Edale to New Mills Backpack, 22nd Sept 2020

…and a gear test

The original Plan was to walk from Hope to New Mills but a fridge-freezer failure at home delayed my departure. I’d intended to park my car in New Mills and travel by train to Hope and walk back, but it was getting a bit late by the time I left home….so Edale was substituted for Hope.

The weather was ideal for backpacking, sunny & clear, warm and with a gentle breeze. I set off in shorts and T shirt.

15 minutes after leaving New Mills my train arrived in Edale and after a quick coffee at the Penny Pot cafe I headed off .

 The River Noe

The weather was ideal for backpacking, sunny & clear, warm and with a gentle breeze. I set off in shorts and T shirt, heading south to climb up by Harden Clough by Mam Tor to turn west and eventually gain the dizzy heights of Lords Seat and Rushup Edge. 

The views all around were lovely – particularly to the east towards Win Hill.

At the western end of Rushup Edge I turned north up the Pennine Bridleway. Chrissie Dixie had suggested a lovely camp spot but my late start rather put paid to getting there at a sensible time. Oh well, next time.

For some time I’d had my eye on a nice little camp spot by Roych Clough, fairly flat ground, water very close by, a couple of dry stone walls in case shelter was needed – and even a bench seat. Not much not to like.

As I came over the brow, the camp spot came into view – but someone had beaten me to it, a red tent was already in situ. I wasn’t that bothered, there was a fair amount of flat ground to choose from, I’d just had in mind a quiet night on my own.

Loads of little flags on the route over Rushup Edge - what for I wonder?

 

Joining the Pennine Bridleway

Down to Roych Clough

Barney

 

My neighbour was Barry from Burton-on-Trent. Barry had a horse, Barney, and together they were heading north to John O’Groats. They had left Lands End two months previously and  were wild / stealth camping all the way. Barry reckoned his journey would take another two months – as long as Barney could keep going and the weather allowed it.

Barry was furloughed from his work at a hotel but already knew he wouldn’t have a job when he returned – hence his trip. In addition he wanted to see more of his country, seeing it on foot / on horseback was a great way to do it.

To make his trip even more worthwhile he was fundraising for the RNLI – a fine charity. If you’re feeling generous you can donate here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/landsendnorth

I had a late-ish dinner of home cooked and dehydrated lamb casserole. I’d made and dehydrated the meal in February 2020 and stored it in my freezer, it rehydrated beautifully and it tasted as good as the day I’d made it.

Barry and Barney

 

Gear Test:

This involved my new camping pillow, a Sea to Summit Aeros Premium Pillow, Large. The pillow proved extremely comfortable, far better than any other camping pillow I’d used. The Sea to Summit website describe it as being luxurious, I’m not going to argue.

The pillow packed into it’s own little stuff bag and was fully inflated with just a few breaths.Unlike other pillows I’ve used, this has a lovely soft & cosy feel to it – infinitely better than a stuff bag filled with clothes.

Surprisingly, it doesn’t slip and slide about on my NeoAir mat – further ensuring a good night’s kip.

Whatever, even at 106 gms (according to my scales) it will be coming along on all my future backpacking trips.

I bought mine via Amazon only because I couldn’t find one off the shelf in Manchester – and I did try.

My thanks to Mark Storey (of TGO Challenge fame) for his recommendation.

 

Anyroadup…

After a wonderful night’s sleep I packed up my gear just as the rain started. A disgruntled farmer rolled up on his quad bike and gave Barry quite a hard time for camping where he did. Curiously he ignored me….but I’m used to being ignored.

Nowt new there then.

Barry was running out of gas, and a quick check with Chrissie revealed no camping shops in the area – Chrissie lives in Hayfield, just up the road. I arranged to meet up with Barry the next day and bring him a couple of cylinders.

Lovely view

On the Sett Valley Trail

The wonderful Sett Valley Cafe

On final approach into New Mills I came across Hissing Sid, aka Charles the Lockdown Snake:

 

R Goyt, New Mills

Where your Swizzels come from

About 10am I departed, it was a bit of a steep climb away from our overnight stop – a bit of a rude awakening! I needed full waterproofs, thank heavens for Paramo which kept me toasty and dry.

Gear Failure:

My feet got wet. Very wet. My eVent-lined Teva boots had decided it was time to impersonate a sieve, a task they peformed faultlessly.

I shouldn’t complain, although I’d looked after them well, I’d had these boots for some years – and they were second hand when I bought them. A shame really, they were probably the most comfortable boots I’ve ever had.

My route took me over South Head, down by Peep-o-Day, and then north to pick up the Sett Valley Trail which led me straight into New Mills.

A quick cuppa at the car, a change into dry footwear, and I was home in about 35 minutes.

Next day

I drove over to Hayfield to supply Barry with gas and camomile tea bags. They then set off north to spend that night camping just outside Glossop.

I last contacted Barry on 2nd October, they were camping up in Gargrave.

 Barry & Barney in Hayfield - in the sunshine.

My route (ish):

More photos here

 

 

Not Daundering, 23rd–25th April 2018

A naughty backpack from Clapham to Dent

This was all Mike’s idea, me Dawn, Lucky and Chrissie just went along for the ride. And the beer, there may have been beer involved.

Mike, for reasons that will become clear, is henceforth to be referred to as The Kilted Pieman. If I remember, which I probably won’t.

Anyroadup, me and Chrissie (who just happened to be on the same train as me) alighted at Clapham in t’Yorkshire Dales and wandered over to the pub – always a good move.

We were supposed to meet up with Lucky and his Dad plus Dawn at Lancaster station, but train delays and cancellations severely buggered-up their arrangements – hence the pub visit.

The New Inn is a fine establishment that serves, amongst other stuff, TT Landlord. A couple of beers after arriving the pub door flung open and LTD marched purposefully into the bar ahead of his Dad and Dawn and demanded beer with menaces.

It was raining and the latecomers were a tad soggy and damp.

It was still raining, but only a bit, as we left the pub and headed up to our camping spot at Gaping Gill.

Spooky house

A fine set of knees near Clapham Bottoms. Honest.

The area around Gaping Gill was quite murky and much of the ground was nicely adorned with sheep-poo – a clean(ish) pitch was hard to find.

 Murk at Gaping Gill

The weather didn’t encourage outside-of-tent socialising so I stayed in for the evening and read a book (The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe) and listened to the wireless-type radio to catch up on the usual depressing news.

More depression followed when my NeoAir decided it would be a wizard prank to deflate slowly but quite surely. Lovely. I couldn’t find the puncture so ended up kipping on the teensiest bit of 5mm thick (thin?) foam mat. It wasn’t a comfortable night.

Gaping Gill

One dog and his man

Next morning we headed Ribbleheadwards, towards Ribblehead, famous for the Ribblehead Viaduct and a pretty decent pub, more of which later.

A gentle bimble, at daunder pace (not that we were daundering – heaven forbid) to the foot of Ingleborough where it was a bit wet and the breeze was getting up. Dawn & Chrissie, being the sensible sorts they are, bravely volunteered to single-handedly guard The Kilted Pieman’s (see, I remembered) and my rucksacks whilst we ventured forth and upwards to conquer the peak’s lofty, er, peak.

This was a good ascent, we fought the elements and refused to falter – until eventually, exhausted and almost out of oxygen, we got to the top.

I’d like to say how fantastic the fantastic views were, how you could see the snow-covered Southern Uplands of Scotland, how clear Blackpool Tower was, and how we could easily see fellow walkers ascending neighbouring Pen-y-Ghent and Whernside. Except you couldn’t. You couldn’t see a damned thing, such was the thick cloud that enveloped us.

Ho hum.

On top of Ingleborough

We descended to find our rucksacks abandoned in the rain whilst our brave guards sheltered in a tent – hastily erected as a last-ditch defence against marauding Swaledales. Their cunning plan worked, both they and our rucksacks were unharmed.

These girls are clever.

Next stop was the Station Inn at Ribblehead, purveyors of very good beer and magnificent pork pies. We drank the pies and ate the beer, all was well with the world.

Approaching The Station at Ribblehead

After beer and pies we escaped the pub and, in between the rain showers, hurried to get the tents up.

Whinge warning:

Camping here is currently free but for how long I don’t know – there are some campers who don’t treat the area with respect. Broken glass, fires, rubbish left behind etc is all evidence of the irresponsibility of SOME visitors. They obviously don’t get the idea of ‘Leave no trace’. The farmer who owns the land isn’t going to put up with that sort of behaviour for long.

End of whinge.

Back to the pub for more food and even more beer….the food looked generally good although my pie could have been better. The good news was the landlord took my criticism on board and did something about it. I’m happy about that – I’ll certainly eat there again.

Another uncomfortable night followed. The wind and rain got windier and rainier and my NeoAir only held enough air for about 90 minutes of relative comfort before my bum and other bits came in contact with the cold ground. I had spare clothing which I was also lying on but it wasn’t enough.

I repaired the NeoAir when I got home….more later.

It must have been very windy overnight, one of my tentpegs had become dislodged.

The intended 9am start was rescheduled to 11am ‘cos the weather forecast was pretty awful. Poor Chrissie had an attack of the flashing lights and had elected to bale out early – Ribblehead railway station was a very short walk from our camp spot and trains ran fairly regularly to get he back home so it was an easy decision.

Leaving Chrissie behind we wandered alongside the Ribblehead viaduct to walk up to Blea Moor. The promised foul weather didn’t arrive, not in the Dales anyway – although I gather it was pretty grim dahn sarf.

A military-looking tracked vehicle had been spotted going up the hill earlier in the day. As we ascended it came back down to meet us.

Onward, upwards and over Blea Moor, we were planning on the hoof. We’d pretty well decided that we’d just make our way to Dent by the prettiest way possible – that included a lovely Mossy Bottom picnic spot by the railway line and a wander down a section of the Dales Way.

It would have been nice to stop for a beer….

…but the pub was shut

The weather remained fine as we trundled down the road to Dent, only to find that we’d just missed a train. Being as wot the sun was sort of shining we found a nice little spot on the banks of the River Dee (no, not THAT River Dee) where we just chilled. In fact we chilled so much that we needed to wrap up, the sun may have been shing but the breeze wasn’t so warm.

A lot of contour lines were crossed in rapid succession as we wandered up to Dent Station, where, incidently, it was bloody freezing.

A wall heater in the waiting room did the neccesary, as long as you didn’t sit on it. The heater that is, not the waiting room.

Then we all went home via Leeds.

It was good, very laid back and a lot of fun. I don’t know how far we walked but it wasn’t too far – it didn’t need to be.

Thanks to Lucky for inviting me along and to Mike, Chrissie and Dawn for putting up with me.

One last thing….for Alan, ‘cos he likes this sort of thing:

 So that was it. A great little trip that definitely wasn’t a Daunder.

What actually happened can be read:

Chrissie’s blog

The Kilted Pieman’s blog

Dawn’s blog

More pics

Oh, and another last thing: the punctured NeoAir.

It was pure coincidence that last week, my mate John B from Bramhall, who’s currently walking LeJoG, phoned me with a SitRep and to report a similarly punctured NeoAir and consequent cold bum.

He tried to repair it with the repair kit supplied by Thermarest but it just didn’t do the job. He ended up using E6000 glue. Two applications were used: the first one to actually seal the puncture, the second as a reinforcement.

That was over two weeks ago and the repair has held, certainly up to a couple of days ago.

I didn’t have any E6000 to hand but I nipped over to Go Outdoors and bought a tune of SeamGrip

This stuff is recommended for all sorts of repairs – including puncturedsleeping mats.

Two layers of the stuff on my NeoAir seems to have done the trick – although I’ll be carrying the tube of SeamGrip with me on the Challenge – just in case.