panoramas, but us? We continued up!

We emerged from the forest, and took our first break. Sat on the dewy grass looking at the lake. We could have stayed there an hour, a lovely idea for a picnic spot in the summer. However, we continued up, into the greens and browns, and up onto the horizon.

Definite future picnic spot

The stunning view of Bessenthwaite Lake

We reached our first peak, and were treated to a view of the valley between the peaks we were on, and the mountain we were headed towards, a thin stream meandered its way down, with some small waterfalls breaking the silence and tearing through the sea of green. We looked south. Here is where our lack of research rears its head, we looked towards the peak of Carl Side, the peak you can see from the A591, the peak you can see from Keswick, and assumed that was our destination. Oops!

The walk along the pikes towards Carl Side was fantastic. Very easy to navigate, due to a clear path all the way along. The views got better and better with every step. We “unlocked more of the map” seeing new things on the horizon each time we turned around. When we reached the top of 'Long Side’ we got our first view of Derwentwater, my favourite lake in the Lake District, and seeing it from this high cemented that opinion. It was also at this time we stopped and looked around, consulting our map for the first time. This was when the realisation hit us, Carl Side was not Skiddaw. The big grey mountain on our left was Skiddaw, 2.5 hours into our trek and we weren't even half of the way to where we needed to be. Always do your research! That said; the surroundings, the weather, the view and the new challenge filled us with everything but dread. We were so excited.

The View of Derwentwater

The climb up Carl Side also wasn't much of a challenge, this walk really is suited to any level of hiker. On the other side we were greeted by a few people and a body of water, birds flew in and out for refreshment. We did the same, as we had reached the foot of Skiddaw and the path looked steep!

The only real challenge of the day came with scaling the side of the mountain, looking for places to plant our feet, pulling ourselves up and slipping on the loose stones. It was difficult, but fun. We kept telling each other that the view from the top would be worth the ever increasing aching in our legs. We reached the top, it wasn't!

The wind and clouds didn't make for the most impressive view, but the feeling of being at the top was enough to make this a worthwhile climb. Breaks in the clouds offered our first glimpse of the other side of the peak. The hills and valleys in the Lake District, really are the finest our country has to offer, and when you place them in between the picturesque lakes and dense Forests, on a clear day, you'd be pressed to find many places greater on Earth.

The Windy Summit of Skiddaw

We climbed back down and climbed up the Little Man peak to the south. The protruding rocks on the far side made for some fantastic pictures, and the path down was as clear as the path up. The wood at the foot of Little Man was much thicker, and the level ground was heaven on our legs. This area is fantastic for a walk, and with so many different routes, there is plenty to appeal to everyone. Our hike took us around 5 hours. We, once again, took the route from Country Walking 100 Greatest Walks in Britain. Skiddaw, at 931 metres, is England's 6th highest mountain. It finds itself in the North of The Lake District, and we fully recommend it. Just, do some research first, or is it just part of the adventure?

Fun on the Rocks on Little Man

Dodd Wood

Mission Accomplished

Introduction and a windy walk up Chrome Hill and Parkhouse Hill

Hello. I'm Chris, and that's Jen, and this is our exciting new blog.

We live near Manchester, in England, in a small village called Little Lever. I am 35, Jen is 28. We are now in our 10th year together as a couple, married for 2. For almost all of those years we have struggled to find a hobby we can do together. We both like loud heavy metal music, but that isn't really a hobby, is it? We aren't the type to sit around binging on Netflix shows, we have tried to get into so many programs, but we soon lose interest. We both quite like video games, but very casually, we are both easily distracted. We both enjoy the gym, but motivating each other to actually go is rather difficult. I am creative, she is productive. She enjoys the journey, I love a destination. I have a big beard, she has a bigger sense of adventure. We both love being outdoors. It seems only natural that a hobby found us, hiking.

In 2014 we quit our jobs and went on a 3 month drive around Europe, we saw some spectacular sights, drove even more spectacular roads, and drank yet more spectacular beer. We both agree that the best place we visited was Lake Como in Northern Italy, and our favourite day was the day we went on a 2 hour trek up a hill we found in a guidebook. The sense of accomplishment at the end of it was fantastic, we agreed that we would walk a lot more when we got home. We didn't.

It's now 2019 and time to fulfill that promise we made to ourselves. We haven't got any expensive gear. We aren't in great physical shape. We have no experience or training. We are loaded with some £20 hiking boots, some cheap waterproofs from Decathlon, a renewed sense of purpose and a ton of adrenaline. We are going to explore, we are going to adventure, and we are going to have a load of fun, together.

Chrome Hill

With this new sense of freedom, our first trip took us to the Peak District, February 17th, a wintery Sunday, in search of Chrome Hill and the visually stunning Parkhouse Hill.

We loaded the car with coats and food and set off for Buxton, just over an hour's drive away. Any drive though the Peak District is an adventure in itself, you meander along thin, winding roads to be sneakily greeted by adorable villages, busy farms, and tempting pubs.

With us we had a page from “Country Walking Magazine's 100 Greatest Walks In Britain” which told us to head for a small village called Hollinsclough, in Staffordshire and park near a red phone box. We found Hollinsclough and immediately saw the red phone box. Apart from a farm and a school, we saw little else to suggest anybody actually lived here. We parked on the side of the road and headed North towards a small path. After crossing a bridge we met a well trodden path next to a lovely hill which took us past another farm, Stoop Farm. We reached a road, and as we began to climb, 8 or 9 dirt bikes zoomed past us, crazily avoiding the road and zig-zagging their way up and over the cloudy horizon. We slowly followed their trail before detouring to the right, over a fence and into some lovely open fields, lined with stone walls, dotted with trees and populated by grazing sheep.

With no clear markers to indicate we were heading the right way and many a sheep seemingly enjoying our embarrassing lack of direction, we kept the kept on, opting to go "up" when in doubt. We mercifully found some craggy grey rocks thrusting their way out of the green, Tor Rock was described in our guide, and we managed to recover our bearings. Having some fun crossing and climbing we emerged on the other side of the rocks to be greeted by a beautiful view of our first knoll, in all it's glory!

The ascent up Chrome Hill wasn't particularly challenging with the help of our map, and a muddy path that presents itself as you get closer to the top. We were greeted by a couple of groups of fellow walkers all headed in the opposite direction to us, making us think we should have tackled the smaller hill first, but once we reached the top, we were confident we had made the right choice.

The view of Parkhouse Hill from the summit of Chrome Hill is something I'd recommend to anybody. Parkhouse Hill, as Jen pointed out, looks like a dragon's back. It's distinctive spine of exposed limestone is breathtaking, and I can't imagine there is a better vantage point than where we stood. We stopped for a few moments to take in the panoramic view of the surrounding national park, but Parkhouse Hill selfishly took all the attention. It was time to climb it!

The View Of Parkhouse Hill from the Summit of Chrome Hill

"It looks like a Dragon's back"

On our way down Chrome Hill, the wind picked up, it became very difficult to talk. However our whole silent descent of the hill, neither of us once took our eyes off the dragon's back, getting closer and closer.

At the foot of Parkhouse Hill a road divides the 2 peaks, there are 2 paths up the hill, one to the left, faintly trodden into the grass, and one to the right, alongside the majestic limestone rocks, a steep and muddy ascent. After stubbornly working my magic, Jen agreed to take the difficult path, and difficult it was. Using rocks to steady ourselves and even pull us up at times, the climb got easier the further up we got. At the top, our legs started to feel as though they'd climbed 2 hills, but once again, the views were to die for. Looking back towards Chrome Hill was just as spectacular, especially as the sun began to drop. These are 2 hills that really deserve your attention, and it really doesn't matter in which order you decide to tackle them. Only open to the public since 2000, this part of the Peak District is bound to attract more and more people each year. We will certainly be back again.

Chrome Hill, a limestone knoll, stands at 425 metres, while Parkhouse Hill is 360 metres tall. It was a gentle walk, made more challenging by the lack of distinctive paths, however, doesn't that make exploring the region a little more fun? Our hike took little over 3 hours, and afterwards we drove to a nearby pub called The Knights Table, for an exceptional Sunday dinner and I had a well deserved red IPA, while Jen opted for a refreshing Rose wine with lemonade. A wonderful finish to our first adventure. The next one came sooner than we thought...

Us at the top of Parkhouse Hill

The moon rising above Parkhouse Hill as we made our way back

The Knight's Table