May 17, 2022
Pennine Way, Day 1
We had our 7:30 am breakfast and then got our bags ready to be picked up. By the time our packed lunches were ready, we left the B&B at 8:30 am.
We retraced our steps to Edale, took some photos, then started out on the Pennine Way. It was a beautiful day, with many birds singing, and we climbed slowly through fields where we saw curlews flying. Soon we reached the Packhorse Bridge and started up the famous Jacob’s Ladder at 10 am. Both of us felt quite good and Rosemary’s knee was still reasonably okay.
The trail continued up to Kinder Low and Edale Rocks, after which we were forever picking our way through rocks, which made for a very tedious time. Rosemary had mentioned that the commonest place to lose the trail was at Kinder Downfall, and indeed the Pennine Way goes left there with no signage and it’s easy to be in one of the braided trails where the turn isn’t visible. But Paul had the GPS track on maps.me so we only had to retrace a short distance.
It was noon now but neither of us were hungry so we decided to push on. After a windy section we came to a steep and painful descent called Jacob’s Ladder — the Reckoning. We should have stopped for lunch at the col, but we carried on and soon found ourselves crossing a bog. It was all paved with beautiful slabs, but there was no place to sit down for lunch. We finally got to Snake Pass at 2:30 pm and found some rocks beside the A57 where we could sit and eat lunch.
From there the route climbed up the Devil’s Dike, a sunken lane of peat groughs, and then up a rocky stream bed to Bleaklow Head. This was slow going because Paul was walking awkwardly due to a stiff and twisted back. At the top Rosemary eventually got a cell signal and called Lee at Windy Harbour to set up a pickup time.
On the way down Paul’s back was quite painful and his pace was considerably slower than usual, which meant our day would be much longer. As we walked along Torside Clough it was apparent that he couldn’t continue wearing his pack. Somehow Rosemary managed to carry both packs down to Reaps Farm and the B6105, where we sat to await Lee’s arrival. It had just started to rain but we only had to wait about 10 minutes.
At the hotel we immediately asked for dinner to be brought up to our room, since the kitchen was nearly closed. Dinner was delicious, lasagna, salad, and homemade chips. The room was quite small so we had to arrange our bags carefully so we could move around. Bedtime was about 10 pm.
Next: Torside to Diggle
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