Kinder Scout and Bleaklow
My first day on the Pennine Way was a wet one with rain for most of the day and low cloud over some of the most challenging and bleak terrain in the Peak District. Setting off from the youth hostel I walked across the fields of Edale to Grindsbrook Booth, the official start of the Pennine Way, and immeditately started the way across fields that I’ve walked over many times before on the lower slopes of Kinder Scout. The first time I walked on that path was in 1992 while walking around Edale with my Father; it was chucking it down with rain and we were slipping and sliding all over the place until we eventually reached the small hamlet of Upper Booth. I’ve never had any problems since and despite the rain on this occasion I still had no problems. The road beyond Upper Booth took me past Lee House and up the valley to Jacob’s Ladder. I had been on this steep path only once before and that was in descent back in 1998. There are two routes up Jacob’s Ladder: a walled lane and a steep stony path. My Harvey Map claimed the Pennine Way takes the lane, but common sense (and OS Maps) directed me onto the steep steps of the ladder and so eventually I came onto the misty moor.
Turning right I climbed up onto the Kinder plateau and past the eerie looking Edale Rocks, with the whole area in the low clouds having a spooky feel to it. I remember being told many years ago not to go onto the Kinder plateau in bad weather as it can be a dangerous place. Although I am experienced enough now in navigation to not be worried by such weather, it still left me in awe of the bleak, challenging surroundings. I continued across the barren landscape along the path to a very large cairn in amongst the featureless expanse. The trig point of Kinder Low must have been somewhere around there but my maps indicate the Pennine Way doesn’t go to the trig point and actually passes just west of it. This was quite a disappointment for me as I’ve only once before been to Kinder Low, and I couldn’t find it on this occasion. After passing the area of Kinder Low I walked alongside the western edge of Kinder Scout to the Kinder Downfall. This waterfall is one of the highlights of the Pennine Way, and of the Peak District, where the River Kinder falls off the edge of the plateau. Previous times I’ve been at the Downfall there hasn’t been much water in the river and such is the funnelling effect of the landscape the water has gone up the waterfall. Not so on this occasion. 
There was loads of brown water pouring over the falls, but such is the shape of the Downfall, and the wet rocks, I was unable to get a good look at it. Soon I moved on and continued along the western edge to the north-western corner of the plateau and down slippery steps to the top of William Clough. Beyond the pass I was now on virgin ground, the first section of the Pennine Way that I hadn’t previously been on before, as I climbed up Mill Hill and turned right onto a long dreary traipse across the peat bog of Glead Hill. I tried to imagine what it must have been like to walk along the Pennine Way before the flag stones were laid on the boggiest sections. No wonder Wainwright said “I’ve had enough of it” after writing his Pennine Way Companion. On a day like this, walking along the old path would have been an awful quagmire, thank God for the flag stones! After several miles of walking I eventually reached the top of the Snake Pass road, and there, with my back to the traffic, I quickly had my lunch in the wind and rain.
There was loads of brown water pouring over the falls, but such is the shape of the Downfall, and the wet rocks, I was unable to get a good look at it. Soon I moved on and continued along the western edge to the north-western corner of the plateau and down slippery steps to the top of William Clough. Beyond the pass I was now on virgin ground, the first section of the Pennine Way that I hadn’t previously been on before, as I climbed up Mill Hill and turned right onto a long dreary traipse across the peat bog of Glead Hill. I tried to imagine what it must have been like to walk along the Pennine Way before the flag stones were laid on the boggiest sections. No wonder Wainwright said “I’ve had enough of it” after writing his Pennine Way Companion. On a day like this, walking along the old path would have been an awful quagmire, thank God for the flag stones! After several miles of walking I eventually reached the top of the Snake Pass road, and there, with my back to the traffic, I quickly had my lunch in the wind and rain. Starting off again I walked towards Bleaklow, which is a very different hill to Kinder Scout. Without the rock tors that dominate the edges of Kinder Scout, Bleaklow is left with a huge mass of peat bog and no redeemable features, especially in the poor weather conditions that I was walking in. For most of the distance to Bleaklow Head I was walking at the bottom of deep channels in the peat called groughs that provided no view of where I was going even if the weather was good, and made navigation a guessing game. I followed the Devil’s Dike drain at first before walking along the boggy floor of Hern Clough until eventually I reached the barren summit of Bleaklow where onward progress was more of the same until I ended up in Wildboar Grain which develops into the spectacular Torside Clough. After the boggy crossing of the depressing Bleaklow it was a joy to be on the edge of this striking valley and to have views for the first time since climbing Jacob’s Ladder. I skirted along the top of the of the western edge of the clough all the way down into the valley of Longdendale and Torside Reservoir.
After crossing the dam I climbed up to a delightful tree-lined walk beside the reservoir that sadly ended all too soon at the A628 road. Crossing this busy road was not as difficult as I feared as a fleeting gap soon opened up and I was able to dash across. A short walk along a farmer’s road brought me to Crowden Youth Hostel (a soulless place some distance from the old youth hostel marked on my maps) and the end of my first day on the Pennine Way. Despite the poor weather this was an exhilarating walk, but the hills I encountered after Kinder Scout were too tedious. Fortunately Torside Clough and Longdendale were ample compensation.
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