Tagged: hope RSS

  • Dave 12:10 pm on July 20, 2008 Permalink
    Tags: , edale, , hollinscross, hope, , ,   

    Nottingham Flickr Group Peaks Walk 1 

    Click on the image above for slideshow. The photos in the slideshow are from everyone involved, not just me – you can click on the photos when they appear to get more info and find the original page should you so wish.

    We had planned to go walking on a circular route from Edale on to Kinder Scout. The weather was pretty horrible when we arrived though, so after discussions in the (much improved) cafe near the train station, we decided to do an alternate route with more options for escape should the weather deteriorate further.

    So, we headed up to Mam Tor which was enjoying a bit of rain and lots of strong wind, enabling people to lean in to it at some quite impressive angles without falling. From there we went along the ridge, passing Hollin’s Cross, Back Tor and Lose Hill before descending in to Hope and catching the train back to Edale.

    All along the route, we were either getting blown around and rained on, or enjoying the sunshine and blue skies as the wind moved the weather at speed across the country. The only constant was that Kinder Scout, our original destination, remained engulfed in dark looking storm clouds for most of the day, only clearing in the late afternoon as we returned back to Edale.

    Weather like that makes it more interesting – and it certainly makes a nice change not to have just plain grey boring skies. There is something quite nice about walking in rain and wind when you’re wearing things that protect you from it.

    I think we’re going to try and do our original route towards the end of next month.

     

  • Dave 8:53 pm on February 25, 2007 Permalink
    Tags: , hope, , , ,   

    Flickr Ridge Walk 

    Back Tor

    On Saturday, I met up with tricky (sovietuk) and ewanr in Hope with the intention of walking up Lose Hill, along the ridge, taking in Back Tor and Hollins Cross before reaching Mam Tor and finally descending in to Castleton and then back to Hope.

    The weekend before, Rick and Ewan had come from Leeds and visited Mam Tor but driven up to the car park near the top and walked the final bit. It was a lovely sunny day and they both got some great photos. One of the photos was entitled ‘The way up’ with a subtitle ‘Well, the lazy way up!’. I called them a pair of slackers and asked them to let me know if they wanted to go up the real way. To their credit, they took me up on the offer and we did walk the route described at the top of this post, which is about 12 Km with nearly 500 metres of ascent – significantly more distance and height gain than you get from the car park to Mam Tor! ;)

    Ewan and RickOn Saturday they got an experience that differed from the week before – as we reached Lose Hill we climbed in to the clouds and there was only a white sheet to be seen in every direction. We stayed in the whiteness until descending from Mam Tor at the other end. There were a few brief breaks here and there. At Back Tor I had finished my 12 exposure Holga film so put that camera away and pulled out the Nikon. At the same time I said that we’d been fortunate that it hadn’t rained. At the same time a few droplets landed on the camera screen and shortly afterwards we were making sure everything was tucked away and waterproof and walking in rain and wind over Hollins Cross and up to Mam Tor. That is where this picture was taken. You can see that the background is featureless!

    On the way down from Mam Tor, the footpaths were especially muddy and I did one of those falls where your feet fly forwards. Luckily the combination of a soft backpack and nice soft grass gave me a comfortable and painless landing. It was nice to get on to solid ground at Winnats Pass, all of the sliding around took some effort!

    We finally walked through Castleton and then took the scenic route back to Hope along a footpath which follows the river. It wasn’t long after getting back to the cars that we entered the Woodbine Cafe. Their food is very nice at the best of times, but after being out in the hills either cycling or walking, it tastes even better. I had a milkshake their last summer and had another one on this visit – it was lovely! :)

    Photos: My flickr photo set for the day – See also: tricky (sovietuk), ewanr

    My Holga shots from the day will hopefuly appear in the set in a week or so.

     

    • Ewan 9:49 pm on February 25, 2007 Permalink | Reply

      Cheers Dave, was a really good day, despite the weather. I had a pretty good fall too :)

      Next time – the 3 peaks ;)

    • Tricky 9:55 pm on February 25, 2007 Permalink | Reply

      Cheers for the invite – had a great time! the supersampler photos came out ace too!

    • publicenergy .:. Don’t t 11:38 pm on March 5, 2007 Permalink | Reply

      [...] last night I came across a set of photos by ewanr (the same Ewan who came to the Peaks for a walk recently), the description of which made me think. It made me think that sometimes – most of [...]

    • publicenergy .:. A walk along 9:48 pm on March 10, 2007 Permalink | Reply

      [...] Rick and Ewan made a return visit and we were blessed with better weather than we had two weeks ago when we walked along the Lose Hill to Mam Tor [...]

  • Dave 10:00 pm on July 16, 2006 Permalink
    Tags: , hope,   

    Hope Tour 

    Win Hill

    After doing the Rowsley Circuit last Sunday, we decided quite quickly to do another Peaks route this weekend with plenty of climbing in it. I had a browse through White Peak Mountain Biking and in particular it’s enduro section and found a route called the Hope Tour.

    The route looked like it took in the western side of the hills above Ladybower and at first glance a rather tame section along the western side of the reservoir on the way back – that section worried me – I thought it might be a tedious filler. The book said that it was excellent and it actually proved to be excellent. I was talking to one of my mates about these guide books and agreed that when they say something is excellent it generally is – some books have a tendency to big up boring routes but the routes in this book tend to be described in a truthful and helpful way.

    This route was 33.3Km and took in 1368 metres of ascent. It was also very hot today – it was 30C on the one occasion when somebody checked just before lunch. The temperature didn’t seem to hold us back though. According to the GPS we were moving for 3 hours and 8 minutes and stopped for an hour and twenty minutes – those stops were infrequent but for long periods – the first one at Fairholmes for lunch and the second one at the top of the hill just after the 15km marker and the descent back down to Ladybower. So we had a moving average of 7.1Mph which I think is pretty good for this route in today’s heat. Speaking of heat, when we eventually made it back down on to the road just outside of Hope, the tarmac appeared to be melting and we had a lot more tyre noise than usual as our tyres stuck to the tacky road. I don’t remember that happening often when I’ve been out cycling.

    Hope Tour

    There are some photos from the ride in the MTB Britain Calendar

    I’ve mentioned Vertebrate Graphics before whenever I’ve done a route from their Dark and White Peak mountain biking books. Every route I’ve tried from their books so far has been great. I definitely want to do last weeks route again and really really want to do today’s route again. So I’d recommend them. They sell them as CD-ROMS as well as books which I find more useful because I can just print off the route for the day and it’s less fiddly than carrying a book around. I’ve also been plotting the routes on to an OS map and transferring them to GPS – last week that was quite useful on occasion but today’s route was so obvious and easy to follow that wasn’t really necessary.

    I’m still buzzing and will probably sleep like a log after all that climbing as well  

     

    • Leigh 10:26 pm on July 18, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      You are totally inspirational! That looks like such an amazing place to cycle.

    • publicenergy 10:45 pm on July 18, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      Hehe thankyou. It is a beautiful place. It was just one of those days when everything worked out perfectly. Days like that just make me want to get out and do more. Have already planned to go back to the Peaks next Sunday :)

    • publicenergy » Two days, 6:43 am on October 9, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      [...] Incidentally, the Peak District route today is called Hope Tour. I did it back in July and thoroughly enjoyed it and today was the same – just quicker! This route is one of my favourite Peaks routes now. [...]

  • Dave 11:14 pm on February 11, 2006 Permalink
    Tags: hope,   

    Hope 

    From Shatton Moor Transmitter

    I went on a bike ride today starting at Hope in the Peak District. This is the first time I’ve started a bike ride from there and the route was a mixture of parts of other routes I’ve been on and new sections. The route was quite short by my normal weekend standards, but it was thoroughly enjoyable.

    Unfortunately my bike had been at the bike shop because I’d managed to seize my front disc break and despite a promise of it being ready on Friday afternoon it wasn’t. Rather than not go out today though, a friend kindly lent me a spare bike that was normally used for light cross country cycling and not the sort of riding I normally do. The bike was different to what I’m used to in a number of areas – the forks hardly moved (which is great for forest fire roads and the like, just not for going down rocky descents in the Peaks), it had V-Brakes not hydraulic disc brakes and the frame was built for someone smaller than me so I was leaning over it a bit too much. The combination of these things made today hard work and made up for the lack of distance. There were sections, even on flat paths where I was struggling to hang on to the handlebars because of the vibrations from the frozen surfaces we were riding on, even now several hours later my arms feel like they’ve been put through their paces!Shelivesinhope

    I’d forgotten what V-Brakes were like too – I’ve had hydraulic disc brakes for the last few years and they stop you quickly with minimal effort pulling the brake lever and you can brake quite hard without locking your wheels. The V-Brakes had a tendency to lock quite easily and also require more fingers than I’m used to to pull the levers to brake hard when it mattered – normally with hydraulic disc brakes I’m hardly using any fingers and am using my hands to hang on to the handlebars, removing extra fingers increases the likelihood of losing grip on the handlebars – which combined with the vibrations makes you concentrate hard on what’s happening while you’re riding!

    The picture at the top was taken at Shatton Moor transmitter, which was at the top of the first climb – which doesn’t look bad on the map but it’s quite long and there is a section towards the end where it gets much steeper for a while, so that was fun. The second image is a map from Tracklogs – because I wasn’t on my own bike today, I didn’t have a GPS mount so couldn’t record the route – so the map is what was planned rather than what we actually did – it’s pretty close though.

    Towards the end we got to go down Cavedale which is the valley that goes past Peveril Castle – before we got to that bit though one of my friends went over the handlebars and hit the frozen ground shoulder first and was in a lot of pain. This happened before we got the the steep rocky section that was coated in ice – this was treacherous walking let alone cycling. We were quite near the end and after a rest and some painkillers made it back to Hope. We waited in the pub for the other half of our group who had gone walking for the day – this was a nice chilled out way to end a days cycling.

     

    • Leigh 1:42 pm on February 12, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      Hats off to you! I’ve never done the mountain bike thing, I’ve always been a countryside routes/main road rider.

      I love ending my cycling treks with a trip into the pub or a tea house. Yesterday I went to a tea house, I had to defrost somewhere!

      Love your map, caught sight of it last night.

    • publicenergy » Dark Peak 8:22 pm on February 12, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      [...] The route that was the subject of yesterday’s post was the idea of a mate who had recently got hold of a book called Dark Peak Mountain Biking. [...]

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