We were absent from SOTA for too long. Three months in fact,
with football matches, gigs, illnesses, family commitments and refusal of
pass-outs conspiring against SOTA for far too long. Well, I had a gig the
night before this one as well, but I thought I would get by with half-a-night's
sleep in order to open our activator accounts for 2007.
Jimmy and myself were now starting to consider the walking more in our planning.
For summits we already had as uniques, we were thinking about what routes
we still aspired to do more than anything. So it was with this day. We might not
have bothered much with Kinder Scout G/SP-001 now that it sits several times in
both our activation histories, but we had been talking about a circular route we
rather fancied.
We left Macc at 8.30am on Sunday 25th February 2007, so I did get an hour's extra lie-in after my gig! By
9am, we were heading towards Chapel-en-le-Frith and pulled in at the Hanging
Gate Inn. Breakfast was not due to start until 10am there, but the landlord said
he would make us some anyway. From there it was only a matter of minutes to
Edale, where I was lucky to find a single remaining parking spot right outside
the Old Nags Head. One would normally expect to park a good 15 minutes walk away
beyond Edale train station at this relatively late hour on a Sunday.
We commenced our walk up the old Pennine Way route up Grindsbook
Booth. This was a lovely route and very popular this morning. Eventually, the
path became a steep rocky climb up onto the vast Kinder plateau, where we turned
left along the slabs by the south edge of the escarpment. It was now raining
quite hard, and many of the hordes of family, jeans-and-welly-wearing hordes
were turning back to retreat to Edale. Not the Read trio!
We continued along to Pym Chair, then took a compass bearing in reducing
visability to head to the true summit of Kinder. We had only ever been to Kinder
Low before, like most activators! This took us straight to a cairn that appeared
to mark the true summit, and we activated from there. We used Jimmy's new SOTA
pole and SOTA Beam, his prize for winning the 2006 SOTA Beams Challenge and
worked several stations in all directions. We couldn't quite understand why
stalwarts Nigel 2E0NHM and Graham G4JZF couldn't hear us when plenty of others
all around could. Just one of those things I guess.
Eventually, and slightly warmed by the Spicy Moroccan Chick Pea
soup, we moved away on a compass bearing to Kinder Low. We soon encountered
another cairn, this time with a wooden stake in it, and wondered if THIS was the
true summit instead. Either way, the two cairns appeared to be at the same
height, so we weren't too concerned, and we had visited them both anyway. Out of
the clag loomed the familiar arrangement at Kinder Low, and upon reaching the
trig I called on my handheld to try to offer the points to stations missing them
previously. A few more stations were added to th logbook, but poor old Graham
still missed out, despite yet another valiant attempt. I don't know what was
happening Graham, but I was trying just as hard as you were!
We completed the walk by following the current Pennine Way route
down via Jacob's Ladder and with a soup break in the National Trust information
shelter at Lee Farm. We arrived in Edale in failing light at around 5.45pm, and
adjourned to the Nags Head for a drink.
I felt 500% better for my taste of hundreds of gallons of real fresh air. It was
good to be back! Many thanks to the following stations, all worked on 2m
FM:
2E0KPO/P |
Uttoxeter |
Steve |
0.5 watts |
T, J |
G0TLA/M |
Castleton |
Ron |
0.5 watts |
T |
2E0NBR/P |
Uttoxeter |
Sharon |
0.5 watts |
T, J |
M0JDK |
Blackfordby |
John |
0.5 watts |
T, J |
GW7AAV |
Connahs Quay |
Steve |
1 watt |
T |
GW0DSP |
Connahs Quay |
Mike |
1 watt |
J |
M0AAS |
Warrington |
John |
1 watt |
T |
M0DWQ |
Warrington |
Roger |
1 watt |
T |
G0NAJ |
Dukinfield |
John |
2.5 watts |
T |
G1PPH |
Linton |
Matthew |
2.5 watts |
T |
|