With a forecast for a
cold and frosty day and also sunny and clear weather, a decision was
made to make best use of the conditions and have walk on Bleaklow.
Bleaklow is another
large boggy peaty plateau to the north of Kinder Scout and with the
cold weather we were hoping the boggy bits would be frozen and there
would be fantastic views with the clear conditions. And so it proved
to be.
After driving to
Glossop, we parked in the old part of the town in Shepley Street then
left the town via a bridleway on a rough track leaving the street a
short distance away. After a few hundred metres, the track curved
around a bend and through a gate. Here a footpath led uphill
straight-ahead also through a small gate.
Following the path up
the ridge as it steepened above the large ravine formed by
Yellowslacks Brook, we stopped for a short break sitting in the sun
on some gritstone boulders.
Continuing on with our
walk, we followed the edge of the ravine until eventually we were
almost at the same level as the brook. Then we veered off to see if
we could find our intended destination of Bleaklow Head and the Wain
Stones. Soon we could see a large rocky tor not too far away but this
we soon figured out were the Hern Stones and the rocks we could see
further to the north must be the Wain Stones.
After tuning
northwards we made our way across the tussocks and boggy sections and
soon arrived at the Wain Stones which from a certain angle appear to
be kissing each other!
We sat in the shelter
from the very cold wind and ate our lunch while we looked at the
views of the surrounding Peak District in all directions. Next we
followed a vague footpath to our next point of call, the Hern Stones.
From the Hern Stones
we headed due south and hoped to intersect Crooked Clough and the
route of the Pennine Way at Devil's Dike. As we were heading that
way, we saw something peculiar ahead and not too far away: a large
circular object in silhouette due to the low winter sun to the south
with regular blobs of some sort spaced around its circumference.
As we got nearer, we
realised it was one of the many aircraft wrecks which can be found on
Kinder and Bleaklow. What we had seen was part of one of the radial
aircraft engines from a USAF B29 Superfortess. There was a large
amount of wreckage spread over maybe a quarter of a mile with a
memorial plaque explaining that the crash had happened in 1948 an all
13 on board had died. There were also a number of Poppy Day poppy
memorials, some which must have been left there quite a few years ago
judging from their condition. The plaque read "IN MEMORY Here
lies the wreckage of B-29 Superfortress "Overexposed" of
the 16th. photographic reconnaissance squadron USAF which tragically
crashed whilst descending through cloud on 3rd November 1948 killing
all 13 crew members. The aircraft was on a routine flight from RAF
Scampton to American AFB Burtonwood. It is doubtful the crew ever saw
the ground."
From here we continued
onwards to reach a path skirting the top of a declivity called
Devil's Dike and is part of the Pennine Way. This brought us to a
crossing of a another path called Doctor's Gate which we then
followed north-eastwards above Shelf Brook. In sections this path was
very icy where water which had been flowing across or along it, had
frozen so we pause to put on our Kahtoola Microspikes which made
progress a lot quicker and more secure.
Luckily the worst of
the icy section wan;t too long, so we again stopped for a minute to
remove the Microspikes again.
We followed the route
of Doctor's Gate back along the valley and it seemed a lot further
than we expected. This brought us back to the bridleway section of
rough track we had followed earlier near Glossop.
We turned back along
the track to retrace our previous route pausing for a few minutes as
we watched a heron which was standing in the river below the track.
Soon we were back at
the car and after changing from our boots, we headed back along the
Snake Pass to Bamford and then to Hathersage for a meal at Outside.
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