Edale Mad Weekend

A chance remark at the start of October, about a repeat of the backpacking trip David and I had last year, resulted in a hurriedly planned and executed dash for the Peak District.

The story of Detective Chinley Brinnington-Bredbury-Famous
and the hunt for Peat and Heather

We hadn’t the funds to disappear for a week, just for a long weekend, and the as the car was out of action (both of them) it would have to revolve around public transport. I’d seen the walk outlined on the Outdoors Magic web site that week and thought it sounded just the thing.

 Jackie professionally sorted the transport out, resulting in a wad of a dozen tickets to cover a six train epic to Edale and back.

The Edale Horseshoe, depending on the route taken, could be anything up to 21 miles. We were to attempt a 10.4 mile section from Edale, via Foxholes, The Woolpack, Edale Head, Jacob’s Ladder and then the main ridge towards Mam Tor originally spotted on the OutfoorsMagic website.

Well, after a 4 hour journey on the floor of a Virgin train, despite having booked seats, we turned up at about 4:30, just as dusk as approaching. We quickly booked into Cooper’s Campsite, set up the tent and prepared dinner.

The food for the week was basically the left overs from LAST YEAR! Plus pork pies  and stuff we bought for Sunday lunch, that I had left in the fridge at home to keep fresh ... Err, well maybe we would have enough.

Dinner was to start with some fresh soup that ... Um was also in the fridge (blast!) Oh well, a cup of tea would cheer me up ... Oh yes, the tea-bags were safely left at home as well. Along with David’s spoon and and my toothbrush. (Sigh)

Makeshift spoon, I knew that credit card would come in handy.

A mid morning start saw us walk past The Nags Head, the official start of The Pennine Way, and up through Grindsbrook Clough to reach the southern edge of the Kinder Scout Plateau.



Early morning view towards Mam Tor. (Photograph by David)

All the way up David kept looking at the ever more impressive views over our shoulders and shouting ‘Wow!’ and ‘This looks like the pictures in your magazines!’ (tgo).  I think he was having a good time.

The exertion quickly heated us up and half way up I was forced to remove several layers of clothes (including my thermal underwear!)

The water bottle we took with us we filled at a really clear looking  spring and the water tasted wonderful.

We did this several times throughout the walk but as we progressed around the horseshoe, we did not drop low enough below the peat to find a clear spring. The consequence of this was a series of refills that progressively looked dodgier than the last and taste earthier and earthier.

We followed pretty much the edge of Kinder towards the Woolpack pile of stones, where we had our lunch.

David wanted to have lunch on the top but I wanted to be out of the wind, behind a stone. As it turned out we were behind a stone, out of  the sun but still in the wind!

We saw some Mountain Rescue types on a exercise.

The journey continued until we hit The Pennine Way, just before Edale Rocks, which we followed until The Way turned left towards Jacobs Ladder and we carried on a little until our turn to turn left took us towards Brown Knoll.

Standing on  The Woolpacks, looking South.

Looking down Crowden Clough

From here on the going was a lot more peaty. In fact trying to find a relatively dry path was becoming increasingly more difficult, even for David with his ‘pole vaulting’ techniques.

As we reached Brown Knoll I misjudged and found a rather deep patch that had peat soaking into my sock. Prompted by this, I immediately donned my gaiters. Something David had been wearing all along (clever lad).

Now with a bright shiny false sense of security, and with a desire to make up some time, I started to make a bee-line for the next top.

View down the length of Edale

I think it was halfway there, around the ‘saddle’, that I found a slightly deeper patch of peat and sank up to my waist!

The nutter who fell in the bog

Despite David’s efforts I seemed to be stuck. I wasn’t sinking but it I only got out with the help of some passing walkers (thank you!)

David later said that he was quite worried until he heard I wasn’t sinking.

My phone didn’t like the peat. This is the second of the company’s phones I’ve written off. The first went in the washing machine.

We pushed on over Colborne until we met the Chapel Gate Track bridleway. Decision time. It was about 4:30 now and our progress hadn’t been as brisk as I had hoped.

View from Chapel Gate track - Edale in the afternoon sun

Shall we head back to the valley or push on over Lord’s seat and see how we felt then?

The original route, as described by Outdoors Magic was 10.4 miles, not dropping off the ridge until Hollins Cross.

We were both a little tired and if we did decide to descend now we would still have a mile or so to walk across the valley bottom to our campsite. If we carried on over Lords Seat, the next route down would still present us with the same valley bottom walk.

We both agreed we’d had a good time and as I could do with a shower, we decided to call it a day.

This time I didn’t take any wrong turnings and we arrived just as the sun was disappearing over the horizon.

We had walked 10.8 miles, including the valley section, a record for David. The weather was perfect and, apart from the unfortunate slip, we’d had a brilliant day. I later measured the Outdoors Magic route and made it 11.2 miles. I’m glad we didn’t try for that, it would have been dark before we’d left the ridge and we would have been even more tired.

A quick shower then to the pub for a pot of tea followed by dinner and a pint.

Next morning we packed and went home. Another 4 hour train journey, but this time we had seats!

Pudding after the pub

The morning and breakfast.
All the leftovers - Beef in red wine with a side of couscous with tuna and sweet corn
Yummm!

David thought Edale Station was right out of Thomas The Tank engine and he was surprised at how tidy it was and about the total lack of graffiti!