Hiking Trails and Trips
Trips
The end of term walk for our older scouts in the 16th Harrogate Scout Troop. The clue is in the title 'Curry on A Hill.' So that we could fit it in the evening we chose the relatively short ascent of Sharp Haw, on the Southern edge of The Yorkshire Dales just north of Skipton. The word haw comes from the old English word hawian meaning view. Here there are two 'haws' side...
Short walk from Bilton to Knaresborough along Nidd Gorge, assisting with instruction in map reading & navigation. Fine.
Member of search team 4 for the North Yorkshire Scouts Teko Tohunga and Tewheri Expedition Competition weekend. Callsign SP84. All the scouts and explorer scouts did well and didn't need searching for. So it was a pleasant weekend in The Dales, being driven to standby points as directed by hike control on the radio, and then having short walks to check up on the competing teams.Thanks to Lilly our driver who looked...
This was my second short walk of the day in the Ouachita Forest of Western Arkansas, for a full description of the area see my previous walk in the day 'Lovers Leap.' This trail is adjacent to Earthquake Ridge Trail that I walked in early March 2012 when I visited Arkansas two months previously; this is also on my EveryTrail page. This walk was made up of the Carriage Trail and a little...
Back in Arkansas again on a work trip, the same place I visited at the start of March and again for two weeks. It's a lot warmer than the last time. The trees appear to have exploded since last time and are currently full of blossom (the flowering ones that is). I remember last time I was here I was told that it was too cold for snakes and bears so go enjoy....
This was day 2 of the 16th Harrogate Scouts Youth Hostel Weekend, see Malham Circular Walk for day 1 and more details about the weekend. This day was a little easier as all the scouts walked in small groups on their own, meeting up with leaders at pre agreed check points. The route roughly followed The Pennine Way from Malham to Gargrave with some slight variations where we made it more challenging for...
This is the 16th Harrogate Scouts annual Youth Hostel Weekend. We aim to do this every year in March as a 2 day walking weekend staying over in a Youth Hostel on the Saturday night. The idea is to get the scouts to put into practice all they have learn through the autumn and winter months both on our monthly hikes and all the route planning learning on some Friday nights at...
Whilst on a 2 week work visit to a sister plant to my company in Mena, Arkansas, I used a free day at the weekend to enjoy some of the local countryside. The Ouachita National Forest starts 1 mile outside of Mena and enjoys the American equivalent of National Park Status. The name is pronounced Watch-i-taw and is derived from local Native American names, and is now the name of the river...
The annual Jack Frost Hike for the 16th Harrogate Scout Group. We traditionally do this walk in early January and invite families along to join the scouts, targetting the type of walk and distance to be family friendly. This year it was a low level walk from Castle Bolton in Wensleydale, via Woodall and Aysgarth Falls to Carperby. Interesting to stop for lunch in the old mine workings just before Woodhall. The frozen...
Another scout hike for the autumn term, but we'd had some snow earlier in the week that had disappeared from Harrogate, could we manage to get somewhere local easily yet let the scouts enjoy the snow? Given the poorer weather and the proximity to Christmas we only had 7 scouts and 4 leaders so we were able to put 2 leaders with each group. We drove to Upper Nidderdale and parked near Lofthouse....
Day 2 of our older scouts winter mountaineering weekend (16th Harrogate Scout Group). We are based in the Northern Lakes with the boys and some leaders staying at Bark House Mountain Base (the bothy by Ashness Bridge) and the girls and balance of leaders staying at Keswick YHA.We started out from Bowscale having moved my car around to Scales ready for the finish later. We walked from Bowscale westward and then cut...
Day 1 of our older scouts winter mountaineering weekend (16th Harrogate Scout Group). We are based in the Northern Lakes with the boys and some leaders staying at Bark House Mountain Base (the bothy by Ashness Bridge) and the girls and balance of leaders staying at Keswick YHA.We parked up and started from Seathwaite. We walked to Stockley Bridge then to Styhead Tarn to pick up The Corridor Route to Lingmell Col....
Another hike with scouts from 16th Harrogate, only 3 weeks on from the previous one and we were once again blessed with a beautiful day. Not a lot more to add, we had 4 leaders so worked in 2 groups with the 11 scouts we had with us. This year those learning their navigation skills for the first time seek to be coming on very fast.It was very interesting to look around...
The first hike of the new term and new scout year with the 16th Harrogate Scouts. Another walk where we work in small parties with a couple of leaders each. We work on map reading and navigation with the scouts. At pre determined points on our route card we all meet up for snacks or lunch.This was a lovely walk from Grassington to Kettlewell staying at a fairly high level climbing north...
A day out with RAYNET providing safety radio cover for the UK Athletics British Hill and Fell Relay Championships. We were on Leg 3 of 4. Our leg was the navigational challenge leg where the route map was given to competitors as they started.
Our location was Sweet Hill which is a knowle on the Southern flank of Great Whernside approximately 1km south of the main summit. As we were sat in the...
Day 2 of the 16th Harrogate Scouts' Hawes YHA weekend. The aim today was for the young people to walk in groups on their own. Consequently the adults walked the route first leaving one of us at each 'checkpoint' so that we could check the parties through. The adults then set off again behind all the parties to form a sweep. So you'll see my route has several deviations and prolonged stops....
A hike with members of 16th Harrogate Scouts from Bainbridge to Hawes Youth Hostel via Semer Water and Wether Fell (including the 614m Hewlett & Nuttall summit Drumaldrace).This was the 1st of two walking days in Wensleydale where the aim was to let the scouts enjoy a day in the hill and take in a local summit. We split into 3 parties with a hillwalking certificate holder in each (me in mine)....
A hiking trip with the 16th Harrogate Scouts. This time rather than training hillwalking navigation with those already experienced we were putting the emphasis on the scouts working as independent teams. So rather than walking with them we (leaders) were walking between groups waiting for them out of sight at key decision points. We had a lovely day out in this popular beauty spot.WeatherA mostly fine day. We had headed east from...
DetailsA day out walking in Nidderdale with the 16th Harrogate Scouts to train or practice navigation whilst enjoying walking too. I walked with a group of 5 scouts who are quite new to this, teaching basic navigation with a map. We had two other 'older' groups who walked alone but were regularly checked upon. A very pleasant circular walk that is a good 'low level' alternate to some of the higher ground...
A solo trip including England's 4th highest mountain, being a weekend it was quite busy. The 200m climb to the summit ridge of Skiddaw up the scree from Carl Side is quite a slog but the ridge walk up Ullock Pike via Longside Edge to Carl Side more than makes up for it, complete with fine views of Skiddaw and across Bassenthwaite Lake. A few km diversion was taken once on the...
