Peak District - Castleton and Kinder Scout - Loop Walk

I've just got back from another great walk in the Peak District, once again I recorded it using ViewRanger and Social Hiking. I'm getting rather addicted to using the Social Hiking website as you may have noticed if you were following our progress along the West Highland Way, while i'm on the subject here is a quick link for you to view our WHW Map for 2011. Right, back to today's walk. I met up with Andy at Castleton at 10:00, we got kitted up and then headed off along the road past Odin Mine and up towards Hollins Cross.

The weather was rather overcast today but I don't mind that as I'd seen the forecast earlier in the week which promised rain. After we arrived at Hollins Cross we headed back down the other side of the hill in to Edale, past the Nag's Head Inn and then up Grindsbrook Clough on to the top of Kinder Scout, we proceeded across the top to the cairn at Kinder Low.

From Kinder Low we headed down to Edale Cross and then over to Brown Knoll, It was rather boggy on this section as we have had rain recently. Great views across to Manchester and also down in to Edale Valley.

After Brown Knoll we headed across to Lord's Seat, down to Mam Tor and then back down the broken road to join the normal route back in to Castelton. We had parked the cars just up from the Devil's Arse Caves so we dropped our bags and headed in to Castleton for a quick drink.

I was using ViewRanger and I had it set to post a Beacon to Social Hiking every 2 minutes. The map at the top of this post has some great detail because of this. if you visit the routes page on the SH website you will be able to view all the details about our elevation and distance covered. here is the link to Castleton and Kinder Scout Loop on Social Hiking. Overall the route was 24km and we had approx 756m of height gain over the 5 hours we were out for.

Peak District - Edale Loop

Lake District - Geocaching - Welcome to Wasdale!

Here is a quick video I've put together while we were out Geocaching in the Lake District. The Geocache I go off to find in the movie is Welcome to Wasdale! http://bit.ly/hXRk2b

Lake District - Geocaching & Wasdale Head Inn

Peak District - Kinder Scout - Wild Camping

Wild Camping in the Peak District is something I haven't done for a while, I suppose as its so close to home its easy enough to cover lots of distance on a day walk and still be home in time for tea. I've walked up Kinder Scout more times than I can remember but decided to go for a wander and see where I ended up. I started by getting the train from Chesterfield via Sheffield to Edale, something i've never done before so enjoyed the novelty of it.

The first part of my journey took me up the never boring Grindsbrook Clough, a nice little scramble in summer or winter. Its here where I decided to have my first stop and have a quick go at some slow exposure water movement style photography, that is my technical term so is undoubtedly wrong.

The image below will give you an idea of what the upper part of Grindsbrook Clough looks like if you haven't been, it was rather misty but you get the general idea. a bit of a boulder field and allot stepper in person than it looks in the picture.

Next I pushed on along westward along the southern edge of the Kinder Plateau, It gets rather boggy at times and I had very low visibilty today. Luckily I always go prepared so had my map, compass & gps, even though I've been here many times before I never risk it as the path goes to nothing at times amidst the bog.

I stopped for lunch at the trig point at Kinder Low and took a few photos, they haven't made it onto the sight as i've probably taken the same view more times than regular viewers of my site could stand. I headed off north along the western edge towards Kinder Downfall, it was rather still there today with just a small amount of water trickling over the edge down towards Kinder Reservoir. I pushed on and it didn't take long before you reach the north western edge of Kinder. It was then that I swung east along the northern edge, an edge that is less wandered by others and have only been along a couple of times myself. The path is non existent at times and your met with knee deep bog but the plus side is you have an edge to follow.

I managed to get as far as I had planned to get today which was the eastern tip of the Kinder Plateau, It had gone dark by the time I had got there and had walked with the head torch for around half an hour before. The long days walk through the bog had taken it out of me whilst carrying my kit, I was certainly ready to pitch up and have a break for a while. I'd had no mobile signal all afternoon but luckily it re-emerged as I got to the edge so could update Lisa of my location.


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Kinder Scout - Magic Mountain

This is a video tribute i've put together to show you the best of Kinder Scout. I've used footage and pictures from all seasons that i've taken over the last decade. Kinder is a fantastic place to be no matter what the weather. I love it come Rain or Shine.

Kinder Scout is a Mountain in the Peak District and it is packed full of interesting spots. From Kinder Downfall, Sabre Jet Crash Sites and Charger Rock that is tied to George King founder of the Aetherius Society. Click here to see more of my Kinder Scout Adventures

Kinder Scout - Jacob's Ladder & Grindsbrook Clough

I went for another walk up Kinder Scout today, thankfully its beginning to become a regular occurrence again. I decided to differ from my regular route from Hayfield and revisit and old route Stevo and I used to take. The route begins in Edale and head west along the slopes of Kinder then down to Upper Booth, next point of call is Jacob's Ladder which is the only major accent and it leads you up on to the plateau.

I took the image above at the bottom of Jacob's Ladder, The River Noe gains pace here and flows down the valley back towards Upper Booth.

From the top of Jacob's Ladder you swing back east all the way to Grindsbrook, on the way there you cross Crowden Brook and lots of other interesting spots. The image below was taken a few minutes scramble down Grindsbrook Clough.

It was nice to do this walk again and see all the changes that have been made on this side of Kinder. The last time I came across this side was in winter when I Scrambled up Grindsbrook Clough in snowy conditions. There have been allot more "improvements" made to the path above Jacob's Ladder and I spotted a Helicopter lifting materials for the planned flood prevention scheme.