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.

It's National Poetry Day...

...so here goes

When raspberries whisper make jam, not make love nor drink wine
When winds sing not of freedom but sheets on the line
When the sun squints your eyes into corners where cobwebs take cover
You'll know, that like me, you've begun to turn into your mother

The last show of summer

Miss Piggy

Last week I had the pleasure of presenting the prizes in the "Childrens Pet on a Lead" competition at Nidderdale Show. Now you can't say that the children of Nidderdale aren't an imaginative lot for among the dogs of all shapes and sizes that were led into the ring were both rabbits and a couple of pigs. Last year, I have it on good authority, there was even a hen strutting it's stuff.



Nidderdale is always the last show of the year in the summer calendar of rural Dales events. It's a traditional agricultural show and because it takes place on a Monday in September it misses out on both summer and weekend visitos so everyone there is from either the local or farming communities - or both.

Handsome chap

and pretty girls

Kids are kept off school to ride their ponies, show their pens of sheep or in my class - lead their pets round the ring.

The 2 classes - under 9's and over - attracted plenty of entries. One dad was roped in to help control a particularly keen eyed collie who set his sights on the rabbits - or dinner as he called them - and one stage mum hissed instructions from the side but otherwise the kids did a great job of presenting their pets.

The judge, a professional brought in from the dog show, treated her task with the utmost seriousness, asking each child questions about their pet then watching as they trotted them round the ring. She chose an Aaaah factor winner from the under 9's group - a tiny girl with an even tinier ginger pig and a very smart  pre-teen with her black labrador from the older class. She did the tricky bit then I got to step forward and pin on the rosettes.

The winner!!

Happy days.

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.

And on a completely different note...

It was all high excitement down at t'allotment this week. Mark Diacono (ex-River Cottage - you might have seen him on the telly) paid us a visit. He's working on a new book called My Cool Allotment and we might be in it. That's the royal "we" of course. I don't think photos of bindweed and scabby spuds quite hit the cool button but my lovely neighbour Alison's pretty herb lined path might just make it.

PS the e-book's out! It hit the virtual shelves this morning and you can take a peek at http://www.skyware.co.uk/shop_eguide.htm 

I'm really pleased with it, especially the way Frank Gordon's beautiful black and white line drawings have turned out.

Boroughgate, Appleby

Thank you Sheila and Frank. It's been a pleasure working with you both.

Lady Anne's Way

Our new project is almost ready to launch. It's got it's feet on the blocks just waiting for the starter's gun (not that I'm missing the Olympics or anything). This one's a bit of a departure for us. It's an e-book.

We're publishing Lady Anne's Way on Kindle.

The Lady Anne of the title is Lady Anne Clifford, a 17th century aristo who spent much of her adult life fighting to regain the family estates which had been left to her uncle. Finally in middle age she inherited a large chunk of the north of England and at the age of 60 set about restoring the castles and churches which had pretty much fallen down over the years.



Sheila and the redoubtable Lady Anne

Three hundred and fifty years later a local walker, Sheila Gordon, became fascinated by Lady Anne and particularly by the journeys she took between the properties to check on the work. In 1995 Sheila created a long distance walk that started in Skipton and went 100 miles north to Penrith calling at the castles of Skipton, Barden Tower (not strictly speaking a castle and not actually belonging to Lady A but she fixed it up all the same), Pendragon, Brough, Appleby and Brougham.



Pendragon Castle today


The guidebook is now out of print and we've been working with Sheila to update and republish it. The print version will be out in early 2013 but in the meantime we're publishing it as an e-guide which can be read alongside OS maps of the route.

Barden Bridge

Carpley Green with Addlebrough beyond

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