A 2-day varied solo trek of the hills and quarries on the south side of the Machno valley.

Hoovering up unclimbed 500m summits is an occasionally useful technique for designing solo routes in new areas, and the first day of this trek claims a couple of god-forsaken hills in a wild region of Wales that very rarely sees any foot traffic at all, not surprising in some parts due to rough trackless terrain, but with the coveted advantage of complete solitude and spaciousness.

The outward section ascends to the reedy grasslands of Foel Boeth and the more heathery Pen y Bedw, crossing westwards via the bleak heatherclad environs of the large but seldom visited Llyn Conwy.

The return section traverses the minor top of Moel Marchyria to Cwm Penmachno and briefly joins the Snowdonia Slate Trail (SST) that climbs through the quarries to the foot of the Manods, ending with a fine easy promenade around to Llyn Bowydd and a descent through more quarries to Blaenau.

As expected the whole area was deserted from start to finish save for one photographer on the SST taking his tripod and gear up the track for shots over Cwm Penmachno. Despite the lack of rain, the saturated air of this weather stream resulted in one of the wettest camps I can remember, but it also produced an excellent fiery dawn sky and striking landscape colours at the pitch.

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A 3-day short and slow slackpacking exploration in the cwms to the west of Blaenau Ffestiniog.

Doubts about this October weather stream called for an open ended approach for this trip and we decided on the delightful area to the west of Blaenau Ffestiniog, rich in options for both circular exploratory routes or linear hikes as dictated by the conditions. Due to the brisk cold wind and unpredictable clag for much of the time on the ridges and summits, we decided on an extremely leisurely second day pottering around the craggy landscape surrounding Llyn Cwm-corsiog and soaking up the atmosphere of this wild region, reprising our outward route for the last day.

This very relaxed trip turned out highly enjoyable with a superb dawn sky on the last morning.

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A short and sweet 2-day trek around Llyn Cowlyd, visiting a new 500m Dewey top and a traverse of one of our favourite mountains.

Designed at short notice to squeeze in between appointments, this turned out to be a highly enjoyable hike with crystal clear views and unbroken sunshine, despite the previous day unleashing constant rain and the morning journey to Trefriw plagued by thick dank fog to ground level and flooded fields fleetingly glimpsed through the train window. This depressing scene suddenly dissipated mid-morning and the clear blue sky restored our backpacking mojo. The ground was unsurprisingly often very wet, in particular the descent from Llyn Cowlyd to Capel Curig rating a good 9 on the squelchometer.

A pair of walkers passed us early in the day above the Gelli woodland, thereafter the area was deserted.

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A 2-day circuit of the south Pennine moors and reservoirs around the Calderbrook valley north of Littleborough.

The outward eastern section traverses the flank of Clegg Moor to join the line of the old Roman road ascending to Blackstone Edge and descending an old packhorse trail to the Warland group of reservoirs. Good tracks and trails around the eastern edges and moors of this region give miles of very easy walking with no ascent.

The return leg descends to cross the valley at Walsden and ascends the western section to its highest point at Freeholds Top above Ramsden Clough. The route ascends around Rough Hill and traverses Crook Moor to the western outskirts of Littleborough.

We had suffered for a week or two from something with flu-like symptoms but we felt sufficiently recovered to try this modest route, a very slow business when coupled with the heat but an enjoyable walk.

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A 2-day linear trek to the Black Hill massif with a long eastern approach via the Don valley and Winscar reservoir.

The outward line follows the westernmost section of the Upper Don Trail (UDT), coincident here with the Transpennine Trail, to Winscar reservoir and ascends to follow Snailsden Edge to the group of deeply incised ravines around Ramsden Clough. The ascent to Black Hill from the Holme Moss mast is via Heyden Head. This approach is new territory for us, one of the very few pockets of the Dark Peak unexplored in our many years of walking here.

The return initially follows the Pennine Way towards Laddow Rocks and diverges to Black Chew Head. This time we continued on another new line to its sister top Featherbed Moss, sporting a trig point just 1m lower, and descended another new route via Millstone Rocks to Tintwistle Knarr and its impressive rock faces, finally joining the Longdendale Trail to Hadfield.

On one of the strangest weather forecasts we’ve seen for ages, containing a varying mix of dense mist down to valley level and warm sunshine depending on location and timing, the Peak District gave the most favourable odds overall. The conditions were quite good: sunny periods, a lot of cloud but no clag and very humid.

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A 2-day traverse of the Stainton fells in the far south-west of the Lake District.

The outward line climbs Black Combe by the usual well worn path from the south-west, continues to Whitecombe Head and crosses Black Dub to ascend to the first of the Stainton summits and Whitfell.

The return line is firstly through the remaining summits to Woodend Height and down to Devoke Water, then crosses a saddle in the hills to Brantrake Crags and descends to the Esk valley. The Esk trail is followed to Muncaster Tarn for an easy return and final descent to Ravenglass.

The weather forecast suggested the north-west as the best bet for a couple of days of fine hiking in the mediocre general weather stream, an opportunity for a short visit to one of the very few parts of the Lake District we still felt any inclination to backpack. The views turned out to be thick and hazy but this was a highly enjoyable trek.

Silecroft and Ravenglass are obvious choices for a short linear trip by public transport and a few variations of this route have been on our books for years. Apart from the initial ascent to Black Combe and, in this variation, the Esk Trail finish, the route was deserted and is excellent backpacking for those prepared for some wild terrain combined with excellent pitching ground.

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A 2-day solo circuit of the Shropshire hills around Church Stretton.

The outward line traverses the hill fort of Caer Caradoc and crosses the valley to ascend to to the heath/moorlaand plateau of The Long Mynd.

The return descends the ridge of Minton Hill and Packetstone Hill to Little Stretton to recross the valley for a traverse of Ragleth Hill.

The first day was unbroken sunshine with fantastic views, the second was misty and murky with dull local views but still enjoyable walking with plenty of interest.

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A 2-day circuit of Cwm Eigiau and the northernmost Carneddau hills, from Dolgarrog on the west side of the Conwy valley to Llandudno Junction station.

The outward line starts at the Dolgarrog Dam memorial walk and climbs through the Coed Dolgarrog nature reserve to a low-level route around the Cwm Eigiau valley flank. The return ascends Tal y Fan and follows good paths and tracks through the hills around the Sychnant Pass, traversing Mynydd y Dref (Conwy Mountain) to Conwy.

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A curtailed hike of the western ridge of the Tarren hills, culminating at Tarrenhendre, descending via the Dolgoch Falls and climbing around Craig yr Aderyn to Llanllwyda.

This is the first section of our longer planned route of three to four days that was effectively cut short by a dramatic mishap at the Dolgoch Falls on day two, a serious situation but one that could have been a lot worse – details in the full report.

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A few photos from a 2-day walk of the Mersey Valley Timberland Trail (MVTT), a route of ~21m (~34km) from Runcorn Hill to Oughtrington near Lymm, extended to start at Runcorn station and continue from Oughtrington to Altrincham.

The trail is very sparsely waymarked as such in the eastern half and not at all in the west, as far as we could tell, though some faded illegible waymarks might have done so. The actual route sometimes varies in minor detail from the line shown on OS mapping, our map shows these small deviations as accurately as we can remember them.

With a mixed weather forecast of sunshine and occasional showers, we dusted off this local trail from our bottom drawer of factory seconds, a route of variable character that starts at a small green high oasis in urban Runcorn and passes through town parks to more rural Cheshire countryside and ending near Lymm, the highlights being the fine woodlands, some managed by the Woodland Trust. The weather was much better than expected with no rain and quite hot on the second day.

Pitching on this type of low level trail is often hit and miss, the possibilities appearing very grim for a while in the evening, but we eventually found an excellent woodland pitch, albeit a dark one – this was the first time we needed head torches to pitch with the sun still shining.

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