Pennine Way Day 1- Edale to Crowden 16 miles

Looking down from the top of Jacobs Ladder

Stone Church as you Walk in to Edale from the Station

 The only section of the Way I had a companion was the first day. Me and my mother caught the train to arrive in Edale by eleven and after a quick drink at Cooper's Cafe we began the stroll along the valley towards Jacobs ladder. The rolling hills are lovely and a good warm up among flocks of sheep before the stiff climb up Jacobs.       

View from Edale Rocks looking down at Jacobs Ladder

  Not having done half a much preparation as I'd planned the backpack was causing me a lot of problems, moreover I was attempting to keep up with mother who (unlike me) wasn't carrying twenty odd pounds on her back. I failed to keep a constant pase and by the time I reached half way up the accursed hill I'd begun to rethink the whole plan. Luckily I have a talent more essential to hiking than endurance, fitness and strength of character: I have the memory of a gold fish and within a minute of completing a painful and desperate climb I'll have fooled myself into thinking I'd competed it easily.
   Things leveled up after Kinder Low and when we began to walk along ridge I finally claimed sense of rhythm. The wind however grew in strength and the promised rain seemed to be sweeping in. My mother, not having snacked as she walked, needed lunch so I stopped to allow her to eat her sandwiches. A man paused alongside us and began a conversation. He turned out to be a volunteer park ranger. Sat together munching on nuts he treated us to a little history of the place and his job.
  As always when retracing the route the second time, the walk along the ridge seemed to take twice as long as I thought and it was a relief when we finally came to the end and the sharp decent called 'Jacob's Ladder: The Reckoning" to the snake path. It's at this point that I went wrong last time, walking straight forward instead of turning right a few hundred meters from the sign post at the acorn marker on Mill Hill.

Looking back from Snakes Path to Jaccop's Ladder: The Reckoning- cotton grass and slabs over the Moor

  The Snake Path is where you realise how much harder it would have been for walkers doing the Pennine Way thirty years ago. Massive slabs from mills and old factories mark a set route through boggy marshland which at times is a foot deep in rainwater. With no clear path and only a compass bearing it would have been a work of half a day to cross instead of a dull and effortless hour or two. It is easy to image it as Tolkin's marshes before Mordor and as the rain began to fall it looked bleaker and bleaker.
  We reached the A57 at around six and collapsed for ten or so minutes. The weather was too windy to remain for long without getting cold so getting to our feet we trudged onward. We were both already exhausted but one thing made all the difference, I lent mother my Mp3 player while I listened to my Ipod. We past another couple at the cross point, in the mid twenties, and also resting. The girl seemed to be carrying nearly as much as the guy which earned them my approval instantly.
   The ascent up Devil's Dyke to Bleaklow Head was considerably easier than I'd expected even though my feet and back were hurting at this point- in fact both me and mother had already rationed ourselves a painkiller which I think was helping things along considerably. Things weren't helped my the fog creeping in and the rain increasing. We both raised out hoods and went into our own little world- Mother's was listening to Dick Francis while my audio companion was the Bortemaius Trilogy.

Bleaklow Head

  The descent took longer than the ascent and the rain got worse. Around half-seven father phoned to check on our progress, I told me to wait half an hour before leaving to pick up mother. We stopped again along Clough Edge on the 'Pulpit'. It took another hour from there to get down to Torside Reservoir, cross to the other side and up to A628. A quick track up and back down to the Crowden campsite.
  Crowden campsite is the best on the entire hike. It has a massive drying room, good showers, a small shop and nice flat areas to pitch the tent- moreover the guy who runs it popped out of his camper without a grumble to check me in and sell me some soup. Mum was picked up and I was left to collapse and massage my aching feet. I went straight to the shower and changed into wonderfully dry clothes- shoving the rest in the dry room. Once fed I put myself straight to bed.