Bank Holiday Weekender - day 2

Todmorden to Golcar

Distance 20 miles

Ascent 870m

Weather very warm and sunny

Roe deer, woodpecker, bunnies, curlews, wheatear, goldfinches, linnet / redpoll??

The day was already hotting up as we left the inn and walked down into Todmorden for purchasing on lunch supplies. From the town centre, we headed up the lane passed to the church along the Calderdale Way again and up on to the hills. The path goes along Lumbutts Road and up the hillside to cross the Pennine Way just before Studley Pike. There were steady streams of people visible heading up towards Gaddings Dam, and quite a few heading towards Studley Pike (with varying degrees of map reading confidence.) At the top we carried straight on towards Withins Clough Reservoir.

We decided to take the permitted path down to Cragg Vale across the dam wall and down the other side of the valley, but after we’d crossed the dam wall there was a sign saying the path was closed due to a massive landslide. So we walked back and down the lane.

The walk up the hillside on the other side of the valley was through woodland, warm and humid, lots of fluids drunk. Across the fields at the top we met a young roe deer and had a skylark serenade during our lunch stop. The footpath was blocked at one point, so we headed around a lane and took the next footpath signed down. The footpath gods were on our side, as what could have been an overgrown, muddy disaster of a path actually was quite pleasant - although still quite muddy in places.

The route approaches the M62 and then veers away, so it seems like the motorway isn't getting any nearer, and then we came around the corner of a hill and it was right there. A last bit of up along a road to the top of the hill brought us to the Best Western Pennine Manor.