2014 02 15 Watergrove


                                                                    

From Glen:

Watergrove.  Despite atrocious conditions this walk still attracted 9 members all keen and raring to go, well sort of.

The rain was falling steady and it was obviously set in for the day. The route took us over Brown Wardle and into Whitworth. We dropped into Healey Dell. The water flowing down the ravine was spectacular given the amount of rainfall. We had an early morning break here in the relative shelter of the rocks as the next few miles were going to be exposed. We briefly picked up the Pennine Bridleway and headed up to Rooley moor. We headed away from the packhorse route and headed towards Jackson Moor. A lovely, desolate area only marred by the huge Britannia Quarry on the skyline. Heading towards Bacup, we passed through the now de-commissioned Greens Moor Quarry that’s now been given over to the mountain bikers as the place is riddled with ‘man made’ trails where skill, adequate equipment and a huge amount of bottle is the prerequisite to negotiate the trails safely. Just one hardy soul felt the need of an adrenalin rush as we passed through today.

Lunch was had in the shelter of a local park in Bacup then we rather soggily pressed on with our return leg. We climbed up towards the Rossendale Way and dropped down to the Observatories on the Todmorden Rd. Re crossing the main rd, we climbed up to the reservoir at Gorple and the steady climb onto Inchfield Pasture…another desolate moor above Todmorden. Final climb loomed but thankfully a steady pull soon saw us on the Hades Skyline above Watergrove. By now the rain had eased and we were blessed with a dry descent back to the cars.

Great walk in testing conditions..both weather wise and underfoot.

22 miles in fine Pennine countryside.

From Julia:

"Water"grove by name "Water"grove by nature.

10 hardy souls set off on Saturday's walk from Watergrove Reservoir, led by Dave Gordon.  The wind and rain never let up, although we did have a very slight reprieve in the afternoon for about half an hour.  Despite the conditions the walk was excellent and our spirits weren't dampened by the weather.  Dave didn't let us down as we clocked up 22 miles and 4,500 ft of climbing. 

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