Wednesday January 26th

 To avoid additional ascent when we returned to the car, we parked near Yew Tree Farm instead of Johns in the Vale Church as suggested by the guidebook (a good choice, although the church was in an amazing position). We had planned to go up Clough Head and then do Great Dodd, Watson's Dodd etc. The walk up to Clough Head was O.K. with a mix of undulating footpaths and scree.

Ascent of Clough Head

It was windy on the way up and on the top of Clough Head it was blowing a gale. Unusually, the trig point on the summit still had its original brass cap- most have had this removed and the mounting recess for surveying instruments filled with cement.

Trig Point brass cap- still in place

We walked on to Calflow Pike, and then, because of the wind, decided to retrace our steps and leave the rest of the summits for a more clement day.
Clough Head summit

The wind kept it up all the way down, and even at 8pm the wind was still gusting and blowing.
Although the walk was only 6 miles, we did over 800m of ascent, which is pretty good for a couple of 60-somethings.


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