Saturday, 8 September 2018

Pennine Bridleway

Birkwith → Garsdale Head

pab-jsb.jpg Distance: 16.10 miles
Ascent: 645 metres
Duration: 5 hours 6 minutes

The Three Peaks
« Not walked | Not walked »

The summer is officially over, but the hardy are trying to eke out as much as they can of its remaining moments. That's why I'm up in Yorkshire once more, keen to spend the next two days finishing off the Pennine Bridleway. For the first time on this National Trail I'm not alone. Jez has joined me for the weekend and the last twenty-five miles.

three-peakers.jpgFinding somewhere to park in Horton-in-Ribblesdale this morning was far from simple, and that fact was not entirely unrelated to the twenty or so people we came across just forty-five minutes into our walk. Horton is the natural place to start the Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge, and the dozens of energetic twentysomethings we saw at High Birkwith had parked up and set out for Pen-y-Ghent probably before we'd even had breakfast.

It wasn't a good day to climb those hills. None of the three were really visible through the low cloud, and we were glad to be generally contouring round the edges of the valleys rather than aiming for the tops.

calf-holes.jpgFor a while we joined the Pennine Way, but soon the Way and Bridleway diverged at their most northerly meeting point on the Roman Cam High Road.

It's such a shame the weather was so poor. There ought to be so much more to report about this walk, such as the magnificent Settle to Carlisle railway line snaking its way along the valley, diving into tunnels and thrusting out across viaducts between tortuously steep gradients. We did see the line through a couple of gaps in the cloud, but a strike today meant that no trains were running; the line was silent.

dent-viaduct.jpgTonight we're staying at an isolated inn on a high pass between three dales. We arrived tired and soaking wet, but it's the sort of place where guests are expected to be disheveled. Of course within half an hour of our arrival the rain stopped and the sky began to clear. Perhaps that bodes well for tomorrow.

Posted by pab at 20:27 | Comments will be back one day. Please email me instead!