Never seem to get around to writing many TR's, but I'm at a bit of a loose
end this evening so here we are.
Been meaning to have a wander up The Knott (SK046893) since it became access
land and finally got around to it today.
My better half was on a late shift, so I did the dutiful thing and made her
breakfast in bed and tried not to rub it in too much that I would be in the
hills whilst she was working in the afternoon.
Evenings are noticeably lighter now and I knew I could easily be out until
8pm if needed, so decided to head out from Bowden Bridge car park at around
3pm. Went up the tourist route past Kinder Reservoir, cursing that I'd left
my sunglasses in the car as the sun broke through. Took the pull up to Sandy
Heys to get the lungs going a bit and nearing the top was wishing those
sunglasses had been goggles as the weather turned and the hailstones started
to come in horizontally.
Funny thing happened then. Hail turned to snow, but after about 20 mins or
so the cloud broke and I could see the shower would pass soon enough. Ten
minutes later the final snowflakes stopped, but not 5 minutes after this the
wind turned almost 180 degrees and the snow came straight back. Never seen
such an obvious change in weather direction before.
Snow pretty much continued for the rest of the walk, which was a pleasant
surprise; I'd expected some wintery showers, but it really started to fall
heavily with giant snowflakes of around a couple of inches and the wind died
down making it eerily quiet.
Dropped down Ashop Head and up to Mill Hill. From here the plan was to do a
little navigational practice (contemplating a Gold NNAS course later in the
year), so followed a couple of bearings and paced over rough ground to The
Knott. Few paths of any consequence over this route, so it seems not many
choose to go this way. Couldn't see The Knott until I got pretty close as
the snow was at it's heaviest here, making it a pretty good exercise, but
couldn't find the cairn marked on the OS map, anyone know if there is such a
cairn? Will probably have to visit this summit again at some point anyway,
since I could see very little once there.
Headed south from the summit past the grouse butts and onto the shooting
cabin. Anyone know anything about the owners of this hut? Would it be
Hayfield Gun Club? It's a nice spot and I wouldn't mind taking some shooting
pictures there, so would like to find out who runs the shoot, if any of the
locals know?
From here dropped back down off White Brow to the reservoir and back along
the road to Bowden Bridge.
As has been said many times before, it's amazing how few people get out in
the afternoon and evenings once it starts to get lighter. I probably saw
15-16 people on this walk and maybe a dozen of them were in the first half
hour and coming to the end of their walks. No one at all on Kinder and only
two people from the plateau to the end of the walk. All in all a pleasant,
quiet day with the bonus of heavier than expected snow.
Regards,
Richard G.