2016 02 06 Whit Walk
A happy,smiling group
Terrible weather reports the night before,amazingly 11 hardy souls gradually arrived at Cowm reservoir,unaware of what lay ahead.Waterproofs donned we set off with our last arrival RAIN!!
Having met in a valley,the only way out is up.Skirting Brown Wardle Hill and Watergrove Reservoir we headed north over Rough Hill with views of Ramsden reservoir and Stoodley Pike in the distance. Up and over Trough Edge End through low cloud down to our
first stop at Limers Gate quarry.
A brief stop, RAIN, still managing to keep up we joined the motorway section [ Rossendale Way and Sculpture trail ] quickly taking us
round the village of Weir to our half way point and our new heading south for home. Long Dike proved a long hard slog of bog hopping
and lethal stiles.Why does every stile have a mini reservoir round it? Our lunch stop loomed out of the mist, a derelict building offering
no protection from the weather.
No Prompting needed,everyone was keen to be off, RAIN still on our tail.From Smallshaw we made our way down towards Bacup.
Snaking through the outskirts we headed up to Higher Boarsgreave and onto the Rooley Moor Road. A steady climb over the top, a
quick glance behind,RAIN not tiring, still with us. Onto the Pennine and Rossendale way we slid over rutted cart tracks of bygone days
with the spinning blades of the wind farms of the future whirring in our ears.
A few lefts and rights took us down to Cowm reservoir footpath. And would you believe it, we lost the RAIN.
Just short of 20 miles, 3,300 ft of ascent. Big thanks to everyone who made the effort and Julie for the photos.
Ron
Photos from Julie - click here
