Sunday 1 April 2012

Standedge Walk
After days of dull grey skies, Sunday surprisingly turned out to be a bright sunny day with a gentle breeze – ideal walking weather. Varying numbers of SWOG members (we started with 17, peaked at 18 and ended with 13!) took part in some or all of the walk, starting at the Fox House pub, just past Hathersage. During the morning we enjoyed excellent views as we walked the full extent of Stanage Edge along easy paths, until we hit the A57, with an elevenses stop complete with ice cream.
From there we retraced our steps for a short spell, then attempted to pick up the path across Moscar Moor. After a  belated lunch stop, we followed a series of vague paths and sheep tracks across open moorland, before finally arriving at the wall and path marked on the top of the moor. Unfortunately this path also soon disappeared, but we soon picked up a proper track again down to a small lane, where the first of our party to go left us to take a shortcut back to the car park.
From there we dropped gradually down into Hathersage on grassy tracks, where 4 more  left us, before a final steep climb up through woods and fields, from where we could see The Fox House. A short walk across moorland brought us back to the cars.
Officially walk length per Trail route description - 14.25 miles
Walk length per Colin’s phone - 24 miles!
Walk length per Jack – last known reading 14.1 miles, after which his device went flat (it was obviously too much for it!)
Best guess – 15 miles

More Photos HERE