Thursday 19th March (with Pete)
Our weather forecasts are becoming surprisingly accurate. I think the Met Office recently invested in some expensive computer stuff. Rain was predicted up to 11:00 am and it stopped precisely at that hour as we pulled into a lay-by to start our Thursday walk, and again, as forecast, sunshine prevailed for the duration.
A pleasant walk on roads near Crosthwaite:
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Pete thinks I have disappeared |
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Unusual waterfall |
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One for Alan R. This appeared to be in current use
- stripped down for racing?
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The first snow of the year arrived. I motored to south Lancashire for two Marilyns near Rawtenstall. That area features old mills, and much industrial heritage going back to the 18th century nestling in valleys and surrounded by upland, moorland hills scattered with old tracks and quarry workings.
Hailstorm Hill gave me some hard going over snow covered reeds, tussocks and heather until I got onto tracks, but these were also tricky with ice and snow, and I had a few slapstick moments teetering and gyrating with walking poles flying through the air, but fortunately I avoided hitting the deck. The summit was unidentifiable on a mile long, half mile wide stretch of desolate moorland half a mile from any of the tracks. I managed to get the GPS over the spot height shown on the map, took a quick photo and retreated.
A quick drive took me to Shawforth on the A671 from where I ascended Freeholds Top on tracks and paths with a final trek across pathless moorland again with a good covering of snow.
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My route went up the side of the snow covered reservoir onto the hills
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The featureless summit of Hailstorm Hill
Summit of Freeholds Top - motorcyclists approaching in second photo
I have had a bad time here with Blogger. The photos took on a life of their own and refused to go where I wanted them and then, if I wanted to add captions they just diasppeared, The above is the best I can do, so I'm leaving well alone.
NOW I SEE ALL MY TEXT IS CHOPPED OFF AT RIGHT EDGE - HAVE GOOGLED - OTHERS WITH SAME PROBLEM NO SOLUTION UNLESS GOOGLE DECIDE TO FIX IT - SORRY FOLKS.
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Fortunately your text appeared just fine via Feedly, even though I see it as chopped off when I view your blog itself.
ReplyDeleteI seem to recall wintery conditions when we went up these two hills too. In particular, we had to walk through a construction site to get to Freeholds Top, during which time a flurry of such vigour came through that I did question our sanity.
It's always wintery around there. I find that there's some surprisingly hard walking in South Lancashire, not because of gradients but the often rough terrain.
ReplyDeleteI also use Feedly. The text is fine although the images are justified Left. No problem on the blog itself.
I'm using a Hudl2 Android tablet.
Gayle and JJ - I've looked at Freedly website and don't really understand what it's all about. Can you give me a brief rundown on how it works and what options I would need to go for?
ReplyDeleteIts a pleasant area that and some steep bits can be found, especially on the Clivager side. I could have met you for this little jaunt.
ReplyDeleteNice tractor collection too.
I notice on the group pic an old JCB backhoe, a Ford and an old MF industrial job.
I'm sure Gayle's the best person to ask, she knows about these things, but...
ReplyDeleteFeedly is a reader: it offers a means of keeping all the blogs that you like to follow in one place. It updates itself, when you visit the site it will display the recent unread updates of all the sites that you follow.
Clear as mud eh?