Kinder Scout - we did it!

I was born and raised in Manchester and as a child my Dad would take me walking in the hills above Glossop when we were visiting my Gran. I’m pretty sure it must have been on one of those walks that Dad told me about the Kinder Trespass, it’s certainly one of those things I’ve just always known about.

While I was off sick, I was looking around for podcasts to listen to and I came across Clare Balding’s Ramblings radio programme. I listened to about five years’ worth of podcasts, including one from Kinder Scout commemorating the 80^th anniversary of the Trespass. It occurred to me then that despite having grown up not that far away, walked in the area as a child and walked in the area as an adult, I’d never done Kinder Scout. So that was it, I was going to do Kinder as a sort of catharsis, a way of telling cancer to take a running jump.

Now I’ve always been a bit of an organiser, so despite still having chemo I started planning. Usually with walks I follow a guide of some description so I did a bit of googling. I didn’t really find what I was looking for in terms of a guided walk but I did find Dean Read’s Peak Routes YouTube channel. Dean’s videos of his walks in the Peak District gave me some ideas for the route to take and also kept me going – it was fun to spot places in the videos that I had walked.

So, as described in previous posts on this blog, I did some training once the treatment was over. Then yesterday (Wednesday 26th August 2015) we, my husband, 11 year old son and I, did Kinder Scout, almost a year to the day since my diagnosis.

We stayed at the Youth Hostel in Castleton on both the Tuesday and Wednesday nights so we could have a full day to do the walk.  We’re not early risers but we were on the road to Edale before 10am although we were slowed down by an unexpected flock of sheep! (Note the weather.)

It was raining when we parked up at Edale so we all put on our waterproofs before walking along the main road up to the Nag’s Head pub and the official start of the Pennine Way. As advised by Dean and my boss and mentioned in the previous blog post, I decided not to follow the Pennine Way at this point but to go via Grindsbrook. By the time we’d left the road and joined the path to Grindsbrook the sun had come out, so off came the waterproofs. Note my yellow waterproof rucksack cover ...

We continued to follow Grindsbrook, climbing Grindsbrook Clough which involved a lot of scrambling over large boulders which we all enjoyed, especially my son.

We weren’t in any hurry and it took us two hours to get to the top of Grindsbrook Clough but it was worth it for the view.

According to the OS map the path continued west for a short while before heading north for Kinder Downfall. However, we ended up going too far west and had to double back. Here’s where we should have turned but we carried on, stopped for lunch, carried on a bit further and then realised our mistake and headed back! Note, still got the rucksack cover ...

Once on the right path we discovered that actually there wasn’t much of a path at all! I’d taken a compass bearing at the top of Grindsbrook Clough and I was pleased I had. I’d also stored the Kinder Downfall geocache into my phone as a backup. We knew we had to basically follow the water but occasionally we veered off course. 

There was the odd amusing incident involving the peat bog, my son managed to leave his boot behind when trying to leap over once particularly boggy bit. We should have taken a picture of that! 

Eventually the path alongside the water became more obvious and we followed that. We knew we were heading in the right direction and it was nice to see Kinder Gates and know we were definitely on the right path! Soon afterwards we made it to Kinder Downfall. 

This view looks out from Kinder Downfall to Kinder Reservoir.

We spent a good half hour at Kinder Downfall enjoying the views and taking a breather. I tried to find the geocache but didn’t manage to spot it on this occasion. Once the break was over we then followed the Pennine Way path south. It was nice to see the trig point at Kinder Low and know we hadn’t much further to go. It was while we stopped for a quick drink at Kinder Low I realised my rucksack cover must have blown off in the wind!

 

However, those who know the area know that we still had Jacob’s Ladder to go. While fairly short in distance this part of the path is very steep and descending is pretty hard on the legs after walking all day. This photo doesn’t really do it justice.

Once down Jacob’s Ladder we continued to follow the Pennine Way path back to Edale and a well-deserved meal at the aptly named Rambler Inn. We reckon we did about 12 miles in total. That’s the furthest my son has ever walked, I’m really proud of him. It was a fantastic walk, tough in places but worth it for the great views.