We did this as a challenge to raise money for the church restoration fund. 6 of us walked the whole trail over 2 days (35 miles) and we were joined by 2 extra on Saturday, and 3 extra on Sunday. We couldn't have hoped for better weather, and we had a great time. We walked the trail from South (Kidsgrove) to North (Disley - although we ended at Lyme Park). We all met at the train station at 8.15am to catch the train to Kidsgrove, and studied the maps on the journey. As soon as we left the station and walked onto the canal tow path at the start of the route, we immediately had a debate about which way to walk along the canal. We chose wisely.The start of the trail follows the Macclesfield canal north, until you head East to tackle the first of a number of hills:
Mow Cop with Rob
Mow Cop is a small village on the Cheshire/Staffordshire border, and is best known locally for Mow Cop Castle.
This was built as a summer house in 1754 by Wilbrham I of Rode Hall. It was designed to look like a ruined castle, and would have enhanced the view of the hill from the hall. The castle can be seen for miles around, and certainly does look like a ruin, even more so now after 250yrs of weathering! You can walk (or in fact, drive) right up to the base of the 'castle', and views from here are fantastic. We could see right across the Cheshire plain, and pick out Bickerton (my 2nd hill) as well as a number of hills in the distance, possibly the Berwyns and the Clywds. We could also now see our route as it stretched north for us towards The Cloud and beyond.Rob was the leader and organiser of this walk, so it seemed fitting that he should have Mow Cop as 'his' hill with it being our first climb of the day. He appears in the photo standing in front of The Old Man of Mow. This rock structure has been left behind after quarrying, and does indeed look like an old man sat down!
We didn't find the climb up to Mow Cop as bad as we had been expecting. We had been watching it get closer for a while, but as you walk up the steep sections were separated by some flatter bits. Reaching the village felt like an achievement though! You arrive at the top next to the church, and an old watering hole with the label 'The Parson's Well'. We agreed that he was!You leave Mow Cop and head pretty much due north along a great ridge. We could see The Cloud ahead of us, although some way off. The views just continued across the Cheshire Plain all day over to our left. We eventually left the ridge and followed the Gritstone Trail markers to the bottom of:
The Cloud with Ed
The Cloud is a great hill to climb.
The views form the top are fantastic. We all hunkered down behind some rocks for shelter to eat our packed lunches.Looking across to the north we could make out Croker Hill with it's radio mast, which was our objective for later in the day. We had made great progress up until this point, averaging about 3 miles per hour, but the climb up to the top was a bit more of a challenge. Although the hill is not that high, you start the ascent with some brutal steps, which I had remembered from January as being very difficult for Bethan with her shorter legs! Some of us started to have trouble with our knees and feet at this point, and we still had 10 miles to go... We ate our lunch on the top, sheltering behind some of the rocks. Legend has it that a giant once stood with one foot here, and one foot on Tegg's nose (see Grtistone trail day 2). When he lifted his foot to walk off, he left behind some grit from his shoe, thus forming The Cloud. It was behind some of this left-behind-grit that we escaped from the cold wind!
A cracking team photo got Ed up on top of the trig-point, then we headed down.The trail then heads East for at least a couple of miles, before swinging back North and West. The countryside was beautiful, and we found ourselves walking through a number of colourful meadows. the walking was fairly up and down, but with no challenging climbs, until we eventually started our final climb of the day, which took a zig-zag route to eventually get us to the top of:
Croker Hill and Sutton Common with Richard and Simon
Now, this hill has been shared, because Richard and Simon were only joining us for the day.
They both, I'm sure, wished they could have joined us for the 15 miles we had to do the next day, although they didn't seem too disappointed when their lift arrived to take them back home to their own beds...! I must point out at this point that Richard's wife, Andrea, had packed Richard and Simon off in the morning with a 'survival pack' each. This contained such essentials as a toy whistle to call for help, a lollipop 'whistle' to play a happy tune on, and a small shot of something designed to give you extra energy to 'run away from any chasing cows,' My favourite though, were the two glow-sticks, added in case of being stuck out overnight, so that we could 'signal the helicopter'!Croker Hill has a big radio mast on the top, but that doesn't really detract from the view. We could see back to The Cloud and to Mow Cop behind in the distance, and could also see ahead North to Tegg's Nose and our overnight destination below us. From here on in, it was almost like being in a car full of children asking 'are we nearly there yet!' The final couple of miles down from the top and then along the road to the village did seem like a long way, but at
least it was downhill, and a pub was waiting for us at the bottom!We had arranged to be put up in the vicarage of the village, and remain eternally grateful to the vicar who provided mattresses and breakfast!
All in all, a great day. Fantastic company and unbelievable views. Thanks to Rob, Richard and Simon, for hills 26 and 27!
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