Use it or Lose it!

I walked around 12 miles a day during the Ride2stride Festival in April, much of it in the snow.

Ride2stride 2016

In May I tackled 90 miles of the Cape Wrath Trail with my worldly goods on my back. 

Cape Wrath Trail

In June I walked from Hebden Bridge to Horton-in-Ribblesdale on the Heart of the Pennine Way. 

Pen-y-ghent on the Pennine Way

Not bad eh!

But since then I've been under house arrest, tethered to home by a series of domestic responsibilities so when Tony suggested a couple of days away this week I couldn't get my boots on quickly enough. We walked from Macclesfield to Edale following the Cestrian Link path - a route created in 1983 by John N.Davenport to join the northern end of Offa's Dyke to the start of the Pennine Way. Tony has walked his own updated version of it as part of his End to End project and this 25 mile section was the last leg.

We got the train to Macclesfield and set off along the canal towpath then climbed up through the Macclesfield Forest. 

The climb through the forest

By 400 metres I was knackered - done for. Shamefully after 2 months of making tea for builders and sharing their hobnobs I was so out of condition I could barely crawl up a tourist trail. Clearly a daily trot around Robert's Park with my elderly dog wasn't quite the exercise I had kidded myself it was.

Lesson learned! Whatever is going on at home, whatever the weather, I'm going to make sure I get onto those hills this winter. Use it or lose it is an old cliche but so, so true!

Heading into Castleton

PS The trip was fantastic, especially day 2 which ended with a sunny climb from Castleton over to Edale with spectacular views of the Pennine range and the Pennine Way ahead.

Edale and the Pennine Way ahead

Confession Time

I've got a confession to make. 

Despite spending half my year helping to organise the Ride2stride Festival and the other half banging on about it I've never actually been to a walking festival. Other than R2S that is. So this week I decided to do something about it and headed over the border into Lancashire and the Pendle Walking Festival.  

It's easy to overlook Pendle in favour of its more glamorous neighbours, the Yorkshire Dales and the Lake District, but it's an area full of charm and interest where walking is king. There's a comprehensive year round programme of walks and the annual Pendle Walking Festival is billed as the biggest free walking festival in the country. This year's programme offered 68 guided walks from a family friendly 2 miler to feed the ducks to the "very hard"  23 mile Pendle Marathon. There are plenty of references to witches including Alice Nutter's Way and the Lancashire Witches Walk. This is a 51 mile long distance walk from Barrowford to Lancaster Castle following in the footsteps of the accused to their trial and subsequent executions in 1612. The festival programme offered the walk over 4 days and I wish I'd seen it earlier. Definitely one for the to-do list. 

Instead I chose an 8 mile linear 'hard' walk from Colne to Gawthorpe Lodge, stopping at Smithson Farm for tea and cakes before returning to the start by bus. Eighteen of us, including a walk leader and back marker, left Colne along the Leeds Liverpool canal and headed for Barrowford. 

Crossing the canal

I was lucky enough to walk with a local man who had lots of information about the village and its history. The day was further enlivened by a fellow walker who greeted everyone we met seemingly by name. I'd just started to think she came from the biggest family in Lancashire when it was revealed she was the local councillor and we were walking through her patch. The route continued through a combination of lanes and tracks with glimpses of Pendle Hill shrouded in mist.

Pendle Hill

As someone said, "If you can see Pendle Hill it's going to rain. If you can't it's already raining". Finally we reached Smithson Farm where we found a mini mining museum, a campsite, rescue ponies and a tea room with the lightest scones outside of Yorkshire. The walk finished with a lovely 2 miles through open countryside and along the banks of the river Calder where we spotted a heron and were accompanied for much of the way by a flock of circling Canada geese. 

I arrived in Colne on my own but with no worries about spending the day alone. If our own Settle-Carlisle festival is anything to go by I was expecting a friendly bunch and I wasn't wrong. The first person I met was also a Ride2strider and everyone went out of their way to be welcoming. I came away no longer a walking festival novice and determined to seek out more events like this. It's a brilliant way to explore our wonderful countryside in the company of knowledgeable locals. Now where's that list. I think I'm hooked.

Spoilt for Choice

With 42 events to choose from during 7 days of the Ride2stride Walking Festival it's impossible to get to everything. I managed to squeeze in daily walks, 2 of the three talks and music most nights and although it is technically possible to go to 18 different things that was exhausting enough. Exhausting but totally exhilarating. 

Here's a snapshot of Ride2stride 2015.

Climbing Pen-y-ghent

A grouse nest on the side of the track

Inside the Hoffman kiln

High Cup Nick

Rare breed piglets on Mearbeck Farm

Live music every night

Heading down to Cleatop Park Wood

I've just started reading A Year of Living Danishly, an account of a woman's move to Denmark and her attempt to discover what makes it the happiest country in the world to live. Already she has identified an appetite for pastries and a healthy work-life balance as most significant with most Danes leaving work promptly in mid afternoon and not thinking about it again until the next morning, preferring to concentrate their time and energies on family, friends and leisure activities.

Recently my family contact has been reduced to text messaging, my friends have forgotten what I look like and my only leisure activity is a self medicating glass of red at the end of yet another 16 hour day.

Working from home with the Skyware office overlooking the garden and a laptop on the kitchen table means it's hard to switch off. A quick check of emails while the kettle boils, a last look at a chapter before bed, I've even found myself downstairs at 4 am because I've woken up and remembered something I'd forgotten to do. 

Thankfully it's not always like this. The intense pressure over the last few weeks has been because we've a new book, Heart of the Pennine Way, due out on April 24th, the 50th Anniversary of the start of the Pennine Way AND the annual Ride2stride Walking Festival starts 4 days later.

The book is at the printers now and the festival programme is out in the world so there's not much more I can do now, except try to remember how to relax and maybe eat more pastries.

Save the Date



Setting off on the first walk of Ride2stride 2012

It's just a year since half a dozen of us met in a pub in Skipton to talk about whether there was any point in trying to organise a walking festival along the Settle Carlisle Railway Line. The Western Dales are great walking country, dominated by the Three Peaks and very accessible by train from both Leeds and Carlisle. We decided it must be worth having a go and Ride2stride was born.




Walkers stripping off when the sun came out this year (yes - it did!).

 

Tomorrow the same six are meeting again (this time in Settle) and what a difference a year makes.

No more shall we/shan't we, can we/can't we, will anyone even come?

We know Ride2stride 2012 worked - pretty well really considering it was our first go at it. One or two walks were poorly attended, one or two groups had to leg it to catch connecting trains or buses. A train broke down, a bus timetable changed at the last minute but overall we were pretty happy with the results. Happy enough to have another go.

Ride2stride 2013 is taking place from Tuesday April 30 to Monday May 6.

The programme is coming together nicely and highlights include:

Tuesday April 30

A chance to experience Ribblesdale's industrial and farming heritage with a 6 mile circular walk from Settle, led by Colin Speakman and visiting the Hoffmann kiln and Tom Lord's working hill farm at Lower Winskill.

 

For the more energetic there's a 10 mile circular walk, also from Settle, returning via Giggleswick Common.

Musicians playing in the Station Inn at Ribblehead last year.

Both walks return to Settle station then go on to Giggleswick where there's live music in the Craven Arms from 4pm.

Wednesday May 1

Two great circular walks from Appleby station, a 10 miler along the riverside to Rutter Force and a strenuous 14 mile climb up to High Cup Nick which includes some boulder scrambling. Back to the Midland Hotel next to Appleby station for more live music.

Rutter Force - the upside of all the rain.

Thursday May 2

Repeating last year's popular combo Dr David Johnson, Chairman of Ingleborough Archaeology Group and well respected archaeologist will lead a walk into Crummack Dale followed by a talk in the evening on the archaeology of Malham Moor.

Last year's archaeology walk.

Friday May 3

The great Bill Mitchell, who for many years edited the Dalesman, will give a talk called "Thunder in the Mountains" which tells the story of the building of Ribblehead Viaduct. Anyone wanting to visit the site of the shanty town around the viaduct can do so on guided tours on Wed May 1 and Mon May 6.

Needs no introduction.

For walkers there are 2 walks from Garsdale to Hawes, a strenuous 10 miles and a moderate 6 miles. Both return to Garsdale station by bus.

Saturday May 4

Saturday is gearing up to be very busy with  5 walks planned so far including a very strenuous 19 mile circular from Settle to Malham and back led by the Long Distance Walkers Association. Expect a fast pace.

A gentler option is a 7 mile walk from Horton-in-Ribblesdale to Ribblehead where there's music in the Station Inn till midnight.

Sunday May 5

There's a climb up Pen-y-ghent and a riverside walk from Settle to Horton-in-Ribblesdale. Tonight's music is in the Crown in Horton.

Monday May 6

The last day. Two nice walks planned for today - an eleven mile circular from Settle via 3 waterfalls and a gentler stroll around Settle and Giggleswick following in the footsteps of the composer Elgar.

This is just a taste - there's likely to be over 30 events in all and they're still coming in. There's a draft programme of what's on so far at www.ride2stride.org.uk

In the meantime follow us on facebook at www.facebook.com/Ride2stride and please tell your friends.

So - Will we do it again? Part 2

The quick answer is maybe, possibly, I think so, probably, yes!!

The Ride2stride Festival went better than we could have dreamed of.

Me stood on a bench trying to get a bit of 'ush

When I arrived on Settle station that first morning there were already walkers milling about and an intrepid bunch of singers huddled together for warmth in the waiting room. The train came in - bang on time - and off they poured. Young and old - ok mostly old (er) it was a working day after all, male and female, some with sticks and some with dogs and all of them there for Ride2stride. The singers came out of the warmth and gave us a rousing chorus of "Raindrops keep falling on my head" and off we went. 

Looking for waterfalls

One walk set off to search for waterfalls and the other to head for Elaine's tearoom at Feizor. I was backmarker with the second group and within half an hour had learned my first big lesson of the week. The word "Easy" means different things to different people. In a programme that included a treck over Mallerstang and a 16 mile ascent of Whernside some of us thought that 7.5 miles with a tearoom pretty much qualified as "Easy". To anyone not familiar with the limestone countryside around Settle that first clamber out of Stackhouse could have been the north face of the Eiger.

Second big lesson of the week was that a little more direction to walk organisers WOULD have been a good thing. Ok, I was wrong, I admit it. The walks that followed a very simple pattern - meet at station x off train y and walk to z all worked incredibly well with good numbers and hardly any hiccups (sorry everyone who was on the train that broke down and had their walk delayed by hours). The walks with more complex arrangements of buses and trains or meeting to catch trains to walk back to the number you first thought of were less well attended.

Music at Ribblehead

The music in the pubs was wonderful and turned the whole week into a Festival instead of just a list of walks. Lesson number 3 - make sure that the musicians aren't heading for their break just as the walkers arrive in the pub!

An archeological walk around Ingleborough

What else - well the talks were lively and well attended. The linked events - a walk during the day to look at something followed by a talk about it worked really well - even if one of the walk leaders did spend a bit TOO long looking with the result that his group had to jog the last mile for their train (see what I mean about a bit of direction for walk leaders). The weather improved as the week went on and as you can see we were in fine form by Sunday.

Resting in the sun

Finally the people - walkers came from all over including New Zealand, USA and Stoke on Trent. People stayed in cottages and pubs, in B&Bs and hotels and as the week went on we all began to recognise each other as we met on different walks.

So - will we do it again? It's a big question. Ride2stride is either a one-off or it's an annual event so saying yes to will we do it again is actually saying yes to a lifetime of Settle-Carlisle Walking Festivals. My feeling is that it IS worth making it an annual event but in order to do so we need a little bit more structure and a few more people involved with the organising. Any volunteers? We're meeting on Friday to have a chat about it so I'll let you know.

Where did May go?

It's June 1st today and I last posted on April 30th. What happened to May? 

One minute I was shaking with worry about Ride2stride the next the garden's a hayfield and the festival is a distant memory.

More about Ride2stride later. In the meantime we've had a mini-hols in the Lake Dstrict where I took this photograph of Ennerdale Water. As I walked up from the village I thought I'd take a wrong turn - where was the lake? The reflection of the fellside in the water was so clear the whole valley was greened out

So - Will we do it again? Part 1.

Ride2stride, the walking festival I've been eating, sleeping and dreaming about for the last six months, starts tomorrow and it can't come soon enough.

It's a funny old mix of emotions. I'm worried that no-one will come or too many will turn up. I'm anxious that the memories people go home with won't only be of yomping through mud with a gale blowing down their necks, I'm desperate that this damned rain will stop and of course all I really want is that people will leave loving the Western Dales as much as I do. 

People have already started to ask if there'll be a ride2stride again next year so I thought I'd get some thoughts down now BEFORE it all kicks off.

The HIGHS - well the Festival started off as a twinkle seen through the bottom of a glass and the fact the idea survived until the next morning is a miracle.

We sent out a call for support and that first little group who turned up at the Rendevous in Skipton made it all seem real.

Our criteria for going ahead was that we'd have 12 walks, 2 talks and 2 music events over the course of a week. We've ended up with a staggering 25 walks, 3 talks and music every single day in a pub close to the line.

We didn't want to create a new organisation to run the Festival, instead we've got a model that means 14 different groups are involved. Some, like Friends of Settle Carlisle Line, Yorkshire Dales Society and Friends of Dales Rail are contributing loads, other are leading a single walk and the wonderful 3 Peaks Folk Club is putting on all the music.

We've done it all on a shoestring - Northern Rail and FoSCL paid for the printing of the programme and our business Skyware Press designed the programme and set up the website.
We've kept it simple - no booking, fees only where there's room hire to pay for.

We've only had 3 meetings.

The LOWS - We've only had 3 meetings. Much as I hate meetings there have been times when I've felt a bit isolated.

Fourteen different organisations brought with them 14 different points of view and whilst some of us were happy that the programme reflected that there were others who wanted t'committee to have more control.

Changes to a crucial bus timetable means that the walk I was leading from Malham to Settle along the route of A Dales High Way has had to be changed so it's a circular from Settle. Note to self - don't factor in a train AND a bus in future.
The "no booking" means we don't have ANY idea what to expect so when we stand on Settle station tomorrow morning we don't know if there will be 5 people or 500.

More HIGHS than LOWS then so - will we do it again?

Watch this space.

Escape at last

Its been almost a month since I've written anything on here and what a month its been! A month of proofreading and spellchecking and chasing down those damned apostrophes - and that's only the Christmas cards!

Today, finally, we stopped - the new book is at the printers, the ride2sride programme is designed and ready to go, the website is up and running (have a look at www.ride2stride.org.uk if you don't believe me) and yes - the Christmas cards are written.

It's December 21st and the shortest day so we escaped from the computer and took ourselves up onto Ilkley Moor to the Twelve Apostles stone circle where Yorkshire men and women have been keeping an eye out for the sun for the last 3,500 winter solstices.

Like most of them we failed to spot it so we skipped the dancing naked round the cairn bit and legged it down into Ilkley for that other age old tradition of partaking of mind-altering substances. Cheers!

It's a tough job ....

..... but somebody's got to do it!

In our house no walk is complete without a decent pub at the end of it. In fact we have been known to slow down the last couple of miles and "Whoops, just missed that train - better have a drink while we wait for the next one"

No surprise then that many of the ride2stride walks will end in pubs where the lovely Jeff and his friends will be music making. Today I had a ride up and down the line just checking out the facilities.

The Crown, Horton-in-Ribblesdale

The Station Inn, Ribblehead

The Moorcock, Garsdale

Like I said - tough job but someone's got to do it!

I think we got us a festival



Walkers on Hangingstone Scar, Mallerstang



A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the twinkle in our eye that was ride2stride: the Settle - Carlisle Walking Festival. Well it's really happening!

A little group of us met to talk about the idea and decide whether it really was a goer or just a figment of mine and Tony's wine-addled brains and one of the first things we asked ourselves was "what would success look like?"

We decided if over the course of 7 days - May 1st to 7th next year - we could offer 12 walks from different stations between Settle and Carlisle, 3 music events somewhere along the line and 2 talks on relevant subjects we'd think we'd cracked it.

Well - so far we've got 16 walks ranging from easy strolls around bluebell woods to strenuous hikes over Mallerstang Edge; 3 guided walks around the construction site of Ribblehead Viaduct and Settle Old Town; talks on the part that railways have played in getting people from the grimy urban centres to the heart of the Dales AND music in the station pubs at the end of most walking days.

Jeff and his singing partner Di

Jeff, from the 3 Peaks Folk Club, is setting up the music sessions. He's an organisational genius who's middle name should be "Sorted". In fact I'm seriously considering offering him to Italy for a couple of weeks.

You can follow our progress at http://www.ride2stride.org.uk/

ride2stride

Tony and I are writers with a very small "w".We've written two guides to the Dales High Way long distance walk and last year we worked with Colin Speakman to update his original Dales Way book. Our next project is a book of walks from the Settle-Carlisle railway. It's called Dales Rail Trails and it's due out in January. There - advert over but you need to know the background!

Anyway, one evening about a month ago we were half way down a bottle of red and chatting about the new book.

Him - We'd better think about a book launch

Me  - What about a party?

Him - What about a party on a train?

Me  - With live music

Him - And a walk first

And before we knew it it was sounding like a festival. We dropped the idea of it being a book launch, got some other people involved and there we have it. Ride2stride, the Settle-Carlisle Walking Festival will run from May 1st to May 7th 2012 with walks, talks and music from stations and in pubs along the length of the line.  Aaaah - what have we done. I blame the bottle of red!