17 Saturday 23 May 2020 Blackstone Edge
Simon stuck with his choice of Blackstone Edge but first we had a couple of errands. Firstly we had to photocopy a couple of documents at Tonge Moor Post Office. That done, we drove to Rochdale and called at my friend Mark's house to sign them. I was prepared for him not being in and was going to leave an SAE. I actually called at the wrong house but the guy who answered , Anthony McNicholas, knows me and pointed me in the right direction. Mark was in and we had a brief chat in his garden. It was nice to see him again.
I had felt a bit cold while chatting to Mark so I put a jumper on before getting out of the car at The White House. I was quite surprised at the number of cars already there. I was also taken aback by the gusty wind and had a job to stop the shopping bags from flying out of the boot. I warned Simon to watch the door when he got out. It was blowing hard enough to make me consider going into Ripponden for a lower level route but Simon still seemed up for it.
We got on the Pennine Way, then walked along Broadhead Drain to the Roman Road. It was quite easy to ascend because the wind was right behind us. A couple of guys descending warned us about the wind on top. We stopped to rest at the Aiggin Stone. I was pleased to find it still upright but there seemed less of the inscribed cross than I remembered We had a brief rest there then headed along the ridge to Robin Hood's Bed.
Here, the wind was blowing at gale force which made it difficult, threatening to blow us against the boulders. Simon was getting frightened because it was taking his breath away. We moved away from the edge to where the peat would give us a softer landing. We did visit the top rock with the trig point but Simon sensibly agreed not to try and climb onto it in the wind. We tried sheltering in its lieu but there was nowhere out of the wind so we retreated to a peaty hollow. You can tell how bad it was from one or two of the pictures which have rather more sky in them than I intended.
Simon wanted a longer rest but I thought it was about to rain and wanted to start descending. I was a bit apprehensive about what I assumed to be a pathless descent to Broadhead Drain against the wind but as we left Sun End a path materialised which seemed to head in the right direction and the wind died off.
A party ascending this unmarked but fairly distinct gave me more confidence and in fact dropped us off right where we wanted to be, the end of Broadhead Drain and start of the path to Dry Mere. The wind picked up again on the more exposed parts but nothing as bad as it had been on the Edge.
I thought we'd missed Dry Mere or perhaps it had even dried up but there it was around the next corner though it had clearly shrunken somewhat since my last visit there. A pair of Canada geese and their goslings had made it their home. Simon loved it there and we had our snack stop.
We then moved on past Lydgate, Stormer Bar and then the steady plod up the old coach road to the White House. We then drove to Bury for some KFC which we soon polished off.
We moved on to Asda where there seemed some disturbance involving a scruffy fair haired man. We stayed in the car until the coast seemed clear then queued to get in the store. Simon was feeling the effects of eating his lunch too fast and went to the loo while I did the shopping . As we were taking it to the car the scruffy man re-appeared and offered to take the trolley. I said no and Simon repeated it. The man said "Shut up little man" but didn't come any closer. He then started pestering someone else. It annoyed me that you had security guards monitoring how many were going in the store but no one was preventing this scrote from pestering the customers.
I had felt a bit cold while chatting to Mark so I put a jumper on before getting out of the car at The White House. I was quite surprised at the number of cars already there. I was also taken aback by the gusty wind and had a job to stop the shopping bags from flying out of the boot. I warned Simon to watch the door when he got out. It was blowing hard enough to make me consider going into Ripponden for a lower level route but Simon still seemed up for it.
We got on the Pennine Way, then walked along Broadhead Drain to the Roman Road. It was quite easy to ascend because the wind was right behind us. A couple of guys descending warned us about the wind on top. We stopped to rest at the Aiggin Stone. I was pleased to find it still upright but there seemed less of the inscribed cross than I remembered We had a brief rest there then headed along the ridge to Robin Hood's Bed.
Here, the wind was blowing at gale force which made it difficult, threatening to blow us against the boulders. Simon was getting frightened because it was taking his breath away. We moved away from the edge to where the peat would give us a softer landing. We did visit the top rock with the trig point but Simon sensibly agreed not to try and climb onto it in the wind. We tried sheltering in its lieu but there was nowhere out of the wind so we retreated to a peaty hollow. You can tell how bad it was from one or two of the pictures which have rather more sky in them than I intended.
Simon wanted a longer rest but I thought it was about to rain and wanted to start descending. I was a bit apprehensive about what I assumed to be a pathless descent to Broadhead Drain against the wind but as we left Sun End a path materialised which seemed to head in the right direction and the wind died off.
A party ascending this unmarked but fairly distinct gave me more confidence and in fact dropped us off right where we wanted to be, the end of Broadhead Drain and start of the path to Dry Mere. The wind picked up again on the more exposed parts but nothing as bad as it had been on the Edge.
I thought we'd missed Dry Mere or perhaps it had even dried up but there it was around the next corner though it had clearly shrunken somewhat since my last visit there. A pair of Canada geese and their goslings had made it their home. Simon loved it there and we had our snack stop.
We then moved on past Lydgate, Stormer Bar and then the steady plod up the old coach road to the White House. We then drove to Bury for some KFC which we soon polished off.
We moved on to Asda where there seemed some disturbance involving a scruffy fair haired man. We stayed in the car until the coast seemed clear then queued to get in the store. Simon was feeling the effects of eating his lunch too fast and went to the loo while I did the shopping . As we were taking it to the car the scruffy man re-appeared and offered to take the trolley. I said no and Simon repeated it. The man said "Shut up little man" but didn't come any closer. He then started pestering someone else. It annoyed me that you had security guards monitoring how many were going in the store but no one was preventing this scrote from pestering the customers.
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