Favourite Walks and Rambles

[PanBiker]

Another Weets circular today with added Geocacheing targets to find. Folly to Standridge to Trig, down to Gisburn Old Track, Brogden, Jack House, Hollins and home. A route of 5.7 miles according to my tracker.

I managed to find and log four caches on this trip, the third one I found is dedicated to Jennet Preston - The Yorkshire Witch. A good find this one as it contained a Travel Slug Geocoin which is a trackable item attached to an Elephant!

On logging my finds today and tracing the code on the Travel Slug I found that he has been named Speedy Phil, his attached pachyderm is called Indie. The small wooden Elephant originated in India and was brought here to the UK. He apparently wants to show Speedy Phil his home country and with his help is hoping to make it back. He started his homeward journey from Kingston upon Hull and has visited Nottingham and then Great Whernside before resting for a while in our Parish. I have recovered the pair and am currently offering them a home until I can find a suitable onward hop to help them on their way.

[Stanley]

Geo caching sounds like fun. Did I used to have a book about a Golden Hare? Same idea really but there was only one of them and finders-keepers....

[PanBiker]

It is Stanley, you never know what you will find and the stories as to why the cache was placed can be quite interesting. Each has a synopsis on the Geocache website. Indie and Speedy Phil have their own page as they are a trackable pair, their details show each hop of their journey. Here they are resting at my house at the moment, I will have an opportunity to get them onto the motorway network shortly which may be good for a bit of distance hopping.



Speedy Phil's reverse has the website address for tracking and his unique code that he is registered under. Indie has lost a bit of his saddle but is otherwise in good condition and fit for the onward journey.

You are right about the Golden Hare, I think it was found in Ireland after the book had been out a couple of years from memory. I think it was Esso that did a similar treasure hunt promotion but the hidden items were brand new cars. I think they gave away about 50 which were hidden all over the country, you got drip fed clues when you bought fuel. First to solve the riddles and get to the location could claim the car.

[Stanley]

I went digging and found this LINK......

[PanBiker]

Thanks for that Stanley, wonder why I thought is was Ireland?

[PanBiker]

Taking advantage of the weather, I have been pretty active on my exercise regime over the last few days. Did 11 miles on the bike on Monday, then back on foot for my usual Weet's circular route on Wednesday 4.5 miles up to trig and back via Dark Hill. Today I did a Geocaching foray encompassing Weet's summit again but extending the route to 5.5 miles returning via Weet's Farm and a short distance down the lane to just past Sandyford to pickup the path again at Star Hall to return via Duckpond, Docs old place Prospect and Lister Well back down into town. Recovered another trackable in the form of a Geocoin from one of the three caches I found and logged. This coin tasks the finders and movers to deliver it to other caches in areas of outstanding beauty, no shortage of locations such as that around here. By coincidence I met the owner of the cache that I recovered the Geocoin from on the summit of Weet's he was up at the trig on his bike at the same time as I got up there, he was the only other hill user I saw today.

Here is the Geocoin recovered today, front face:



and reverse showing it's tracking reference in the centre:



Checking it's journey so far shows that it originated at Elsen in Germany and was first dropped in July 2011 but has traveled between various locations in mainland Europe, the UK and quite a few in the USA crossing the Atlantic a number of times. It's current tracking log shows that it has hopped 314 times covering a total so far of 28,978 miles eventually arriving above Barlick and now in my temporary keeping.

[Stanley]

Fascinating, I can see the attraction.....

[PanBiker]

I fancied a walk up Weets today so made my way via Moorgate and Folly up to Standridge. I noticed the stile into the first field was adorned with a tape marker and on entering the field I could see blue marker flags on the path ahead. Stiles on the route to the summit all had tape with more marker flags between each. Followed them all to the summit passing a horse grazing and coming across a goat near the summit which I found dry now after previous months of boggy ground. There is the start of a very good showing of Cotton Grass on the summit. The route is marked past the trig and over the side and down into the valley by the stream then up onto the moor. Halfway across the moor the flags deviate from my normal route to The Edge and head straight back down the moor. I left them behind and followed my normal route back down via Dark Hill and Hollins. The ground was firm all the way round apart from the stile immediately above Hollins which is always very boggy. Crossing the lane into the buttercup field I found it ablaze with buttercups, daisies and clover, plenty of skylarks about on my way down singing their hearts out. I returned via Calf Hall, 4.5 miles in nice spring sunshine with a gentle breeze fighting off the humidity.

[Stanley]

Nice.... There will be a change today though. It's just started spotting with rain....

[PanBiker]

I forgot to mention that the marker flags are there for Barlick Fell Race which now starts from Letcliffe. Apparently this is because the insurance is too costly to have it start down at Rolls where it always used to be. Pity really as if you don't know that the event is on you will never see the runners. It used to be an annual attraction when the route came up through town making for the hill.

The route from Letcliffe goes up Lister Well Road and then across the moor to the top Folly, down to Standridge where I came across the first marker on my walk and then up to the summit. After descending into the valley off the side the route then heads directly down, following the beck more or less and then climbs back up to Standridge and retraces the route back to Letcliffe. Today's weather should be just about right for them.

[PanBiker]

Took advantage of the lovely Autumn weather we are having at the moment. Went up Folly to Standridge then into the fields and up the Bronze Age track to the trig on Weets summit. Could just see about as far as Whernside to the North but slightly better to the West down the Ribble valley. We came down onto Gisburn Old Track to the junction of Coal Pit Lane and onto Brogden, back into the fields just past Flass House and returned via Jack House, Hollins, Calf Hall and Parrock. Route is 5.7miles and we completed in just less than 2 hours for the circular. A nice walk, the ham hock we have in the slow cooker smells wonderful after an afternoon on and around the hill. Pea and ham with dumplings in the offing as reported in the tea thread.

[Stanley]

Sounds like a perfect afternoon.....

[PanBiker]

It was Stanley, we were inspected by a herd of young heifers when traversing the field after Jack House. We had the whole lot following us, why is there always one that stands in front of the stile reluctant to move as well?

[Stanley]

Boss beast, there is one in every herd. They have a very strong social order..... The trick when handling them is to identify that one and get that do do what you want. All the others will follow. Never underestimate them, always have a stick in your hand.....

[PanBiker]

Never underestimate them, always have a stick in your hand.....

Funnily enough that is what I said to Sally "should have a stick", no never mind she moved when she could see our intention. I don't particularly like cows when out walking, they are a bit big for my liking especially when they start to act daft. I will always avoid if I can.

Never carried a stick when walking and not got to the double Nordic stage quite yet as many that you see when out on the fells. Sometimes the walking poles seem to be more of a hindrance than a help particularly on steep climbs or descents on some of the scrambles on the higher hills. Being a development from Nordic skiing they a re designed to help rhythm when traversing distance on the flat, not much good going up or down hill, would be good for poking cows though I suppose.

[Stanley]

You don't need a big clumsy stick, a hazel or ash sappy is plenty and could be shoved into your back pack. When I was working for Richard Drinkall one of the first things I learned was that you never went near cattle without a stick unless they were beasts who knew you well like a milking herd. Bullocks and young heifers aren't savage, they are just very curious and want to investigate you, problem is they are bigger than you and if someone panics, so do the cattle. The most dangerous are bulls obviously but far more common are suckling cows with calves at foot. They are the ones you will most likely come across and will defend their calves. An Angus with a calf at foot is a very aggressive animal! Carrying a stick is good sense..... (It takes a good cattle dog to turn a suckler with a calf at foot)

[PanBiker]

When we went out last week in the torrential rain for our walk for Dan we went up Folly Lane to Duckpond. My HiTech boots finally gave up the ghost. I had all my waterproofs on which turned all that the weather could chuck at us and my upper body and legs remained dry but at the first sign of mud to traverse or the many rivers of water flowing down the lane my feet ended up wet. I look after my stuff and after our previous walk I had cleaned off my boots as is the norm and gave them a really good coating of waterproofing spray even de-lacing so that I could get into the sealed tongues of the boots. The waterproofing was fully dry before use last week but they still let in water. The only thing I can think of is that the waterproof membrane has broken down. I have not been happy with these boots in general as I have mentioned before, the soles seem to be made of some kind of compound with very little traction. In the time I have had them I have fallen 3 times. Not good as you get older, I prefer to remain upright if at all possible.

My previous boots were KSB's manufactured by Karrimor. I got them from Bob Jackson when he had Alpine Overland in Barlick which was in the old Library building. They fit me like a glove and always turned the water and were easy to maintain. To that end I have looked at the current Karrimor range and gone for a boot with a Waterproof Nubuck upper with a Vibram sole. These are the same compound as were on my original KSB's and If they perform the same as my first pair I will be well suited, time will tell now we have winter approaching. Hopefully I will be able to traverse the fells with dry feet.

[Stanley]

I gave my Han Wags to son in law Mick and I think he goes to bed in them.... My favourite boots at the moment are a pair I bought in Northfield, made by The Georgia Boot Company. I knew nothing about American boots but wanted a good pair for working on Martha's house. I keep them oiled with Neat's Foot oil and they are as soft as a pair of slippers and totally waterproof. Possibly the best boot I have ever owned.... They cost me £26 last week for new soles and heels, I suppose you could buy a new pair for that but nowhere near as good. You can't beat a good pair of comfortable waterproof boots.... I hope your new pair serve you well.
[I just looked on the net. They sell to the UK now and considering the quality they are very reasonably priced....]

[PanBiker]

All leather work boots a tad heavy for distance, fell walking and scrambles I would think. They look good though and comparable to some European makes. I see they do Vibram soles on some of their range, this compound was developed by an Italian bloke who lost six of his mates in the Italian Alps, they were killed due to the inadequate mountaineering footwear available at the time, (mainly leather soles with hobnails). It is syndicated worldwide now for use in leisure and industry products.

Vibram

[PanBiker]

Had a few jobs to do this morning so a tad late to be setting of on one of my Weets circulars. I settled on a shorter foray up Calf Hall then across the buttercup meadow which was very wet, straight over Hollins Lane and onto Dark Hill. The water in the field here was even visible on the slope of the hill, all the ground is at saturation point. It took me a while to negotiate the claggy stile just below where the well rises. I have notified this stile on the LCC reporting site and it is now on the footpath teams list for renovation, the duckboards on the approaches at each side are almost fully submerged in the mire. I have suggested a short section of staging here as it is permanently wet even in summer. I carried on up to the next stone stile and then over onto Edge Lane descending down to the top of Springs beck, all the feeders were in full flow. Out onto the top of Esp lane by Moor Close and then back down to Town Head. A bit of pooling on Esp Lane where there is a bit of a pinch point with a small bore pipe under the lane. On the whole though all the field drains and run offs are doing their job and getting the water away. Just short of three miles and I managed to get round in the dry but got caught in the shower calling at the Coop on my way home.

[Stanley]

Even down in the town the ground is as wet as I have ever seen it..... But funnily enough, the flow in Butts Beck yesterday was getting back to normal levels....

[PanBiker]

A walk round one side of the outskirts yesterday. Moorgate then Folly Lane to just below Standridge, up the steps and through the field to the newly refurbished I think it is Lower Standridge. Down through the fields to the bridge over the beck then up the other side and out onto Lane Bottoms. We walked further up to Quarry Cottage (we once looked at buying this when it was fairly derelict). We took the stile out onto the moor and followed the path up towards Prospect. Looking back when we were climbing the moor, the dales looked fairly dull with the exception of a single shaft of sunlight lighting up Malham Cove, it looked quite magnificent. We continued up then veered left to emerge onto Lister Well. Onward and upward here until the gate at the top of the moor then left onto the access land. Over the moor to the top of the green lane and down past Copy Nook to Lane Head. Salterforth Lane to the path round the back of the quarry then back into the fields to descend down through the fields to Salterforth. We stopped for a beer at the Anchor and then returned via the cut bank to Cockshott Bridge and back up past the school. Just over 5 miles with a 700ft ascent, stayed fine for the duration.

[Stanley]

That sounds like a nice walk....

[PanBiker]

We tend to go uphill when the ground is so saturated. It's still wet underfoot but nothing like the clag at the the bottom end of town and out round Stock. I need to extend my wardrobe of walking pants for winter with an extra pair, I have two but every time you go out into the fields when it's like this you are going to come back mucky. I think I'll get another pair of the cotton lined solar dry Craghoppers for our Winter outings.

[Wendyf]

I find that gaiters work well in these conditions Ian, they keep your trousers clean and stop water getting in the top of of your boots...mind you modern boots seem to have a central cleat giving you nothing to attach the gaiters to.