27 February 2016

Stomp around Stanhope quarry, crawleyside & moor area

No riding my bike this week but went out for a 3.5 run on Wednesday, 2hr walk on Thursday and a shorter walk on Friday night which was a similar route to Monday night covering 4.2 miles. Today the forecast was looking dry and no wind so we decided to head up to to Stanhope to park up at the Dales Centre for a walk out. I was planning on walking up Crawleyside and over the first cattle grid then turning right and over the moors but could not remember if there was a path all the way up so googled walks / Crawlyside and found a proper off road footpath which takes you up through a quarry then skirts the moor edge taking you out at the cattle grid - spot on. As you can imagine this was nearly all up hill just like the road but not so steep. Once onto the moor there was a real cold wind blowing so didn't hang around long and took the track over the moor which has nearly all been resurfaced since I last rode it a few years ago. This takes you out on a singletrack road which is a downhill. At this point we were planning on dropping straight back down in to Stanhope but the mileage was less than I thought so found a path which crossed a couple of small fields before dropping down a steep valley and over a bridge / stream, turned right and there was a lovely muddy single track all down through the woods taking us out at the bungalows opposite the filling station. From there we went to the railway station to see if the train was running but not today, then we took the path alongside the river to the ford at the other end of village. The water was well down so crossed over and back on the slippery stones before heading back to the Dales centre via the open air swimming pool. 5.2 miles - moving time 1hr 46mins
Quick change of foot wear, walk around the village and into the chippy just off the market place for a fry up dinner - lovely!
Here are some snaps from the walk -












































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