Day 43: Buckden Pike

Distance: 12.8 miles
Missteps: 2

To get to Thoraby from Kettlewell, you start by walking a couple of miles along the scenic, flat, well trodden Dales Way, following the River Wharfe to the village of Starbotton.


From there you have two choices. See the big hill in the photo below, the one with the road that goes straight up?


The hill is Buckden Pike. One route is to go up that road, then climb 1500 feet on a path up over Buckden Pike, walk across Walden Moor, and then drop down six miles later into Waldendale. The other route is to stay along the River Wharfe for a few more miles, and go around Buckden Pike and follow the road into Bishopdale. Our Kettlewell B&B advertised that they were walker friendly, so on arrival we asked for an opinion. Lizzie didn't think she could offer an opinion - except that the second route was less climbing and less boggy, but referred us to her husband. He knew every trail on our map, and I liked his opinion: The route around Bishopsdale is fine. But Buckden Pike is a much better walk, the views are first rate, and the track is quite well defined. "It's a bit of a climb, but really there is just one pull here", pointing, "and another here, and then you're up on the top". So we took the scenic, more challenging, and slightly more direct route.


One advantage of the route over Buckden Pike is the increased chance of adventure. A week or so back, I was on the phone to my sister Carolyn, and she complained that the blog hasn't had the same level of drama as in the beginning. Just a few days later, our snowstorm hit, so that helped her cause some. But the real problem is that after six weeks, we've figured things out a little, so we no longer screw up as much. Well, I'm happy to report that today did not go entirely smoothly: we each had a little misstep, we ended up off course in the middle of a bog, and the weather gave us the usual Yorkshire combination of rain, sun, wind, and hail.


Dawn's misstep was up on Walden Moor. One minute she's walking along, through terrain like in the picture below, walking across one of those grass islands in a sea of black mucky peat.


The edge of the island was not stable. She put her weight on, it gave way, and down she went, sliding a foot or two then getting dumped onto the fortunately soft and wet muck. I turned around, and there she was on the ground, mostly on her pack, and just for a moment looking a little like a turtle on her back. The women reading this (except for my sister) will be happy to hear that I rushed back, extended my arm, helped her up, and made sure she was ok. The guys, and Carolyn, will be disappointed that I did not reach first for my camera. So no picture. Sorry. Instead, here's a picture of the ridiculously picturesque village of Starbotton that I took on the way up.


My misstep happened in similar terrain, a couple of hours later, coming down off the moor picking our way through boggy ground to Walden Head. I had to cross a three foot piece of ground that looked like harmless grass with maybe a bit of water over it, about like this:


I put my foot on the ground. It felt squishy, but ok. I lifted my back foot, putting all my weight, just for a second, on the grass. Whoosh! The grass parted, as if commanded by the staff of Moses, and my leg started going down into the mire beneath. I couldn't believe it. My reflexes kicked in, fortunately. My back foot swung forward to the other side and I pulled my leg out. It was less than a second, but even so I was in about half way to my knee, and my leg was still going down. If my other foot had not grabbed firm soil, it's easy to imagine I'd have been in to my waist. We've read about how easy it is to sink into boggy moorland, how sheep and even horses just disappear. Well, now I get it.


Here and there on the moor we found posts with signs. We hoped they'd say reassuring things like "Walden Head, thataway", but, no, all of them said "Nesting ground birds here." We saw a few, and this one was nice enough to hop up on a wall and stay still so I could snap his picture.


Once we got past the first pull up the hill, we saw no animals on the moorland except for each other, the birds, and some bunnies. It was quiet.


But on the way up, we saw sheep with curvy horns, just like in the Yorkshire Dales park logo. They were super shaggy, and had body and horn paint.


But once past the sheep, this was our most remote day of walking. Even though you know you are on a densely populated little island, when you are up by yourself on the moor, it really feels like a vast place.


Our walk was so remote, we didn't even pass a pub. All day! Before we left Kettlewell, Dawn ran out to the village shop and picked up two cheese sandwiches (Wensleydale!), some apples, and a big bag of crisps. We found a great spot overlooking Waldendale and ate our lunch during a 30 minute sunny spell between some hail and some rain. A great lunch.


Coming down off the moor, there was near drama, as we had many small streams to ford. When you're on a big time footpath, like the Pennine Way, every little bit of water has a bridge, and the boggy stretches have flagstones lining the way. But this path is a bit more small time, so you're on your own. You can see the ford is not that difficult, but the rock under the water is covered with algae and is super slick, the water is pretty fast, and a slip means disaster, so that's why Dawn looks a little nervous.


One of the perks of this route is that it dropped us into Waldendale, possibly the quietest of the dales. Here's Dawn looking down into Waldendale from the moor.


There is only one road, and it dead ends at Walden Head, where our path picks up, so no one drives there except the few dozen farmers who live there. It's quiet and beautiful, and what I imagine Yorkshire was like everywhere before it was discovered by tourists (like us).



To get to Thoralby, all we needed to do, according to our map, was go through a woodland on a footpath, and then drop down a hill. Sounds good. By the woodland is apparently managed by someone who aced Clearcutting 101 at the OSU Forestry department. No tree was left behind.


We found the path, and were able to follow it just over a half mile. Though it wasn't the quiet walk in the woods we anticipated, it went the right way, so we were fine with it. But once we got to the edge of the former woodlot, the path crossed a stile over a fence and went into a bog. We could see, a few hundred meters away, where it went over another fence and back into the deforested land of destruction. Not really wanting to retrace our steps, and then walk an extra two miles on the road, we went for it. Considering the previous bog had a better path, and still nearly swallowed my leg, I was a little nervous. We used caution. And made it. Our reed grass tuft jumping skills have really gotten a good workout today.


On the other side of the former woods, we headed down a path (boggy in places) to Thoralby, where we are now! We had a good dinner at the local, and a couple of pints of Sheeps Head Best Bitter for me. But one thing we've not had in Thoralby is wifi, so this post will be a little late.


Tomorrow we walk into Wensleydale and from there to Arkengarthdale. To get there we'll have to go over Dent Hill, Grouse Butt, and Shooting Butt (really). Maybe there will be more drama!

Location:Thorlby, Yorkshire