That's the first 3 miles of A Dales High Way waymarked - only another 87 to go!
That's not quite as daunting as it sounds. We're not planning to pepper the route with little blue and yellow arrows, far from it. In fact there are whole tracts of the walk where there won't be any markers at all. Across the Howgills for example, there's a six-mile ridge walk which relies entirely on the walker's navigation skills without even a drystone wall to follow.
That's not quite as daunting as it sounds. We're not planning to pepper the route with little blue and yellow arrows, far from it. In fact there are whole tracts of the walk where there won't be any markers at all. Across the Howgills for example, there's a six-mile ridge walk which relies entirely on the walker's navigation skills without even a drystone wall to follow.
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| A Dales High Way crosses the Howgill Fells |
And that's what we hope people will like about the route. A Dales High Way is not a wilderness walk but it does take walkers high into the fells from the market towns and villages where they've spent the night - hopefully enjoying some northern hospitality. Fells that none of us want to see covered in hardware whether it's waymarks or wind farms.
The route is not an easy one, there are steep climbs every day and if you take in the summit of Whernside the total ascent equals climbing Mont Blanc. As well as not wanting to add to plethora of waymarks in the Dales already we're worried that too much signage can send out the message that this is a stroll. I once walked a well known National Trail that was waymarked at every bend and turn. By day four my guide book was still in pristine condition in my backpack and my navigation reduced to symbol-spotting. Disaster struck! A multitude of paths and no signpost. Which one to choose? Just four days and all my hillcraft had left me, so soon and yet so deskilled. Don't tell the Duke of Edinburgh anyone!
No, all we want to do is to put up enough waymarks to occasionally reassure walkers that they're on the right track. Oh, and to make the embarrassing slightly-hungover-after-a-night-on-the-Black-Sheep search for the way out of the village in the morning, a thing of the past
The route is not an easy one, there are steep climbs every day and if you take in the summit of Whernside the total ascent equals climbing Mont Blanc. As well as not wanting to add to plethora of waymarks in the Dales already we're worried that too much signage can send out the message that this is a stroll. I once walked a well known National Trail that was waymarked at every bend and turn. By day four my guide book was still in pristine condition in my backpack and my navigation reduced to symbol-spotting. Disaster struck! A multitude of paths and no signpost. Which one to choose? Just four days and all my hillcraft had left me, so soon and yet so deskilled. Don't tell the Duke of Edinburgh anyone!
No, all we want to do is to put up enough waymarks to occasionally reassure walkers that they're on the right track. Oh, and to make the embarrassing slightly-hungover-after-a-night-on-the-Black-Sheep search for the way out of the village in the morning, a thing of the past
3 comments:
I still have your wonderful walk on my "To Do" list (in capitals).
Perhaps the Autumn now, but the Pyrenees or the Cevennes are calling as well!
chris, looks a good start. Must get your guide and do this walk sometime, even if it is in sections!
Thanks Alan and Mark. Alan you're a busy man - if the TGO doesn't finish the thighs off the Pyrenees will.
Mark - we've done it lots of times in sections, often using the Settle-Carlisle line. Last summer we did it in 3 chunks. That was to test the route north to south. I'd recommend south to north but the 3 sections worked really well.
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