Wednesday 10 October 2018 – Y Garn and the Glyders

The prospect of a glorious day out had me binning my plans for Wednesday in favour of a day ‘on the hill’. The ‘hill’ in question was Y Garn and the Glyders, one of my favourite walks. It has the advantage of being easily achievable in a day out from Timperley, with breakfast as normal and the ability to return in time to buy and cook dinner before heading off at 7 pm to see Jim’s SWOG presentation.

I’m really surprised to note that since I’ve been recording this on-line diary I’ve only walked this route twice, on 1 January 2008, and on 29 November 2012, the reports on which contrast markedly with this one. This rare recurrence of a favourite walk reflects an increasing tendency to walk more locally, I suspect.

Anyway, after an 8 am start, passage through a low lying blanket of mist over Cheshire, then past lovely autumn shades beside the M56 motorway, was followed by a twenty minute delay in the A55 roadworks. I eventually parked in a layby a few minutes walk from Ogwen Cottage alongside Llyn Ogwen, which looked splendid under the bright blue sky.

The rebuilding of the Ogwen Centre has been completed since my last visit, and it’s very nice too. Coffee and cake served through the traditional hatch was of a high standard. I chatted to a couple from the Wirral with whom I’d shared space in the traffic jam. They were planning to avoid the wind on the summits by heading up to the Tryfan col and then over Foel Goch to Capel Curig, returning by a low level route.

I set off at around 11am and soon passed a party of eleven children with two teachers. They were heading up to Llyn Idwal before returning for an afternoon of raft building.

I left them and continued up the good path towards Y Garn.

There were fine, clear views back to Llyn Ogwen, framed on the left by the southernmost of the Carnedd summits, Yr Ole Wen, and by Tryfan on the right.

I passed a couple on the ascent. They hadn’t been here before. I explained the route over the Glyders, but unfortunately neither I nor they had a proper map. I’m not sure whether they would have been able to read it, even if I’d had one. (Navigation was never going to be an issue for me on a day like this in familiar surroundings.)

The summit of Y Garn (947 metres) was breezy but not overly windy. A thin fleece over a t-shirt was more than adequate for keeping warm, and quite a few people were sporting shorts. Snowdon stood firm under the clear blue sky across the Llanberis Pass.

Although only just after noon, numerous folk were lunching in sheltered spots beside Llyn y Cwr, from above which there was a good view back to the path down Y Garn.

It was good to be in the shade for the haul up Glyder Fawr. The sun was blindingly dazzling at points where the line of ascent was shallow enough to reveal that brilliant orb. The summit (1001 metres) is easily gained, with good views back across the rocks towards Snowdon.

To the south, a succession of hills led the eye all the way to the distant horizon.

To the east, that little bobble on the horizon is the next summit, that of Glyder Fach (994 metres). It’s slow going to get there, thanks to the rubbly nature of the terrain.

A little further on, Llyn Idwal shone above the Ogwen Valley in a deep shade of blue. The view down to Bethesda and beyond was magnificent.

The gnarly rocks of Glyder Fach soon loomed above me. Ravens and air force jets played in the thermals.

Glyder Fach isn’t the easiest of summits to attain. It’s quite a scramble up to the innocuous looking summit rock pictured below. I stumbled around here for a good half hour. Great care was needed as there was nobody about and the rocks on the north side were very slippery.

A few metres further on is the Cantilever Stone, sadly unoccupied today. You just have to imagine a big group of people standing on the right hand end of the huge rock.

The descent to Llyn Caseg-fraith starts just a little further on. A group of pensioners was slogging slowly up the gentle ascent that I was ambling down. I’d decided against descending via Bristly Ridge, the direct route.

After turning sharp left at the col that is reached before the lake, superb views of Tryfan are enjoyed as you make your way carefully across to the Tryfan col.

Whilst crossing the Glyder ridge I’d looked down on Tryfan and spotted numerous folk on its summit. I caught up with a group of at least a dozen of them shortly after passing below Llyn Bochlwyd, pictured below with Y Garn in the background. They were a group of former students enjoying a reunion.

Whilst there didn’t really seem to be many people about, I must have seen seventy or so folk during the course of this excellent walk. Five hours of unadulterated pleasure concluded with the short walk back beside Llyn Ogwen to Polly.

My Garmin GPS recorded just over 13 km, with 1000 metres ascent. Transferring the .gpx file to Anquet mapping, shown below, produced the same distance but Anquet reckoned on 1448 metres ascent. I guess it’s actually about 1100 metres, but who really cares, it’s an excellent walk.

Returning via Ruthin and Mold, more fine autumn colours were on display, but in certain areas, Betws-y-Coed for example, the deep greens of summer were still dominant.

Monday 8 October – Another Bike Ride to Bury

This was a successful adaptation of the route I took on 28 September, marred only by the fact that Richard turned up on a rather grotty bike.

It’s a straightforward route along the Bridgewater Canal into Manchester and across Regent Bridge to join National Cycle Route number 6. That route sticks to roads through Salford. We successfully deviated beside the River Irwell where Manchester Racecourse used to be situated. Nowadays the area has been turned into a flood defence zone and is populated with a very happy flock of Canada Geese. Grey Wagtails, Mallards and Herons were seen by the river.

The photo below looks across the flood zone to Kersal.

As well as Richard, Paul had turned up. He excelled himself by pulling another slightly less dubious bike out of a hedgerow for Richard to utilise in his bid to keep up with us. (He was exhausted after having gone for a run with an elderly lady, Ann-Marie Jones.)

All went pretty well on the route to Bury. I decided to leave Route 6 by a large sculpture at SD 775 060, to continue along the Sculpture Trail with the intention of crossing a footbridge over the Irwell and taking a path to the left at SD 774 065, to reach the disused Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal. It was a good path to the bridge, after which I missed the intended footpath and we finished up taking the path at SD 778 068, a push through a thick jungle of tangled brambles, to reach the canal. (Sorry, folks.)

However, this avoided the roads of Radcliffe and led easily to the A56 in Bury. En route we enjoyed a chat with two very serious bird watchers, whose idea of “everyday birds that we see” included some species that I’ve never managed to spot, such as Water Rail. They showed us some impressive photos.

The A56 wasn’t followed for very long, but it did sport an excellent café that was most welcome after 30 km of cycling.

I’d actually planned to stop at the football ground café a little further on in Gigg Lane, but it’s just as well we stopped where we did as the Gigg Lane fleshpot appeared to be the scene of a very well attended biker’s funeral.

After that we made our way across north Manchester, passing very close to Birch services on the M62. We could have entered on our bikes through the back entrance; I’m not sure how that would have gone down!

After a section of unavoidable but quiet roads, but otherwise excellent bridleways, we reached the Rochdale Canal at SD 884 079 without incident. I remembered a bench that would have been suitable for another drinks break, but it was occupied by a strange individual who appeared to be walking from Manchester to Rochdale. He lay on the bench and entered into a discourse with us that Richard aptly described as “a stream of consciousness”. Whatever he was on, he was friendly enough. We soon left him to continue in his quest for a meaningful life, and we found a good spot for our own break a little further on, on a grassy bank.

It’s a scenic and straightforward route into Manchester along the towpath, downhill all the way through a series of locks.

The Ancoats area sports this large piece of graffiti.

Castlefield, and this view from Merchants’ Bridge, soon followed, before the ‘stick of the lollipop’ route along the canal towpath back to Timperley and beyond.

Here’s our route – 71km with about 300 metres ascent, taking us 5.75 hours including stops.

Thanks for your company, gents, and see you again soon.

Wythenshawe parkrun number 359, and Conkers

Kate (Jacob’s mum) called: “He would like to visit you but he wants to collect a few conkers. I think you may have to go to Tatton, or at least Dunham.”

A: “No problem.”

Child duly delivered, we took a five minute stroll to nearby Newton Park, home to a lofty horse chestnut tree. In the gentle breeze the conkers rained down.

The contest was a draw: Sue and Jacob collected 2.5 kilos, and so did I. In between collections we enjoyed a game of frisbee, which the seven year old is very good at, before adjourning home for a game of boules. He’s good at that as well.

I hope the conkers will be put to good use; Jacob has a theory that they are used to ward of spiders, that despite my assurances he seems to dislike.

Earlier in the weekend Sue and I went along to Wythenshawe Park for the 359th parkrun held there. Some people never seem to learn….

Paul – you should know by now, it’s not a race!

Rather more leisurely in pace, Sue and Martha managed a shade under 30 minutes as well as a chat. Faster than Sue planned because she forgot her barcode and had to pedal furiously back home to collect it in order not to be anonymised.

Lurking just behind Sue and Martha it looks like Dan, who actually finished second. He must have done a third lap to ‘warm down’!

Full results here.

Thursday 4 October 2018 – Another Circuit from Marple (Rose Hill)

This was a very similar outing to that on 21 March 2017 with Paul and Andy. I omitted the Fox Inn loop and extended the route to 28 km by heading through Mellor to visit recently bereaved Linda in Hollins Lane.

Starting on a dull day down the Middlewood Way for 6.5 km, with an annoying headwind today, the track passes through a short corrugated iron tunnel before reaching the station at Nelson Pit in Higher Poynton.

After leaving the Middlewood Way to pass under the Macclesfield Canal, the route enters Lyme Park at West Parkgate. There’s a long and gentle ascent to another gate, pictured below beside a wall that needs to be rebuilt. On this ascent I encountered a group of park rangers including Nigel from SWOG. The rangers were learning about the geology of the park, and Nigel told me about some erratics near The Cage.

Nigel has also told me that he will be doing some dry stone walling. Apparently there is a constant need for wall maintenance around the park, for which the volunteers are greatly valued.

Lyme Hall soon came into view. It’s a magnificent building. I must find time to go round it sometime.

On a short promontory beyond the hall, is the Cage, originally a hunting lodge but later used as a park-keeper's cottage and as a lock-up for prisoners.

I went onto the promontory to investigate the boulders referred to by Nigel as being of geological interest. They apparently originated in the Lake District and they must have been deposited here by a glacier, some time ago. The first is shown below.

The second boulder, not far from the Cage, is a bit bigger.

As I was taking the above picture, I spotted a couple of the red deer whose ancestors have lived here since at least mediaeval times.

The day remained overcast apart from a brief spell of sunshine that I enjoyed by the Peak Forest Canal. Meanwhile my route exited the park and spent some time on the Gritstone Trail path, with views towards New Mills.

Though the picture doesn’t necessarily show it, this tree was absolutely laden with red berries. I imagine it comes under siege from time to time from migrating birds.

Steep paths with a dollop of loose rocks lead to the Peak Forest Canal. En route my back tyre picked up a metal tack. Had this happened last week, I’d have been in trouble, but earlier this morning I had called in at Bike Shak to buy the correct adaptor for my pump. It was needed, as was my spare inner tube.

The canal was littered with leaves, a first sign of autumn despite the lingering green of the foliage.

After a few comfortable kilometres, the route leaves the canal to descend to Strines, then steeply up to Greenclough Farm, where the usual car museum was on display.

Continued ascent to The Banks leads to a pleasant path beside a golf course, and onwards to Mellor. My usual route goes down a rocky track to Roman Lakes, then on roads to Rose Hill, but today I chose to visit Linda in Marple Bridge before taking the main road back to base.

It turned out to be a 28 km route with about 500 metres ascent. Whilst it took me 4 hours 40 minutes in total, the ‘moving time’ was just 2 hours 40 minutes.

It was a late lunch…

Henry Blofeld – Over and Out

We recently strolled down to Waterside Arts Centre in Sale to spend an evening, together with a packed audience of at least 400, with Henry Blofeld, a Test Match Special commentator from 1972 until his retirement at the age of 77.

He was very engaging, with lots of anecdotes, as one would expect, and even those (like Sue) with no particular interest in cricket came away feeling thoroughly entertained, even doubling the cost of their evening by spending £20 on a copy of Henry’s latest book. I noticed at half time that his wife was hiding behind a huge pile of books in the foyer and I wondered why they had brought so many, but by the end of the night the people who had queued for the longest time had to make do with a handshake with Henry across a bare table.

I’ve not yet read the book, but I’m sure it’ll provide good entertainment for a few hours.

Henry’s ‘78 Retired’ tour continues at various venues until mid November.

Monday 1 October 2018 – Another TPT/Cheshire Ring Bike Ride

A more detailed photographic essay of this route is to be found here.

It was another lovely Monday morning. Appropriate to celebrate a few anniversaries together with Sue, Paul, Jeanette and Richard:

15 years since I stopped full time work;
5 years since Paul retired;
11 years and 3069 postings since I started this blog.

Richard hasn’t long retired. It was his prerogative to be confused about the road system between Hale and Timperley, but he turned up eventually. Meanwhile we’d enjoyed a chat in the sunshine. Our slow start set the pace for the day. I normally complete this ride in about 4 hours; today it took us 7 hours!

The conversion of our local office block, Nelson House, into apartments is virtually complete. It looks quite smart in the sunshine.

Commuters were still making their way to work.

We made good progress down the towpath to Stretford, and then along the Trans Pennine Trail (TPT) to Northenden, where Sue turned back to avoid getting lost as she wanted a shorter outing.

The heron that graces the banks of the Mersey in Northenden was eying up the moon today; the remains of the Tatton Arms were looking just a bit more dilapidated.

Here’s the gang (minus Sue, who had returned home) beside the sculpture.

After a tea break by the river, we muddled our way through Stockport and headed to Reddish Vale. I took a wrong turn, heading by mistake through a dark tunnel towards Bredbury. It was down here that Richard picked up a puncture. Looking at the map, I think there may be an acceptable (and slightly shorter) alternative route to the Peak Forest Canal via Bredbury.

Anyway, we returned to the ‘normal’ TPT route and soon reached the canal, which was in better shape than on my last visit, when it looked terribly polluted.  There were a couple of maintenance vehicles of a type I haven’t seen before.

Before reaching Dukinfield we saw a mink on the footpath ahead of us. We were within feet of it as it swam across the canal. I don’t recall having seen one before. We also saw Jays and Herons, and rather noisy Grey Wagtails, amongst the usual common species.

A café that we’d been aiming for at the junction of the Peak Forest and Ashton canals turned out to be closed on Mondays. It took a while to establish that, and Jeanette discovered that it is slow work negotiating steep cobbles in her shoes that appear to have pedals attached to their soles.

A little further on a diversion caused a further delay, exacerbated by my poor map reading, so what with more cobbles on some of the descents beside the locks, it seemed to take ages to reach the Velodrome at the National Cycling Centre. We paused for coffee and cake. Richard had a full meal. ‘Lunch hour’ was exactly that.

Before leaving the Velo’drone we had to admire some of the Manchester bees that are on display here.

I should have dedicated a posting to these bees, but we were busy in the Alps.

On leaving the café, I discovered that my back tyre had a slow puncture, and I didn’t have the correct attachment to my pump. Paul to the rescue. Eventually, after several pumping sessions every few kilometres, we gave up pumping and changed the inner tube – twice, as the first one seemed defective. Luckily I carry two spares. Punctures are common at this time of year when the hawthorn hedges are being trimmed.

Here’s our route – 65 km (normally it’s 60 km) with about 250 metres ascent (ie essentially flat). It took us 7 hours! More for those who had to make the 3 km each way return trip from and to Hale. A very pleasant way to spend the day.

Next Monday: meet under Timperley Bridge at 8.30 for a 70 km ride to Bury then across to Middleton, and back along the Rochdale Canal.

Saturday 29 September 2018 – Wythenshawe parkrun number 358

Our first run for five weeks, and we hadn’t seen Paul and Jeanette for just as long. Jeanette was sporting her new ‘250’ shirt after reaching that target whilst on a visit to Shetland; Paul’s is quite old. They have completed 566 parkruns between them, and their son Greg has managed a further 379.

It was a lovely morning. I jogged a slow first kilometre to warm up, before speeding up to finish in a respectable time, albeit position 83, just ahead of Jeanette, some way behind whom Sue ran in with Cary. She had intended to walk, but her Achilles problem doesn’t seem to have affected her too much today and she enjoyed a chat with Cary.

Results here.

It’s a red letter week for the hall, damaged by fire in March 2016. The bell tower has been repositioned in its rightful place.

Here’s what it looked like immediately after the fire.

So there’s hope for the future behind all that scaffolding. I think the work is supposed to be completed in January 2019.

It’s great to see so many bikes at the parkrun these days. The message really does seem to have got home to a good number of people that parking is limited and cycling to the event is the perfect way to digest your breakfast on a Saturday morning.

We were also pleased to see that there’s a new, more convenient for us, run at Orleans in Ottawa, where friends took part in the inaugural run on Saturday. We look forward to joining them on our next visit. 38 people took part, which is encouraging.

Summer in the Alps - 2018

This is part of a regular Wednesday evening programme for Stockport Walking and Outdoor Group.

All are welcome on this or any other Wednesday.

Many thanks to all 35 or so who filled the room and made the effort of producing the slideshow so soon after we had returned from the trip worthwhile.