2004 will always be special as it was the year I discovered the joys of hill walking, in 2005 however I went to a whole new level both in terms of the amount of walking I did but also in terms of broadening my horizons.
In my first walking season virtually all my walking was in the Yorkshire Dales, the only exception was a fairly easy walk just over the National Park boundary in Nidderdale from Pateley Bridge to Brimham Rocks.
In 2005 I continued my burgeoning love affair with the Yorkshire Dales while at the same time sampling the walking delights in a host of other places. There were three main reasons for this. Firstly in Feb 2005 I passed my driving test. Prior to this I had been lucky enough to be chauffered about by my friend Matt as we explored the Dales together. Being able to drive gave me the independence to go walking more regularly and to go to places that Matt may not have been interested in going to.
Secondly, my wife Lisa, following our week away in Dent in October 2004, had begun to increasingly enjoy walking herself. As 2005 wore on I found myself
increasingly going out one day with Matt and the next day with Lisa, or even on my own.
Finally Lisa and I also bought our first tent and that year we took advantage of this by spending long weekends in places which were less practical to get to and from in a day. Our first camping trip was to Alston in the North Pennines, this was followed by trips to Hadrian's Wall, Kielder Water and then in August
2005 with our first trip to the Lake District.
Thus it was that by the end of the year not only had I completed more walks in the Dales than the previous year but I'd also been walking for the first time in the South Pennines, Bowland, Pendle, North Pennines, Cheviots, North York Moors, Lake District and, thanks to a family holiday in Aviemore in May of that year the Cairngorms as well.
The latter holiday featured one of the toughest and most memorable walks of the year up on to Ben Macdui, the second highest peak in Great Britain. Walking with my father-in-law, Dave we started near Glen More Lodge and took a route that went around Cairn Gorm via Strath Nethy and Loch Avon before finally climbing to the top of Ben Macdui via Loch Etchachan. The day had started in beautiful sunshine but just as we began the final hundred metres of ascent it began to snow. Fortunately it didn't snow too long but it was long enough to cover the paths and to make us very careful of our route selection. It also meant that we decided against returning over Cairn Lochan and Cairn Gorm.
The walk that perhaps had the biggest effect on me was when Lisa and I climbed Fleetwith Pike and Haystacks on our first trip to the Lakes. On the day we'd arrived we had been up on to Cat Bells and enjoyable though that was it was nothing compared to the next day's walk. In near perfect weather we climbed Fleetwith Pike from Gatesgarth, a steep climb but with immaculate retrospective views of the Buttermere valley. By the time we had walked round to and begun to descend Haystacks I was in my own personal heaven. It is perhaps not surprising that over the next 2-3 years it was the Lake District that I began to return to again and again.
What of the Pennines though? As mentioned above I made some early forays into the South Pennines but unfortunately almost all these walks were in fairly poor weather early on in the year so at the time the area did not make a particularly good impression. I did however thoroughly enjoy my first walk in Bowland up on to Fair Snape Fell and Parlick, this was followed later on in the year by trips to Totridge and to Pendle Hill across the Ribble Valley.
My trips to Alston and Hadrian's Wall yielded six walks in total. The most memorable from the Alston trip was the short evening walk to Ashgill Force, a fantastic waterfall made all the better for being able to stand behind the falls itself. All the walking in and around Hadrian's Wall was superb and the main walk we did following the wall from Housesteads to Peel Crags still rates as one of my favourite ever walks.
The walking up in Kielder was more of a mixed bag. Our main walk up on to the Border Ridge and Peel Fell was excellent but the next day's walk up to Purdom Pikes through thick heather and ravaged plantations was fairly dire. Memories of Kielder are not helped by the fact that the campsite was infested with midgies. I have never, and hope to never, see the like again.
As for the Dales there was some pretty bad weather days on hills such as Baugh Fell and Fountains Fell but for the most part they continued to offer some fantastic walking. Hills such as Cracoe Fell, Fremington Edge, Middleton Fell, Pen Hill and Rye Loaf Hill were all definitely worth the visit and offered further proof that there is much more to the Yorkshire Dales than just the Three Peaks and Malham.
So finally a year after starting work on my site I've it is now (finally!) up to date in terms of all my Pennine walks. When I started work on the site I did think that sooner or later I'd get to add in my non-Pennine walks as well. That is probably now unlikely - I just don't have the time it would take to add another 100 or so pages to the site. Instead I think I'll concentrate on adding content about specific Pennine summits.
2005 was a vintage year for walking, I'm now looking forward to wherever my feet take me in 2011.
Looking good. Like the photos.
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