Yes, ten Slow Warts set off from Birchen Clough, thankfully, one of the few parking places on the Snake Road, and following his now regular pattern, Jim went his own way to explore the fast-disappearing Snake Plantations on the opposite steep forest hillside. In fact, we were all faced with the currently active removal of timber from this site. Instead of the sound of a wild roaring wind (admittedly though, it was a calm day), the combined sound of sawing, falling trees, stripping bark and diesel engines was our introduction to the Ashop valley.
We bravely persevered up the valley and despite our ambition to maintain dry feet, like last week’s outing, we were faced with the Ashop river crossing. Some didn’t and some did keep their feet dry though it required delicate balance and foot work. As it turned out later, the plans of the Moors For the Future (MFF) had been successful in wetting the Kinder plateau, so it was inevitable we wouldn’t be successful over the plateau.
As a warm up for our later climb up Fairbrook Naze, we practiced on the steep rocky, heathery nose out of the river to the relatively flat appropriately named Rough Bank under the rather forbidding looking Naze, now covered with a cap of mist. The youngish Slow Warts, including two under 60’s, pulled away leaving two groups of three to eventually catch up at the Naze. Three of the nine thought better of continuing with the rest of us and were left in the company of Pete. So, the rain and the mist did not deter the remaining six on our Kinder crossing to the Downfall. We were fortunate in finding good easy-going ground on faint tracks meandering between lumpy vegetated outcrops. Our progress was impressive, until we found ourselves back on the northern edge path which we had left at the Naze. A quick reorientation was needed to compensate for our drift to the right (approximately northwards) instead of westerly with a touch of south.
This correction took us across some of the MFF dipwell sites (for water table measurements), including the control site of untreated and bare peat which was a pleasure to run on. I’m sorry, but that was an environmentally unfriendly comment to make but nevertheless true! Continuing, on treated vegetated ground, the cloud lifted (or we lost height) to be faced with an almost biblical scene of sunshine and swirling mist and……..Manchester. More importantly, Kinder Gates and Kinder River were now in sight so we scampered to the Downfall where disappointingly there was no waterfall blow back, probably because there was not enough wind and water.
Despite our (mis) wanderings from Fairbrook Naze, we risked setting off from the Downfall on the western edge path (a description which elevates it from a series of trip hazard rocks) in our search for the twin trig pillars. Fortunately, we left this “path” for the softer pathless moor towards the fence which led to the twin trigs. I find the sight of a grey and uncared-for prostrate pillar and an erect one standing on its substantial and exposed foundation showing how much of the exposed peat has been eroded away, a bit dismal.
The mood lifted however, as we reached the northern edge path where previous possible sightings of the threesome (two and one of them) were confirmed in the Ashop valley. Whether they were going to the “first” spring we weren’t sure but we were, and this involved a steep descent off the edge and down to the faint track to the “first” spring. The six of us then became three, two and one and later to two, two, one and one. There were various routes taken through the wood, the high level, the intermediate line and by the river. We all had the benefit of the industrial logging sights and sounds and the later ones of us, including the Cap’n, had the further pleasure of being photographed by the site security monitoring cameras.
The 2 hours 40 minutes outing had been wonderful though the logging work took the edge off our enjoyment. Spirits we restored at the YBI and we were reminded that summer is receding as we drove back from the pub in the dark. The winter season cometh, charge up your head torches!
Thanks to all.
Graham
