Wednesday September 30th. Village Link. Part 1. 12 miles. Leader: Barbara Shelton.

The turnout of thirteen for this walk, including two new faces, was very pleasing, numbers having possibly been boosted by the promise of a cafe stop!

The rain obligingly stopped ten minutes into the walk and it stayed dry and warm all day – bonus! We had two main ascents, the first one being from Nuttall Park up to Grants Tower and on to Nangreaves, spotting eight Red Deer on the way, one with fine antlers. After a pause to read the information board about the mill village of Mount Pleasant, it was full speed ahead to Falshaw’s cafe off Walmersley Rd for our morning break.

Fortified with coffee, cake and ice creams we pressed on to cross the East Lancs railway and the River Irwell to head up towards Greenmount, past the Two Crosses HQ at the |Old School. Over the golf course we went, then passed through Hawkshaw, with a lunch break on a handy wall with views of our objective – Holcombe Hill.

Farmland, lanes and paths took us around the edge of the army training camp to the old Krypton Factor obstacle course where some of us recollected that the TV game show was filmed there from 1977 to 1995.

Our next obstacle was the second ascent through the woods to reach the top of the famous Redisher Woods steps, part of the Two Crosses route, improvements to which were part-funded by East Lancs LDWA. On and up we went, to Peel Tower, with a welcome stop for a breather and sweets, before descending back to Ramsbottom via Holcombe Village and Tagg Wood, having walked almost 12 miles with around 1,650 ft of ascent.

Barbara Shelton

Sunday September 27th. Hot Toddy. 18 miles. Leader: Stephen Hindley.

Although the weather forecast was for rain most of the day a group of 7 met for a walk to the south of Todmorden. Starting with the steep climb up Todmorden Edge and a short section of the Calderdale Way it was then up through Gorpley Clough to the reservoir. It was now out on to open moorland over Inchfield Pasture and the steady climb up Burnt Hills where we had our morning break.

After the mostly uphill start, we now walked along the tops towards Watergrove Reservoir before descending down through the disused quarries onto the Pennine Bridleway. We followed this back down to the valley for our lunch break by a lock on the Rochdale Canal.

It was now onto the final climb of the day up Chetburm Moor to the Pennine Way. We followed this long flat section before starting our descent past Gaddings Dam back into Todmorden.

Despite the weather forecast we only had a couple showers but it was very windy on the tops.

Thanks all

Stephen

Wednesday September 16th. Phil's Nob End. 11 miles. Leader: Phil Chapman.

Wednesday September 2nd. Longden End Circular Revisited. 12.5 miles. Leader: Andy Griffin.