My walk of Saturday 28th of October, 2023.

It had been two years and a few months since my last Pendle excursion and this simply had to change! I left the house at 07:19 which should indicate just how desperate  I was to get to Barley and bag a parking space. This lead to me arriving at the tiny, picturesque village at 09:03, even then only a handful of spaces remained. The car park now has the best kind of parking charging system:

1. Contactless payment is available – so no more fumbling around for change
2. A camera scans your registration plate, this data is then used to assist you in typing said reg’ plate in the user interface for verification. It’s fuss free and paperless … because the machine had run out of paper, so I took a photo of it just for evidence of having paid.

 

By 09:09 I was on route and noticed that something was conspicuous in its absence – the hill! On route I had remarked to myself (well nobody else was in the car) that normally by Osbaldeston the hulking lump of Pendle Hill can be seen, but not today. The mist was out and about and devouring everything. In some rare instances this can lead to a phenomena that I particularly enjoy “Who said that?” – this is when you can quite clearly hear voices but cannot readily determine from where they are originating, I love it, and this was happening enough times today to really lift my spirits on an otherwise grey day – weather wise. Honestly, there’s nothing quite like watching voices emerge from the mist – try it some day!

By the time I had made it to the vicinity of Brown House I am beginning to doubt my decision to buy my walking boots from Mountain Warehouse – cheap and cheerful they may be, but they hold on to the path like roller skates on an ice rink and I nearly go slipping and sliding into the realm of the uncomfortable on a couple of occasions, descending from the summit is not going to be a stress free activity and Boar Clough, my intended exit from the summit, suddenly scratches itself off the itinerary. On the plus side I next encounter the two new paths I’ve seen on a couple of YouTube videos. Previous Pendle outings had seen me become to despise the route as it snakes its way over the last two fields on the run-up to Pendle House, it was slippery and an unrelenting slog. Thanks to the new path the belief that I was now engaged in a ‘slog’ was reinforced – the visual cue of the path itself lending weight to the belief that these are not flat fields! All the same at least the slip factor had now been eradicated, so no complaints from me!

Oddly enough, the mess at the last gate before entering the final paddock before the major climbing starts – is still a mess, possibly even worse than on former excursions, it’s obvious Pendle has had work done, a practical facelift? However,  the parts most in need of repair are still…in need of repair. There was never any doubt that at the parting of the ways I was going to bear left for the slope, the steps hold no allure for me anymore and the slope seems to have had the lions share of the finance in order to construct a “switch back” path reminiscent of the one leading up Ben Nevis, obviously on a different scale. I was surprised to see (hear first, then see) more people than normal on the slope path, possibly owing to the mist, or maybe these were people who had already done the steps first and had acquired the “screw that” opinion towards them! On my last Pendle ascent in 2021 nobody passed me, today, I lost count. Having said that, I knew my fitness  is down and I am here to begin work on restoring it to its former glory (typed with a wry smile). So, yes, I have stopped a lot on route, but the point is that I’m carrying on, and as I round the corner where my path merges with the main track from Boar Clough, the weather gets a whole lot colder! Perversely, I find this spiritually and well as physically refreshing – I was so damn hot coming up that slope! I can see water droplets being driven easterly across Barley Moor – it’s an amazing sight, no matter how cold I am – you don’t get this on Winter Hill (actually, you really, really do!).

I spend what seems like an epoch desperately trying to peer through the mist in search of the trig point, when you can see it the belief that it’s “not that far now” is reaffirmed, although in truth previously I’ve seen the O.S. column from the A59! Finally the bugger comes into sight. I’m sure more and more bits of stoneware are now joining the white polygon, the ‘boundary stone’ was an addition as far back as 2009 but now there seems to be a small pillar a couple of metres away and the trig point has gained a pumpkin! No time to loiter at the top, I try to make a video but already know that the sound will be appalling even though the wind is not fierce. I’ve been looking forward to trundling down the path across Pendle Moor as (once again) the YT videos had shown me how much repair work had been done and it does not disappoint doing a stellar job of keeping any mud from the soles of these cheaper-by-the-minute walking boots. I round the corner on to the steps path and mentally prepare myself for the massive descent on wet stones only punctuated occasionally by wet wood, here goes!

To my left, everywhere, the world, disappears, this is classic Pendle-Grey-out as the mist turns a shade of all-encompassing. Ahead of me I see distant slow moving hunched shapes that I know will be the those who rejected the slope path in favour of these steps – fools, but one only learns from experience in the world of hill walking! I greet and am greeted in return, by practically every walker and gladly give way to those ascending, you learn to look out for the weary as they are the most clumsy and most likely to tip either your mood, or body over the side of the path and downhill – this is not something I will ever have any desire to engage in! To give way is just easier. Even if there were a view today I wouldn’t see it, my eyes are focussed purely on the undulating, rocky, wet, wood-laden path. It’s a true work of engineering excellence but has to stand up to not only the Pendle weather but also to the poundings of in excess of a hundred thousand feet annually, I believe it copes admirably. Ordinarily I’d contest that the descent takes notably longer than the ascent, not for me, not today! I’m down to the parting / merging of the ways in less than forty-five minutes, there is food to be had at the Cabin and I’ve built up a fair old appetite. The outward leg taught me that some of the terrain might bring out the very best of my boots, or the very worst! The decision makes itself, I’m heading off to Barley Road in order to drop back down to the car park, it’s a bit further – which ramps up my step count a bit, in contrast it’s far and away less slippery and I’m all over not going arse over tit!

Barley Road always seems to take a long time to get back to the visitor centre, I’m not sure it is even a mile, but let’s say it is. With the Pendle view having been stolen from me today I appreciate the views of the surrounding summits, Stang Top Moor is just about visible and Barley Hill itself seems more prominent that at any other time. There’s a kind of shaft in the sky appearing towards Boulsworth, giving it an ethereal majesty which just does not capture on a phone, hey-ho it’s in my memory. By 11:26 I’ve arrived back at the visitor centre and I don’t feel tired or sore, this is progress! All things taken it account, stopping for walkers and photographs, I think I’ve put in a similar experience to most of my previous ascents of Pendle and I’d put this down to the addition of the two new paths on the run up to Pendle House, the traversal of these fields used to be such a slippery and exhausting process – now it’s just exhausting!

Even with her entire body in the mist, as with today, Pendle never ceases to amaze, inspire and captivate. If there’s one promise to which I swear to adhere it’s that I must return to Pendle at least one more time this year, I owe her that much! For its ability to gain in oneself the necessary perspective and drive to deal with the cards we have been dealt in our daily lives, Pendle is unsurpassed and unsurpassable. There may be much loftier summits, but, in this humble hill walker’s opinion, none can, or will ever be greater!