Yesterday dawned bright
and sunny and since the weathermen were predicting that it would turn
dull and damp today I decided to take a day's holiday and get out for
a long run on the moors even though I suspected my legs hadn't fully
recovered from Saturday's race. I drove out to Watergrove Reservoir
and for the first few miles intended following the route of the
Wardle Skyline race. I did, in an approximate sort of way, and at
least ended up on the top of Rough hill as planned. There was a
cutting north wind but the sky was blue and the sun was bright and
the views were extensive in all directions. I thought the snowy
weather had been coming up from the south but Pendle(?) in the
distant north looked much more snowy than where I was. A lone crow
kept buzzing me as I crossed Rough hill. I dropped east off the hill
and left the race route to head in a zig-zag way northwards towards
Todmorden. So far the snow had been in small patches and drifts but
on the northern slopes the patches were much more extensive. Either
because the snow obscured them or because I simply don't know the
paths across that area as well as I hoped I took an unintentional
detour or two and spent more time than I would have liked consulting
the map to get back on track or ensure I didn't make too many more
detours! But even the detours are enjoyable on such a clear day.
Stoodley Pike stood out clearly to the east, but disconcertingly
distant considering I knew I wanted to run past it and almost an
equal distance further east. Crossing Weather Hill there was the
incongruous sight of recently burnt moorland poking through the snow.
Goodness knows how or why it had been burnt at this time of year.
Another, very small detour, this time to avoid cows blocking the
path, then I dropped down to the northern edge of Walsden and within
a few hundred yards crossed the railway, the canal and the A6033 –
busy valley!
From there a fairly straight forward climb up the facing
moor (I could finally put the map away), past Gaddings Dam and
eastward to Withins Clough Reservoir. The terrain on this side of the
valley is much more boulder strewn so you have to watch your footing.
And this day most of the ground between the boulders had collected a
glassy layer of ice – I resorted to microspikes for a while. Along
the south of the reservoir, east to the edge of the moor and a steep
drop through the woods into the valley south of Cragg Vale. There's
only a B road to cross this time before heading along some wider
tracks for a mile or so. The map was back in my hand now as I hunted
for the unmarked path SW to Great Manshead Hill and Manshead End. At
first it was a moderately obvious path (once I decided on the correct
one) and it would have been easy to continue along it, contouring
west of the hill but I wanted to go over the hill and fortunately spotted
the much smaller trod splitting off to the left and over the summit,
even though there was once again plenty of snow obscuring the
landscape. This was pleasant running on a longish but not too steep
climb. The hills to the east looked more snow-laden. From Manshead
End there were good views south and it's a fairly quick descent to the
A58 at the bottom of Baitings Reservoir.
I didn't fancy 2 miles on
the road to get to Blackstone Reservoir so I planned on taking a
detour along the old pack horse road southward for a mile or two
until it met the Pennine Way. The map had been put away again some
time back and I assumed a pack horse route would be easy to pick out.
Not so, and with several extra, unexpected access points along the
road the map had to come out again to make sure I got the right
point. This was a rough old section with no obvious path and I
dropped back to the A58 at the eastern edge of Blackstone Ressie
rather than the western. From the western edge I picked up the
Pennine Way and headed north. I don't always enjoy such a wide,
man-made track but my legs were beginning to tire a little and I was
happy enough for the respite from the rougher paths, though an
increasingly strong headwind meant it wasn't exactly easy going. A
mile or so later I turned off down the small, rough path to Summit.
Back over the canal, the A6033 and the railway, except that is hidden
in a tunnel at this point. A steep climb back towards the moor and
decision time: should I stick to the plan and head NW over Fox
Stones, Turnslacks and Crook Moor back to Rough Hill or turn SW along
the Pennine Bridleway which contours round the bottom of the moor?
Past experience had told me that none of the paths shown on the map
heading NW really exist in any obvious sense on the ground so I knew
there would be some rough terrain and at least two steep cloughs to
dip into and out of if I stuck to that plan. The bridleway, by
contrast, is wider, easy to follow, not steep. But going over the top
is nearly always more interesting than around the bottom or even the
middle so I headed NW. I climbed Fox Stones but then, in spite of
myself, was lured too far south by the comparatively easy running on
a wide trod I'd come across. I realised my mistake as I approached a
familiar drystone wall. It was tempting to continue the southward run
but I decided again to head back north and crossed the second clough.
I eventually popped up onto Turnslacks a couple of hundred yards
south of the shepherd's shelter. I climbed up to it but I musn't have
eaten enough carbs the day before and I was really beginning to run
out of energy at this point so I abandoned the idea of continuing all
the way to Rough Hill so I could complete the recce of the Skyline
race. That middle mile would have to remain a distant memory from
last year. Instead I turned back south and the straightforward run
down the ridge to Shore – straightforward apart from another minor
detour around another herd of cows! Crossing the Pennine Bridleway it
was again tempting to turn off along it as a pleasanter route back to
Watergrove Ressie but I wanted to remind myself of the last, slightly
painful, 1.5 mile section of the Skyline route. Painful because it's
along a mixture of rough track, cobbled road and another rough track,
all of which, on race day, you're trying to maintain a decent speed
over. I'm glad I took that route. I'd forgotten that, just as you
think it's all downhill to the finish, it actually contains a short
climb and then another, barely noticeable incline, but which
continues for too long on tired legs! A useful reminder should I do
the race next month. Once back in Wardle there just remained the 1/2
mile up the cobbled street to the reservoir.
Very tired but it had
been an excellent day out. What had I seen? Well, just lots of
moorland really but it's always interesting to see the varied colours
and textures of different sections of moor and the huge contrast when
the sun disappears behind cloud and suddenly a bright landscape looks
quite bleak and forlorn. Yesterday there was the added interest of
seeing how the snow had collected differently in various hollows and
cloughs and which sections of moor were virtually snow free. A lot of
the ground was frozen, some places icy but some places the bog was
soft and in one memorable spot the bog was covered by a layer of ice
which proved to be thin and covering thick, glupy, orange mud into
which I sank at least 9 inches and had a hard time extracting myself
from. There was surprisingly little wildlife to be seen. I saw only a
few groups of crows and heard a few other birds when crossing the
valleys. I'd seen very few people either come to that – a few
walkers on the path to Stoodley Pike, a runner before the path up to
Great Manshead and a couple more walkers near the pack horse road.
Not many in 27 miles. Or perhaps it wasn't surprising given the harsh
wind.
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