Deborah's Journal - Arctic Circle Charity Challenge: Bleaklow

Sunday, February 04, 2007

Weekend Walking

What a treat today was - another beautiful day to go out walking !!

Today I had company on my travels - my little buddy "Leo". He has boundless energy and can't sit still for more than a minute which can be a pain when I want to take a pit stop and simply eat my lunch. I think this is his favourite walk - lots of holes to get stuck in, plenty of water to wade in; he always ends up filthy by the time we get home.

We went from our home in Hadfield along the Longdendale Trail, up Torside Clough, quick lunch stop at the Wain Stones, Higher Shelf Stones and back down through Little Clough towards Glossop, then final leg back to home to complete our 12 mile journey.

Torside Reservoir, Longdendale Valley

Torside Clough

Bleaklow Head

View From The Hern Stones

Memorial Plaque at the crash site of the B-29 Superfortress "Overexposed"
3rd November 1948

Trig Point at Higher Shelf Stones

Graffiti it gets everywhere - Higher Shelf Stones

Leo looking a bit grubby now

A useful website on Derbyshire walks, some info on the Bleaklow walk:-

http://www.trekkingbritain.com/bleaklowfromoldglossop.htm

If you are interested in the history of the aircraft wreck sites, Mick Melvin has a web page dedicated to this:

http://www.btinternet.com/~mick.melvin/darkpeak/shelfstones.html

Sunday, January 14, 2007

Bog Trotting on Bleaklow

For the past few weeks now the weather has been pretty miserable "our way"; pouring rain and strong winds (although that's pretty much the norm for this time of year) and the hill tops have been so misty you just can't see a thing. Today though we had a brief respite from all that, and it was bliss!

Due to the crummy weather the past few weekends I had actually decided I was going to use the day to catch up on some desperately needed housework & shopping, but the blue sky was so unexpected and just too good to miss, so despite being quite late on in the day it was on with my rucksack and head for the hills! My route was to walk from my home in Hadfield to Glossop, head up Lightside and Yellow Slacks onto Bleaklow, potter about taking pictures of the Hern & the Wain stones then see how much time was left before getting back down to Glossop and home before it got dark (a total of 12 miles altogether)

The sky was pure blue and although still windy, not enough to knock you off your feet which really got to be a pain when trying to go up onto Bleaklow weekend before last (I ended up having to turn round and go another route instead). I love tramping about on the moors and I feel really put out when it gets too foggy for me to go walking across the "tops", so this break in the weather was more than welcome. Although it was a fine day for walking, the constant rain these past few weeks meant it was particulary soggy once away from the stony channels leading up from Yellow Slacks & Dowstone Clough and I don't think it would be too much of an exaggeration to say the sound of squelching totally drowns out the sound of the wind in parts (and that's saying something). Even with careful negotiation I still found avoiding calf deep stinking squelchiness impossible!!!