Captain's Log

Storm Eowyn

Storm Eowyn visited the British Isles yesterday and left a trail of destruction in its wake. This became apparent in my garden this morning as I pulled my four dustbins upright and then spent 10 minutes collecting their scattered contents to refill them again. Due to the exceptional conditions, they’d closed the Woodhead Pass yesterday and I was wondering if anybody had remembered to open the gate across the road as I approached it. Fortunately it was open and I motored up to the top of the pass. It was then that I realised I’d forgotten my phone. Bugger! It wasn’t particularly that I needed it for route finding, since the path today would be reasonably obvious. My annoyance was more to do with my phone map having the precise locations of three aircraft wrecks that I wanted to visit as part of my Dark Peak Aircraft Crash Site Venture. Without accurate location information, I knew from my past experience that I would probably have trouble finding them. I couldn’t be bothered to turn back to retrieve my phone; the wrecks would just have to be ticked on another walk. 

It was still pitch black as I turned off into the village of Hayfield. Within the cramped collection of houses, I always seem to have trouble locating the turn-off to the carpark near to the Kinder Reservoir and today was no exception. The streets are so narrow and with the resident’s parked cars overlapping onto the road, you wonder whether there might come a time when the car industry’s quest for larger cars might make these streets impassable. Eventually, I found the correct turnoff (there is a picnic sign pointing out the direction) and made my way along Kinder Road to the carpark. It was only 07:00 and I joined the half dozen other cars enjoying the free roadside parking. When I’d return later in the day, there wouldn’t be a spare parking space between here and the village. Hayfield is a popular starting point for walks. 

Assault On The Senses

It was still dark as I set off towards Kinder Reservoir and so I had my head torch lit. It was also very cold and icy. My car’s thermometer couldn’t make its mind up between 0°C and 1°C on my journey to Hayfield. By the time I reached the dam at the Kinder Reservoir the sky was beginning to lighten and silhouettes of the surrounding hills started to appear. It was still quite dark, but I decided to switch my head torch off. Ten yards of walking later, I was overwhelmed by a stench so awful that I almost gagged. I switched my head torch on but couldn’t see any signs of foulage on the path or my boots. Maybe it was just me, I wondered. I poked my nose inside my jacket, but couldn’t smell anything too offensive. Another ten yards of walking I was back into fresh air again. It looked like the source of the stench would remain a mystery. After the zig to Kinder Reservoir, I zagged back up the hillside on to Middle Moor. Today’s walk would take me over the moors to Mill Hill on the Pennine Way. I’d then do an out-and-back from there to the curiously named Harry Hut. After the return to Mill Hill, I’d climb up to the Kinder Scout plateau and walk along its western side until dropping back down to Hayfield. The sun still wasn’t up, but it looked as though it was going to be a lovely day. 

The Knott And Mill Hill

The ground was very icy and the tracks were covered with light snow. This had the advantage that the boggy sections were very easy to walk on, but the disadvantage that they were easy to slip on too. Given the choice, I’d opt for the ice over bog. I followed the Glossop bridleway and then turned right on to a rough track towards a small peak called The Knott. The track missed the summit on its south side and I debated whether it was worth making my way to the top, since it doesn’t appear on my Explorer Venture list. It didn’t look that high though and so I decided to go for it. There wasn’t a track up to it and it was hard going through the thick heather. It was also a bit higher than it looked. I eventually got to its summit though, just as the sun poked its head above the southern end of Kinder’s western edge. Perfect timing. It was quite a good view from here. Apart from Kinder’s ramparts there was a fine view south to shapely Mount Famine and South Head, Over to the west was Lantern Pike and Cown Edge. These were all Ethels that would need to be ticked if you wanted to complete that particular Ethels Venture. With The Knott being such a prominent peak I thought there might be a track linking its summit along  the broad ridge up to Mill Hill. There wasn’t one. I heather waded back down to the track I’d originally been on in order to make my progress eastwards easier. The track had been created to transport recruits of the Tweed Trouser Brigade up to some bunkers situated alongside and at the end of the track. Once the bunkers ran out, a boggy path (not shown on the OS map) carried me up and across the moors to the top of Mill Hill. I had the summit to myself, although half a mile away I could see three walkers making their way along the Pennine Way slabs from the Snake Road. Over to the west I could see a white dot on the hillside that I figured would be the trig on Harry Hut. I set off for an out-and-back in that direction. 

Harry Hut

I remembered that the wreckage of Liberator B-24J 42-52003 was somewhere west of the summit of Mill Hill, but I couldn’t find it. I kicked myself again for forgetting my phone. The path had been slabbed, but these were actually more of a  hazard than a help given the icy conditions. The ground on either side of the slabs was frozen and so walking was still easy. It is a 100 metre drop between Mill Hill and Harry Hut and you may want to consider whether it is really worth doing this out-and-back. I’d never been to Harry Hut though, but its name had often caught my eye on the OS map and so I was curious to investigate its top. The path dropped down to a col between the two hills where there was a fork, with the left branch heading to  Burnt Hill and the right one to Harry Hill. In fact the right path turned into a quagmire of paths up to the top of Harry's summit. Choosing this route on a wet day would have been a rather boggy experience, but today’s iced ground had provided an ideal walking surface. I soon made my way to the trig on the summit of the hill and was disappointed to find that Harry wasn’t there and there wasn't a hut either. I plonked myself down on a rock for a break and a cup of coffee. As I sipped, I watched rain clouds make their way along the M67 from Manchester. At Tintwhistle they appeared to halt as if they were pondering which way to go. Thankfully they decided to go over the Woodhead Pass, rather than head southwards to me. It was a lucky miss. I was about to pack my things together when another walker approached the summit along the path from Glossop. When he was close enough I took a breath to ask him if he knew who Harry was, but within 10 yards of the trig, he turned promptly around and headed back down towards Glossop. It can't have been anything I said, since I didn't have chance to say it. There’s nowt as queer as folk. 

I still couldn’t find the Liberator wreckage on my return to Mill Hill although I did find a plaque dedicated  to 70 year old Mountain Rescuer Ken Blakeman who died at the location on his way to the rescue of somebody else. It is a curious memorial in that it is so low down that you have to get down onto your hands and knees to read it. 

Kinder Scout

A large group of young adults followed me up the steep path to the top of the Kinder Scout plateau. The males in the group felt the evolutionary need to race each other to the top presumably in order to impress the females who lagged behind. I joined the winners and a strong, cold breeze at the top. There were plenty of other people around too; the great weather had coaxed many walkers out onto the moors. I started walking along the western side of the plateau. The ice made the rocks on the path quite treacherous in places. I could look down to my right and see Kinder Reservoir now. I'd certainly gained some height since starting this morning. I made my way gingerly along the path towards Kinder Downfall. As I approached its clough I could see that water had fallen over steep rocks on its sides and formed ice. I was quite surprised when I got to the stream leading to the downfall and found a fair bit of water running down it. In fact, I don’t think I’d ever seen more water tumbling down that stream.  As might be expected on such a glorious day, it was crowded around this spot, but it was out of the wind and so I found a place to hunker down and have my lunch. 

After the break, I crossed the stream and continued along the path hugging the western edge of the plateau. As I did this, I heard some loud pop music behind me. Somebody was actually walking with a ghetto blaster and its volume switched to 11,  on the other side of the Kinder downfall. ‘Seems we have a mobile disco over there’ I said to another couple who had also stopped to wonder at this intrusion. ‘They’ve obviously never heard of headphones’ answered the woman. 

I had originally intended walking along the edge of the plateau to visit the aircraft wrecks of Hampden AE381 and Miles Hawk G-AJSF, but given that I’d forgotten my phone, and with it the locations of the wrecks,  I decided to investigate an alternative route via Cluther Rocks. I’d not walked over this area before and I was interested to see what it was like. At Red Brook I left the western plateau edge path and started heading down towards this collection of rocks.

Return

It was a reasonable track with good views down towards Kinder Reservoir. It felt quite a relief to leave behind the masses walking along the top. Cluther Rocks were a jumble of large rocks and the track meandered through them. I met a woman ascending the track with a baby in a carrier on her back. I silently wished her luck with the icy paths and cold winds on the top. The track took me across an intake field and down to a stream, which I crossed and then joined a farm track. As I’d made my descent from Cluther Rocks, I’d watched a series of fell runners make their way down to this particular point from my right. Looking at my map I figured they’d chosen a marked track on the OS map that had gone around the edge of Kinder Reservoir. I’d then seen them disappear along this farm track and so I presumed it was going to be an easy way back to the carpark. I couldn’t have been more wrong! It turned out to be the muddiest and wettest stretch of footpath that I’ve encountered for quite a while. My boots and gaiters that had remained pristine all day were soon clotted with thick, glutinous mud. I tried walking in the open field at the side of the farm track, but it was just as bad. It was only for about a kilometre, but it wasn’t a pleasant experience. It was so wet, I doubted whether it would be dry even in the height of summer and consequently it has rather put me off this route to Kinder. There was a bridleway (from Broad Clough) that joined up with the farm track further along and this would have avoided the worst of the mud. Maybe that would be worth a try as an alternative on a future walk. The other option would have been to have taken the approach path around Kinder Reservoir used by the fell runners, although this seemed quite a long detour to avoid a kilometre of mud. A couple of mud spattered mountain bikers scooted past me as I joined tarmac at the end of the farm track. They seemed to enjoy the experience. I washed my boots, gaiters  and trekking poles in a deep hole in the road back to the carpark; at least potholes can provide some useful purpose. On the drive back along the Kinder Road to Hayfield I was at the rear of a convoy of cars that met a massive tractor coming the other way. I managed to reverse around 100 metres and squeeze into a space at the side of the road. The tractor's wheels seemed so close I instinctively moved my body to the passenger side of the car. Hayfield really needs a bypass to Kinder Reservoir. 

It had been a cracking walk today even though I didn’t get to tick a sizeable number of aircraft wreckage sites. After many decades I’d finally made my way to Harry Hut and enjoyed the experience even though it didn’t have a hut and nobody knows why it is called Harry. Kinder Scout was busy but offered exceptional views. The descent from the plateau via Cluther Rocks was interesting and pretty although the muddy farm track back to Hayfield put a damper on things in more sense than one.