Ok, so this is a report of a day trip to Kinder Scout last week. A day of sun and cloud and sun and cloud and.....
My apologies as I suspect this is too long and there are too many pictures, but me and picture taking is the same as monkeys and typewriters - they thought that given enough monkeys and typewriters Shakespeare could be recreated, I think the more pictures I take the greater chance of getting a good one so I have laods.
I use a SatMap GPS and the battery is normally well over half full having been on all day but without the screen having been used that much. SatMap's digital mapping programme allows a photo to be taken of the PC screen and below is a picture of the downloaded trail from the day.
I started in Edale and the route was Grindsbrook Clough, path of the Grinds Brook to Wove Hill, across the Kinder Plateau to Seal Edge, around the north side of the plateau, back across the plateau to Kinder Downfall and than back to Edale on the Pennine Way about 12 miles in all.
First view of the Kinder Plateau (or more correctly Edale Moor) from near the Fieldhead Information Centre
Grindsbrook Clough starts off very sedately:
But soon gets a bit tougher
In 2011 the National Trust announced that it was to put a fence around Kinder Scout to prevent damage by sheep grazing and work on this is now well underway. There are frequent gates or stiles so it doesn't present that much of a problem to walkers.
The most commonly used route to the plateau is straight up Grindsbrook Clough but I diverted near the top to follow the path of the Grinds Brook which is protected on either side by rocks known as the Grindsbrook Towers
I don't know whether this route counts as real scrambling but I certainly had to use my hands to pull up over seriously high rocks. The problem with walking on my own is that there often isn't any one in my pictures to give a bit a scale but the rocks below were about 8 feet high.
My only problem was that I'm sure I've read somewehere that in a random structure like this there is one piece ( the king pin) which holds it all together, so what if I dislodged it and brought the whole lot down!
Met some people at the top who sorted of wondered why I didn't use footpaths?
There's a good view from this height ( 590m)
So I'm now on Edale Moor and following the path of the Grinds Brook
First thing I came across was the site of a shooting cabin known as '4 Jacks Cabin'
Apparently the original cabin fell into disrepair but was still needed for shooting and the four people sent to repair it were all called Jack, hence 4 Jacks Cabin.
Then on to Wove Hill. Actually Wove Hill isn't much of a hill at all. The little tiny bump on the horizon only about 10 - 20m higher than the surrounding land.
Near the summit of Wove Hill is the remains of a Dragon Rapide plane which crashed on 30th December 1963.
The story is that the plane had been carrying out a photographic survey and got caught in down draught. All those on-board survived.
One good thing about Wove Hill is that navigation is fairly easy - you can still see where you've come from -
Solitary lunch, not a single person around, and then off to Seal Edge. Two things to note:
1) I found a compass on some rocks near Seal Edge - if it's yours let me know and I'll send it to you.
2) Those who haven't been on to Kinder/Edale Moor this year will remeber it as very brown
But thanks to the work of the Moors for the Future Partnership, aided a little I guess by the rain, it's all going green as the seeded grass regenerates.
My only problem was that the grass appears very vulnerable as it's effectively in mud so rightly or wrongly I chose to go round it rather than through it and uproot it which took an age!
Heading West now along the path on 'The Edge'.
Below - towards Black Ashop Moor and the River Ashop
At Upper Red Brook (actually all the brooks are red because of the peat so why some have 'red' in their name I really don't know)
I turned in land and headed for the 624 Trig point where again the regeneration of grass is going a pace.
The new fence now stands between me and the Pennine Way back to Edale. Interesting point- all the gates and stiles have a number and a grid reference on them-
Now, on the Pennine Way back to Edale, first stop Kinder Downfall - unfortunately not much of a downfall this time of year despite all the rain.
Kinder Reservoir and Mermaid's Pool below, Mermaids Pool where apparently if you go and sit on the bank every Easter Sunday and a mermaid appears you get everlasting life!
Next main stop is Kinder Low and the 633 Trig Point -
Now on to Jacob's Ladder and back to Edale.
I hope this is of interest.