Kinder-Scout-14

An autumn walk on Kinder Scout

Sunday’s weather was reported to be sunny, dry but cold, so Darren and I had decided to go to the Peak District for a walk-up Kinder Scout.

As the clocks had gone back 1 hour, we didn’t lose any sleep with an early start. I was at Darren’s house for 08:00 sharp for our 45-mile drive to Edale. Traffic on the M60 was good and the drive up the A6 OK. We parked up at the public car park in Edale for 09:20 and by the time we’d got our boots on and paid the £5.20 parking we were off on our way.

The first half mile was on the road leading from the car park to the Old Nags Head in Edale village, from here we picked up The Pennine Way and headed west across the fields towards the farm at Upper Booth a total of 1.85 miles. Then a short stretch of road until we picked up the Pennine way again. At approx 2.9 miles we reached the start of Jacobs Ladder the climb up to the higher points of Kinder Scout. at this point you’ve climbed approx 390 m (1280 feet) from the car park. Not too difficult a climb if you take it steady.

Once on top we found the trig point marking 633 m above sea level at Kinder Low, quick opportunity for a photo. We then pushed on across the moor towards Kinder Downfall. Quite a few people at this point and the wind had picked up too. You can’t hang around up here for too long as you start to cool off quite quickly.

Off we went across Kinder Scout and Edale Moor with a view we were taking the right path….

…….but after following then small stream away from Kinder Downfall the path ended. As we were taking quick look at the map to get our bearings a man came wandering across the moor and asked which direction we were heading. Edale was the response and he said he too was heading there. He knew the lye of the moor very well and was chatting to us as we took off at a fair old pace across the moorland. It seems that it’s easy to get disorientated up on the moor and lose your way and he pointed out a couple of landmarks that can be used as navigation points. There are a couple of what we class as Christmas trees up on the moor, but he pointed out two quite close to each other. We spent our time trying to avoid the water filled pools and peaty wet areas as we all trudged towards Crowden Tower. From Crowden Tower you start the decent down towards Edale and no more noticeably than at Grindslow Knoll. Here you can see across the valley with good views of Mam Tor, Hollins Cross, Bank Tor and Lose Hill. The drop down from Grindslow Knoll is quick if you are nimble, with the drop about 200m (640 feet).

A short dash across the farmland to the Old Nags Head for a quick but well-deserved pint of Black Sheep. It was after the quick pint we said our farewell to our companion. Didn’t get his name but a nice man.

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