Ascent: 550m
Weather: very windy, warmer in the valley
Quite a late start for our first proper walk since finishing the Cleveland Way, we got packed up and were set off by about 10:30am. We headed up on to the nearby moors without any real plan or route in mind, I'd just thought we could head passed the Aiggin Stone and reservoirs towards Stoodley Pike and see how far we got, however out on the tops the wind was cold and unrelenting, so when Rob suggested taking a path down into the valley and walking along the Rochdale Canal back via Hollingworth Lake, that sounded like a fine idea.
Leaving the Pennine Way down a marked footpath at the end of Warland Reservoir, we then turned off to try and find a path which was clearly marked on the map, but in reality there was just moor and bog. Quite boggy bog. When we saw a chap on a mountain bike making good progress not far away, we made a beeline to where he was in the hope that his path would be dry. Or indeed, just be a path. We arrived on a line of paving slabs though the bog, leading towards the nearby reservoir. The line of this path bears no relation to any of the footpaths shown on the map, but we weren't complaining. We skirted the reservoir, came down a flight of steps and down a clear grassy path, stopping briefly to visit a big rock, and then down to join the Pennine Bridleway. The PBW leads back into Todmorden and down (with a fair bit of up as well) to the Rochdale Canal.
This bit of the Rochdale canal was very pleasant - we stopped for some lunch on a rickety bench, watched a family negotiating a lock, saw lots of flowers including yellow flag iris, columbine and stork's bill, and walked passed the highest broad canal lock in the country. We also saw a Hell Dog, which was not pleasant.
Leaving the canal, we followed a nice footpath towards Hollinworth Lake (popular as ever) and then met up with the PBW again for a while, under the M62 motorway and along the track along the hillside parallel to the motorway back up to the aerial and the car.
