Sunday 14th November 2021
Monubent Head SD 803 512 183m
High Ground SD 876 550 221m
Flambers Hill SD 877 522 219m
Ok, this was a pleasant enough day out with another roadside trig and then a 7 mile walk with 935 feet of ascent to mop up the other two.
Monubent Head involved a minor trespass. There was a gate from the road into the field. The trig was nestled into the hedge and I reckon I could have touched it from the road anyway. It was so well concealed I thought it had been removed until I was right on it.
It was obvious that we are now back into the Mud Season. Eighty percent of this walk was on squelchy cattle trodden fields and I rate it only five out of ten. Views were poor in dim light and low cloud on higher distant hills. There were several places where the path was obstructed. At least two gates were chained with a nut and bolt link so rusted as to be un-openable and I had to climb over. At another point two gates a couple of feet apart were locked and I had to climb one, descend in between then climb the other. At another point the path crossed a wall which had obviously been damaged by others climbing over in defiance at a non existent stile, despite GPS saying this was the exact crossing point. I climbed over with difficulty cutting my hand on a sharp stone. At two other places the path was impassable because of barbed wire fence but detours of a couple of hundred yards fortunately found gates, but it was frustrating. At two other gates I had to un-knot some of that awful hairy string I'm often berating. Once knotted it is difficult to untie because stray strands remain in the knot and at one I just lost my temper and gave it a great big tug breaking the remaining threads.
There are a total of 77 trigs on this map sheet and it is not surprising that the odd ones don't make for much of an outing, but the better ones have certainly made up for that. I now only have 10 left to do.
Monubent Head
 |
| The descent from the other side of this bridge was steep slippery, and booby trapped with brambles |
 |
| Variation on the pink stuff - perhaps green is more of the moment? |
 |
| Public footpath? Climb one, descend in between then climb the other |
 |
| ? |
 |
| Note the rusted up bolt, bottom left |
 |
| High Ground |
 |
| Flambers Hill. I deployed my recently acquired chair for lunch just after this |
 |
| Ignore trig top right. Today's at Paythorne and the blue route |
 |
| Quite a lot of wandering from the paths for blockage diversions and woeful navigation on my part |
On the map, that should have been a pleasant walk over the moors above Swinden.
ReplyDeleteA catalogue of obstructions.
Were you using your phone camera, or have you made a new purchase?
One advantage of cycling, there aren't many, is avoiding the cattle mud.
I can understand difficulties when you are 'off path' but there's no excuse for placing obstacles on rights of way. Some farmers just don't get it whilst others are welcoming.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the last 10.
M
Well done under trying circumstances. Hope the hand is ok.
ReplyDeleteBC - I wasn't surprised. I could see from the map all those field boundaries and anticipated that kind of field bashing, but it was just that bit worse than I had envisaged.
ReplyDeleteI bought a new TZ80 from Wilkinsons. It is going to be mollycoddled. When I tried to download these photos to my computer the camera was not displaying the signal to talk to my Mac. I fiddled for ages and in the end gave in and phoned Wilkinsons. Whilst on the phone my son was signing to me. He had spotted that the cable from the camera had the USB end plugged into the mains charger and not in to my Mac. Duh!
----------------
BC has always encouraged me to report these failings but I guess that takes time to research which authority's land you are on and how to track down the appropriate department etc. Maybe it is easier than I think? It should really be done.
-----------------
Alan R - Thanks for your comment. Comments seem to be getting rarer as are page views. The cut on my hand was only minor, Fortunately I avoided having the whole wall collapsing on me.