A 2-day circuit around the moors and reservoirs to the north-west of Marsden.

The outward section initially follows the Huddersfield canal, with an option of a parallel woodland track, to Standedge Tunnel Visitor Centre and Tunnel End nature reserve to reach Close Gate Bridge, an old arched packhorse bridge. It ascends into the March Haigh moorland via Willikay Clough to join the Pennine Way (PW) over White Hill, the highest point of the route, to cross the M62 where it leaves the PW to reach Green Withens reservoir and ascend to the western side of Rishworth Moor.

The return section descends the eastern side of Rishworth Moor to recross the M62 via Booth Wood reservoir and traverses the high ground via Deanhead and Cupwith reservoirs to Slaithwaite Moor for a final descent via Marsden Moor.

We encountered just a few walkers on most sections of this route, the exception being Rishworth Moor that was totally deserted. This windswept rough grassland seemed particularly bleak on this very blustery trip and there is also the small distraction of the distant traffic hum from the M62 which, though monotone and can easily be tuned out to a large degree, is still there in the background.

The Standedge Tunnel, Britain's longest, deepest and highest canal tunnel is another feat of Victorian manual engineering and carries the Huddersfield Narrow Canal. The Visitor Centre celebrates its history and organises narrowboat trips into its tight depths. The small but delightful nature reserve eliminates some road walking and exploring it all would make a good half-day out.

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A relaxed 3-day route of the hills north of Ribblehead using stations on the Settle-Carlisle rail line.

The outward line visits the Grade II listed Ribblehead viaduct and ascends via the line of the rail tunnel towards Blea Moor, a new Dewey 500m top.

The route then descends through the Mossy Bottom forest and joins the Pennine Bridleway (PB) over the shoulder of Wold Fell to Arten Gill Moss for a final climb to Great Knoutberry Hill.

The return descends to rejoin the PB along Galloway Gate and down to Garsdale station.

This was our first visit to Ribblehead and first journey on this famously scenic rail line, a fine way to start the trip.

The relentless arid weather of this summer continues with no real sign of relief and this trip, like the last, was timed to end just before the onset of another 30°C+ heatwave driven by hot air moving north from France. On that last July trip to the Tarrens, we were taken aback by the near-disappearance of normally very reliable water sources and we were lucky to find our anticipated main source running just enough to fill our bottles. Once again our main source was running but, as expected, we had to carry a large weight of water.

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A backpack along the line of the south western Tarren Hills, based on an approach via a new 500m summit.

The outward line ascends via the Dolgoch Falls to the valley track of the Nant Dolgoch, an easy approach to a steep direct ascent of Pen Trum-gwr and a traverse of the Tarren summits to Foel y Geifr.

The return descends via the old quarries below the fine eastern cwm of Tarren y Gesail to reach forest tracks and lanes to the Afon Dyfi on the outskirts of Machynlleth, where a walkway/cycle route continues into the town.

This trip was timed to finish before the first day of blistering hot weather as forecast, these three days turned out merely… hot. We had cancelled a trip just a couple of weeks before due to a forecast of excessive heat combined with very high humidity, a seriously risky combination when backpacking at our age. On return, the hot spell was predicted to continue beyond next week, interesting times.

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A 4-day eastern route through the Pumlumon hills of mid Wales.

This was planned as a 3-day trip but forcibly extended en route by an extra night due to misjudged effort, blistering heat and some atrocious, debilitating terrain.

It approaches via a section of the Wye Valley Walk (WVW) to ascend Pumlumon Arwystli and continues northwards through the heart of the hills around Carnfachbugeilyn and Glaslyn.

The route then heads westwards around Llyn Cwm-bwr and through the Esgair y Ffordd forest to ascend Foel Cerrigbrithion and traverse Bwlch Hyddgen, finally picking up Glyndwr's Way (GW) through the northern hills towards Machynlleth.

The first day was a bank holiday Monday and the initial WVW section follows the main access track through the Sweet Lamb sports complex: we had visions of a hectic scene here with crowds milling around, but the whole area was eerily deserted, as were the hills beyond. We saw no other walkers at all until a solitary GW walker appeared near the end of day 3, our only sighting in the four days.

The extra night meant scouting the phone mapping for a reasonable pitch spot, not easy on such a small screen in this area, but we found a good woodland one. As it turned out, it also meant that for a significant portion of that night, we were pitched in a dramatic thunderstorm.

Recently several of my planned routes have been culled entirely or hacked apart to form shorter easier ones, even those designed only a couple of years ago but, evidently, I still sometimes think in the old ways and overestimate our capability relative to the route. This trip was highly instructive regarding food in this situation: stretching out the food to last another night and morning was a non-problem. In our exhausted state we could barely face the thought of eating anyway, only managing to force down a small amount and only because we knew we should.

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A 2-day backpack of the south-western tip of the Kinder area and around the western fringes of Bleaklow, visiting our last remaining unclimbed 500m Dewey top in the Dark Peak, culminating at Higher Shelf Stones and returning to Glossop via the Shelf Moor path.

The first backpack of this year, having done one single-day walk to assess our weakening capabilities, we designed this route as a rather easy trial overnighter with almost the lowest weight of kit possible for a backpack. The ascent on the first day in the sheltered heat of William Clough was slow and arduous as expected but improved considerably on the second day ascending to Higher Shelf Stones, a very encouraging result.

This trip included a Saturday for day 2, not a choice we wanted on a sunny forecast in the very popular Peak District but the only available slot between appointments. We chose what we thought would be a relatively little used path for the return leg but we were spectacularly wrong.

Anyway it was great to be out with the tent in superb weather and a welcome morale booster to show we could still do it, at least on a very modest scale.

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A single day training walk of the eastern half of the Etherow-Goyt Valley Way (EGW), a route that runs from the Longdendale Trail at Hadfield station on the western fringe of the Dark Peak to Vernon Park in Stockport, terminated today at Marple station.

After a long winter layoff, enforced in recent times by medical issues, coupled with an apparent big drop in fitness and stamina late last year, we tackled this very modest route mainly to assess our current state.

Allowing for the lesser weight of a daypack, the ascents and distance coverage went considerably better than expected, an encouraging result. The time however did not:- arriving in Compstall around 17:00, much later than originally expected, we diverted off the EGW to follow the Midshires Way through Brabyns Park to nearby Marple station.

The delays were partly because of inaccurate mapping of my GPX version of the route in a couple of places, but mainly due to improvising a diversion around a major footpath closure near Hollingworth. The interactive OS map linked above shows the normal EGW route in magenta and our diversion route added in blue. The closure notice is signed on the A57 at Tara Brook Farm and is scheduled to remain in force until winter 2028/2029.

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