Archive for November, 2022

Yorkshire Dales – Autumn 2022

Wednesday, November 30th, 2022

The club headed to the Yorkshire Rambler’s club Lowstern Hut, just outside Clapham village in the Yorkshire dales for the November meet, and thanks to Louise for coordinating this one. A decent turnout with people bringing kit for whatever the weather allowed, including climbers, mountain bikers, fell runners and hillwalkers. Friday evening was the usual chatter of catching up with people, and planning the next day’s activities. 

Mike and Louise head towards Pen-y-ghent.

Saturday started as a beautiful autumn morning as we set off. Simon and Carmen headed out for a big walk over Ingleborough, then east over the limestone pavements before heading south and back to the hut through the Dales farmland. Peter, Louise and Mike ran the 3 peaks from the hut, picking up the route north of Clapham beck and clocking almost 33 miles by the time they returned 8 hours later. On the way up towards Whernside from RIbblehead they bumped into Donal, Ann and Peter who were pushing their mountain bikes up the bridleway before enjoying a cracking descent down into Dent dale and returning via Kingsdale. The rest of the group (Jayne, Marianna, Becky, Simeon and Dave) hiked Whernside and Ingleborough, finishing with pub stop at Ribblehead. Karl pottered in the valley, and stocked up with firewood for the evening.  

Dales MTB'ing

Dinner was as usual tasty and filling. Karl cooked a delicious spicy lentil soup, this was followed by Louise’s veggie chilli and Marianna’s italian cake finished the meal off. The rest of the evening was spent resting weary legs by the fire and enjoying a wee dram. 

Sunday started brightly, the majority of the group setting out for a walk over to Horton in Ribblesdale, then after lunch following the ribble way south by the river Ribble. Arriving at Helwith bridge the heavens opened, and the rest of the 15 mile hike became a bit of a March back in cold, wet conditions. 

A decent morning for walking before the deluge.

Simon, Carmen and Ann had headed west for a walk in the forest of Bowland, which by all accounts was a similar weather pattern to that closer to Clapham. Peri also got caught on her walk, keeping it local to Clapham and carrying out a bit of a ‘fungi foray’ on the way with  plenty of Autumn mushrooms to discover. All arrived back mid afternoon to warm up, finish the left-overs, clear up the hut and head home to dry our kit out. Another great weekend despite the Sunday afternoon showers. 

A soggy weekend camping in Eskdale

Wednesday, November 30th, 2022

Dave was organising this one and had booked us some pitches at the Fisherground campsite in Eskdale, Lake District.  The weather forecast wasn’t looking brilliant but that didn’t put off a small select bunch from heading away for a weekend adventure in mid July.

Simon, Carmen and Dave were sorted and heading to the pub when the second car arrived, and tents were hurriedly put up trying to beat the rain which was on its way. Unfortunately the rain arrived quickly, so the waterproofs were on and dinner cooked and hurredly eaten. We then headed to the pub to join the others, warm up and plan the next day, which was ‘on paper’ the better weather although there was some talk of forecasts having changed.   

Saturday started bright and promising, so keen to make the most of it, Peter, Aoife, Marianna, Andrew, Russ and Becky headed off to hike up Scafell Pike from the East side, parking just up Eskdale at Wha House. The path up to the ‘Great Moss’ was quiet and it felt good to be exploring a new part of the Lakes we hadn’t visited before.

Heading towards Scafell Pike, enjoying some quiet Lakeland paths

Beginning to gain height up the path by Cam Spout it was clear the weather was closing in, and by the time we reached the mountain rescue box definitely time for waterproofs, hats and gloves. We then joined the busy tourist path (overdressed compared to most!) to the summit, stopping for a quick photo before dropping down towards Broad crag to try and get out of the cold wind.

Not a day for hanging around on the top of England!

A unanimous decision to drop straight back down again was followed by a bit of searching for the correct path in the cloud to avoid some craggy ground. Then a straightforward march back the way we came, all cold, wet and thinking of the pub dinner that evening.

It's a rare day in the lakes when even the sheep look miserable!

Simon and Carmen meanwhile had headed west towards the coast, and managed to avoid the weather and enjoy some sunshine with a long circular walk over muncaster fell and back along the Esk valley. 

The campsite drying room was definitely getting good use that evening and after a welcome warm shower we headed to the pub to compare notes from the day. 

Sunday was brighter so after packing up camp, Peter, Aoife, Dave and Marianna headed to Ravenglass and took the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway (La’al Ratty) back up to the end of the line at Dalegarth Station.

One for the steamtrain fans

Picking up ice creams from the station before beginning a pleasant walk back to Ravenglass, over Muncaster fell and stopping for lunch at Muncaster tarn which had some great waterlillies in flower. The afternoon took us through the grounds of muncaster castle and bird of prey centre (and more ice cream!) before checking out the roman bath house ruins on the outskirts of Ravenglass. Simon and Carmen also had a great day, tackling a ’Maprun’ orienteering course near Staveley. 

Water Lilies at Muncaster Tarn

A summer evening wander

Wednesday, November 30th, 2022

A good weather forecast led to a decent turnout for a weekday (Aug 10th 2022) walk from Bramham, organised by Ann. After a quick look in the Church we continued out of the village following some of the lanes between the fields. A varied walk followed taking in some woodland, footpaths and stopping for a bite to eat by a stream. We got a great view of a combine harvester taking the summer wheat harvest in, and finished with a pint in the sunshine at the village pub, a perfect summer evening!