Another trip up the dale to 'polish off' a Hewitt which had
previously missed my attention. Route taken was just about
that as published by the Nuttall's in their book (n.b.
Clapham car park is P&D £3 for 2+ hours, not 'honesty box as
per book). OK, I could have avoided the 40p for the 'nature
trail', but that entails a bit of extra ascent.
One of the minor pots/caves (the one with the RSJ bolted
across the top, which is what got me thinking it was a
pot/cave) along the side of the dry valley above Trow
Gill is blocked - a chunk of stone(s) and earth appear to
have recently parted company with the hillside and now
fill the hole.
Reaching Gaping Gill, there was no 'faint path' up to Little
Whernside - there was a bluidy 'engineered' track! Oh,
Ingleborough, what are they doing to you? This 'path' goes
nearly all the way to the summit plateau. Looking back on
the ascent, I could make out the 'old' faint path from above
- no where near as noticeable as this new improved way. One
guy was heading down as I went up declaring it to be 'cold'
on top. Although not bitterly, there was some very thin ice
on one of the pools/puddles between Little Ingleborough and
Ingleborough 'proper'.
After a quick visit to the trig, collapsed tower and the
obligatory 'summit' (last visit July 1994 - was it really
that long ago?) with clear views out to Morecambe Bay, I
partook of some hot blackcurrent in the windshelter. Then
down to the col and up to Simon Fell (the previously
'overlooked' summit). No stones, no iron post adorned the
summit, although there were three closely clustered bare
patches where some stones had lain until recently. A peek
over the (barbed-wire topped) wall revealed a tiny
cluster of stones marking a lesser height. Someone's been
having a game.
Track back to the col (outward bound group having a break
there) and intercept the Horton-bound path (looks like this
has been rather 'upgraded' since I was last there). I
followed this before branching out on an old track, which
weaves around and through limestone pavement (the 'through'
bit courtesy of the pavement having been 'cleared'😉.
Obviously quite old, thin wheel ruts were visible in some of
the exposed limestone. Lovely views across the pavement to
Pen y Ghent.
Then over Thwaite Scars with views over to Moughton Scar and
Pendle Hill in the distance, down though the Norber erratics
(minor blunder - followed a 'path' and ended up just above
Nappa Scars - a little further east than where I was suppoed
to be) and back to Clapham via the irritatingly undulating
Thwaite Lane, passing some new signs adorning gates into the
adjacent woodland (plastic, bearing a round, red circle
which encloses a silhouetted person with rucksack on back,
with a red oblique line across the circle and silhouette,
black text 'Hidden dangers'😉.
That wonderful GPS thingy told me that the start point
had elevated by two metres and had moved 6m to the east
in my absence.
Walk time 5:35, GPS trip meter says 20.3km, which after the
removal of two obvious wrong-uns and patching the breaks
(Trow Gill and the tunnel at the end of Thwaite Lane) gives
20km. Cutting out all the 'undulations' (even ones I know
that are there) in the track gives ascent as 700m. The quads
are rebelling...
--
A l'eau - c'est l'heure (French Navy Motto)