thousandmilesblog | Walk Post 033 - Sundaes on Wednesday in Greenfield

Date of Walk: 02/06/10
Walk organized by: Manchester and High Peak Area Ramblers
Start time: 10:50
Start location: Greenfield Station
Walk length: 8.47 miles
Weather conditions: Misty at first, sunny, hot and dry later

Dove Stone Reservoir from south side

Details:
I looked out of the window on Wednesday morning and saw wet ground, light drizzle and horizon-to-horizon cloud. This made me happy. Then I checked the weather forecast, which insisted that it was sunny then and would be even more sunny and hot later. Cautiously optimistic, I decided to take sun cream, layers and waterproofs and leave my hat at home in case it got rained on. For about the first half hour of the walk I was stopping every five minutes to shed layers, and really wishing I had that hat. Another 'glorious' summer day then.

I missed bits with the sun cream. I hate it when that happens.

At least we were in one of my favourite places in the world. I've been on so many walks starting from that point, but the first and next-to-last parts of the walk covered paths I'd never been on. It's good to find new bits. From the station we joined the canal towpath north for a short while, then turned east along a footpath and some roads, joining a path up Pots and Pans. We didn't go all the way up, on reaching a bit I recognised we turned east and joined the Oldham Way around Alderman's Hill to Holmfirth Road. There was a little lost lamb on the road, and we waved it into what was hopefully the right field to be back with its mum before crossing the road to reach the car park and continuing down to join the path alongside Dove Stone. We walked up to the dam at the north side and along the path across it, continuing to reach the weir. We then turned up the path alongside the weir, and I felt both smug and annoyed remembering the ranger who insisted that path didn't go anywhere and wasn't the path that it actually was. We stopped for lunch next to the bridge, then crossed it and took the path that runs along the hill about halfway up it, doing a lot of scrambling over the many big rocks lying around. We passed the bit where the falcons are nesting, but couldn't really see anything of them from where we were.

The path we were on rejoins the main path around Dove Stone, but after a short while we headed back up the hill onto a path that joins the Oldham Way along Chew Road. It was getting very hot at this point, and I could see Chew Road rising in front, seemingly without end, so I was quite glad that we stuck with the Oldham Way when it left the road and turned back down the hill. We continued through woodland, lovely shaded woodland, onto Intake Lane. We stayed on this road longer than I had expected to, by which time my legs decided the walk should have finished and began to object to continued movement. Or maybe they sensed that this was about the point I completed my 500th mile (I wasn't really counting at the time). We carried on along the Oldham Way until we neared the Pennine Bridleway, at which point we went onto that back into Greenfield and back towards the station. Bit of an unexpected loop at the end, which was horribly hot and sticky, but still interesting.

Walking in Greenfield is always good though. The views were fantastic, as usual, and some of them were from new angles I'll have to revisit at some point.

I had been worried about keeping up, after the last time I walked with that group, but I reasoned that it was Greenfield and I'd know where I was well enough to give up and go home if it got too much at any point. It was a struggle with the heat, but it wasn't as bad as I'd feared. There was also ice cream at the end. This should happen at the end of more walks.