Mud, mud, not so glorious mud

Nine Standards

When two or more Coast to Coast walkers are gathered together the talk always turns to the notorious quagmire just beyond the huge cairns on Nine Standards Rigg. 

Bad old days

Stories of crossing - or sinking into - the ever widening bog are rife. 

But now almost 400 metres of stone flagging has been laid across the worst sections. On a glorious spring day the path was officially opened this weekend. Around 30 supporters and sponsers (including, we're proud to say, Skyware Press) gathered to toast the occasion and plant sphagnum moss around the stones. 

Testing out the new path

The total cost of over £30,000 was raised through a crowdfunding scheme set up by the North Pennines AONB and supported by the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority. There were generous donations from the British Mountaineering Council, HF Holidays, Tesco, the Wainwright Society and many others including local businesses and individual walkers.

So fear no more - the only interuption on the trail from Kirkby Stephen to Keld is a stop at Ravenseat for one of Amanda Own's famous scones.

For information about walking the Coast to Coast see www.coastto.co.uk

Making A Difference

Sometimes even the little things can make a difference.

Recently we've donated signed copies of books as rewards for donations to 2 crowdfunding appeals - Mend Our Mountains and Raising the Standard - both close to our heart. 

The Yorkshire Dales Mend Our Mountains money will improve the Swine Tail approach to Ingleborough, the route of A Dales High Way, and Raising the Standard aims to pave over the notorious swampy Nine Standards Rigg on the Coast to Coast.

Both campaigns have been successful raising £100,000's and we're very proud to have helped - between them our books raised over £500. Thank you everyone.

Thank you

It's not quite the end of the year but today feels like a good day to say "Thank you". Thank you to everyone who has bought our books and kept our small family business afloat. And a special thank you to all of you who have bypassed Amazon and ordered directly from our website www.skyware.co.uk or gone into your local bookshop and bought a Skyware guide off the shelves. It is you that is keeping the specialist publishers and independent bookshops alive. 

Skyware guidebooks

And it is you, when you set off to walk your Coast to Coast path or your Dales High Way, that will be bringing life and hope and business back to the flood hit towns and villages of Yorkshire and Cumbria. Towns like Appleby that are clearing up for the third time in as many weeks and will be ready with pubs, cafes and bed and breakfasts to welcome walkers back in 2016. So don't stay away. Happy New Year and keep walking!

A Dales High Way 

My Dales Way Week

This week has been largely devoted to the Dales Way. 

I'm on the committee of the Dales Way Association, a small charity set up almost 25 years ago to promote and support the Dales Way long distance path. The route was created in 1969 by Colin Speakman and the late Tom Wilcock just four years after the launch of the Pennine Way, and like Wainwright's Coast to Coast Path (1972), has attracted walkers from all over the world ever since. Unlike the Pennine Way neither the Dales Way or Coast to Coast are National Trails so receive no funding or support from the government. Instead they are both designated Regional Recreational Routes and each section is the responsibility of the local authority it passes through. In the case of the Dales Way, travelling east to west, this is Bradford District Council, North Yorkshire County Council, Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, Cumbria County Council and the Lake District National Park. 

The existence of the Dales Way Association means that there is a single body that can be contacted by anyone interested in the route and liaise between walkers and the numerous authorities. On Wednesday 4 members of our small committee attended our annual meeting with the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority. This is an opportunity to meet with the rangers who are responsible for the path on the ground and share problems, ideas and successes.

A new section of path to keep walkers off the road outside Sedbergh

Three days later we were all together again, this time in Ilkley for the Association's Autumn Walk and Annual General Meeting.  Most of the committee, including Colin Speakman, who led the walk and chaired the meeting, were there. It was great to meet members and a tribute to their commitment that so many travel so far to join us for the day, including from Essex and Shropshire.

Colin greets walkers in Ilkley

Heading for Addingham

Finally on Monday I walked a section of the Dales Way, the climb over Cam Fell. I was with my sister-in-law, a walking newbie, who is walking the 80 miles from Ilkley to Bowness in bite sized chunks. The Dales Way is an ideal beginners long distance route, with its easy to follow riverside paths, the many villages offering refreshment and accommodation and the possibility of accessing sections by public transport. 

The river Wharfe near Burnsall

This summer we have walked from Ilkley to Buckden, catching the bus up and down Wharfedale, until this last leg over Cam required a lift to Nethergill Farm and the train home from Ribblehead. 

This section of the Dales Way is often the most daunting for walkers, including as it does the climb over wet and boggy fell to the highest point on the entire route at 520m. 

Told you it was boggy!

It is also one of the most rewarding as the watershed of England is reached and you get your first glimpse of Ingleborough, followed quickly by Pen-y-ghent, Whernside and the mighty Ribblehead viaduct.

Whernside and Ribblehead viaduct from the forestry road

I wonder what next week will bring.

Happiness is ....

A few weeks ago the lovely Susan Briggs @Dales_Tourism asked "What makes you happy?" She's writing The Yorkshire Dales Guide to Health and Happiness and was looking for stories to feature in her book.

And it got me thinking. What makes me happy? Well in no particular order (or there is a particular order but putting the dog first might upset a few people) my family, my friends, the dog, hot baths, cold beers, growing stuff, cooking stuff, eating stuff - and walking.

Any sort of walking.  It doesn't matter if it's an early morning dog walk, an afternoon stroll or a full day's hike.  I love 'em all. But the walks that make me feel happiest in a deep, lasting and profound way are long distance walks. Walks that take weeks of planning and thinking about. Walks where I leave home with my pack on my back knowing I won't be back for a week or more.  I have done lots of these walks and the magic works every time. I set off with my head crammed full of everyday worries and concerns and my body tense with anxiety.

Within a day or so that's all gone. My mind empties and my life slows down to the pace of the walk.  The purpose of each day is just that - to walk. There is no other task. No other jobs to tick off or goals to achieve. I eat, I walk, I sleep and tomorrow I do it all again. I begin to experience the true beauty of the landscape I am walking through, to notice the tiniest speedwell, the highest skylark. Every day brings a new adventure. My days are spent in splendid isolation on the fells, walking to a soundtrack of bleating sheep and the call of the curlew. At night I head for civilisation, to pubs and B&Bs, to warm baths and good food and real ale, and I return home at the end of my walk happy and at peace with myself and the world.

We are lucky here in the Yorkshire Dales to have some of the finest long distance footpaths in the British Isles. There’s the gentle riverside Dales Way and the exhilarating, challenging Dales High Way, the world famous Coast to Coast Path and the fascinating Lady Anne’s Way. There’s the granddaddy of them all - the Pennine Way and many many more. Go on – try it yourself.



Oh we do like to be beside the seaside....

Taking advantage of the favourable weather forecast this weekend we shot off to the east coast to do a bit of walking on the North York Moors and paddle our toes in the North Sea. Friday found us high on Blakey Ridge wearing bobble hats and thermal vests but by Saturday the promised sun had appeared and we had a glorious day on the Cleveland Way. At teatime we found ourselves in Robin Hood's Bay and sat enjoying a pint or two outside the Bay Hotel while we watched the Coast to Coast'ers finish their walk.

It was a joy to watch their faces as they made it down the steep slope to dabble their boots in the brine and in some cases drop a pebble picked up a fortnight before on the beach at St Bees. I've written before about the camaraderie that grows up amongst long distance walkers and once again it was plain to see as the growing crowd outside the pub clapped each group as they appeared.

The biggest round of applause was saved for a gang of cyclists who'd made the crossing in just 3 days. Their mates strung ribbon across the road and cheered as the first of the Haddenham Hillbillies, all sporting Bradley Wiggins sideburns, even the girls, broke the tape. They were raising money for the Chilterns MS Centre and their JustGiving page says that they've reached £7,311.74, breaking their £7,000 target. Well done guys and gals.

Walkin' in the rain, just walkin'in the rain...

And it IS a glorious feeling - sometimes. A light shower during an evening stroll or even a heavy one on a day in the hills is just fine. With the right gear, a dry berth at the end of the day and a reasonably cheerful disposition most walkers can cope with most of what the weather throws at us.

Still smiling - In the rain on the Cleveland Way

In fact I'd go so far as to say that bad weather makes for good stories. And I should know, I've told a few. From my dad tethering me to him with a length of bailer twine when the wind whipped under my cagoule* and blew me off the top of Wold Fell to my second only long distance walk, the Coast to Coast, 17 years ago.

We'd spent months thinking about when to do the walk. 

March or October - days are too short, July - might be too hot **, and finally we decided on the last week in May and first week in June. Old Whitsun - the sun always shone then didn't it?

We were backpacking. Even the most modest B&B's were out of our price range in those days and the cost of accomodation, pub grub and of course liquid refreshment at the end of the day would have made the 2 week trek a non-starter. We thought the tent was the bees knees. It was just under 4 lbs*** with no ridge pole and so tiny that we took turns to undress outside then did a sort of limbo dance to shimmy straight into bed.

We left St Bees on a Friday afternoon in glorious sunshine. It was to be the last time we saw the sun, or a view or sometimes even each other till the east coast came into view 14 days later. Fourteen days of non stop, unremitting, lashing rain which, just in case we needed a change, turned into sleet on Blakey Moor.

It was one of the best fortnights of my life.

When I think about that walk it's not the rain I remember - it's the vertiginous scramble up Greenup Ghyll and the beautiful isolation of Angle Tarn; it's the hostel warden at Black Sail getting out his bike after tea and pedalling down to Ennerdale Bridge to look for a walker that hadn't turned up (no mobiles or forestry road in those days) and the blitz spirit as we began to recognise fellow c2c'ers;  it's getting my mountain legs on day three and suddenly starting to enjoy myself and most of all it's that fabulous sense of achievement that I could walk nearly 200 miles across my own country with my bed on my back. Take that rain!

So, if you're setting off this weekend on the Coast to Coast or the Dales Way or our very own Dales High Way or any of the other fantastic long distance trails across the UK and you're worried about what the weather will throw at you, don't be. It'll be your walk and whatever happens you'll never forget it.

* does anyone use that word anymore

** too what!!!

*** eat your heart out TGO Challengers with your ultralights and your sawn off toothbrushes