Friday May 27th

 David retraces The Helicopter Walk

David felt like a long walk in preparation for his Edale Skyline walk on Jubilee Sunday 4th June with Pro Mountain's Caroline McCann so the 14+ mile Blackden and Seal Edge walk from our well-used book of Dark Peak walks fitted the bill pretty well. We've called it The Helicopter Walk because the first time we did it, we met a party who had flown in to a spot overlooking Fair Brook by helicopter to have a picnic.

They must have found the only solid patch on Kinder to land!

Still looking pretty precarious...

The walk starts at the Birchin Clough car park in The Snake Pass, which is now more or less open again. Initially the walk winds its way up through the plantation that runs between Dinas Sitch Tor and the (sometime) Snake Inn; I hadn't realised that this path follows, for quite some distance, the course of a Roman road- this is indicated on the OS Explorer map. The detour to the bothy in Oyster Clough is always really nice and it was great to see the cabin in good condition- all recent visitors must have taken care to clean up after themselves.

The Oyster Clough bothy

From the bothy, having crossed the stream in Oyster Clough, it's a walk back to the course of the Roman road and downhill all the way to the road crossing at Alport Bridge. There was quite a herd of black cattle just above Hayridge Farm and I worked on my usual assumption that, if I kept well uphill of cows and didn't show any interest in them, they wouldn't show any interest in me. If they did, being uphill, it would be quite an effort for them to reach me. This was the first time that both of those assumptions weren't particularly good- first one, then all of them, seemed pretty inquisitive and started moving uphill towards me. I sauntered on as nonchalantly as I could and I was glad to leave them behind. I also attracted the interest of less intimidating animals.
The walk down to Alport Bridge provides great views of Kinder (and of me, for these fellows)

Just before the road crossing there's one of many Peak District and Northern Counties Footpath Preservation Society signs. They are generally pretty robust but tend not to indicate quite how far the destinations are- Langsett is a long way, and Edale is a tidy step, too.

Check the distances on a map before setting out for Langsett!
After the crossing, there's a steady climb via Crookstone Hill to Crookstone Knoll where I usually plan to stop for lunch. Crookstone Hill provides a view of The Great Ridge (which I should be traversing on the Edale Skyline walk) and which I glimpsed on my walk with Paul from Margery Hill.
Lose Hill, Back Toor and Hollins Cross from Crookstone Hill
Kinder has many millstone grit formations, which I love. This may look like a jumble of boulders but most of it is actually weathered from a single block of grit.
Gritstone formation above Blackden Brook with the aptly named Blackden View Farm on the other side of the Snake Road. The Howden Moors in the distance

The walk continues around the north edge of Kinder, passing "The Helicopter Rock", crossing the top of Fair Brook and then to Fairbrook Naze which has another very distinctive gritstone sculpture.
The "Toadstool" at Fairbrook Naze
Then it's a very steep descent down the Naze and a tussocky plod down to Ashop Clough to join the Snake Path to return to Birchen Clough.

14.5 miles, 1110m ascent.


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