Hiking navigation skills course – a ‘refresher’.

Marsden Moor National Trust Hike

I’ve just completed a four-part navigation skills refresher* course organised and hosted by Mountainfeet, a great outdoors shop that’s based in Marsden, where I live. The theory being that I’d be relearning some forgotten skills. Learning afresh was more to the point, it was a great course.

The sessions (two indoors/class-based and two on the hills) were led by Keith Saunders. Keith is a retired RAF Navigator and also leads walks with Saddleworth Walking Club so he knows his stuff and is great at explaining things. Which was good, as I realised early on that I was starting from scratch!

* I was taught map and compass skills on a school trip thirty three years ago, during an outward-bounds break in Snowdonia. Starting from the baseline of having an appalling memory, thirty three years of lack of practice essentially equalled zero ability.

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Tree Hunting on Marsden Moor

Millstone Edge Close Moss Marsden Moor hike

I stumbled across a tree stump a couple of weeks ago, which was remarkable, as the higher parts of the Marsden Moor estate are now a treeless landscape. That wasn’t the case 6000 or 7000 years ago. I know that because peat is everywhere; testament to the fibrous disintegration of tree trunk and branch, leaf and root as well as grasses and moss.

I’ve seen bits of wood sticking out of some of the peat channels and cloughs during my wanderings over various parts of Marsden Moor. Some of it so well persevered through lack of oxygen, buried feet below the surface, that you can tell it’s birch by the still-visible white bark. Those branches or roots are occasionally exposed through the action of water and peat bog creep.

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Featured in the @FieldandTrekuk nominated Top UK Walks

Eastergate Marsden Moors

Looking Over Castleshaw Reservoirs

I took part in the recent Field & Trek recommended walks feature – where they asked various UK outdoors bloggers to nominate their favourite walk / hike. Not that easy to do, as a few of us said in our responses.

There’s some great walks in there (well, all of them by the looks of it) – seventeen have been featured. Some from blogs I already read and some new ones too which is cool.

After some deliberation I went for one of the loops I like to do around the Marsden Moors. Here’s what I said:

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Hidden Poems and Satellites – geocaching poetry

A section of Snow Simon Armitage marsden poetry poem hike

Poet David Coldwell has created a geocache challenge based on the poetry trail I put together a few weeks back (with the first two poems, as he says, being released into the wild). More poem-based geocache spots are going to be added soon. I’m really chuffed he’s building on the trail with a new layer of involvement.

The post title borrows from David’s of “Hidden Poems and Satellites – an Easter challenge”

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Happy Hiking Holidays

Brodie Dog with new Hurtta coat

I had some great walks and longer trips this year and hope to get a bit further afield next year. Brodie is beginning to grumble a bit on longer walks but I got her a nice new Hurtta winter coat to keep her happy in our often-dreich local weather – as seen here in a couple of photos from a … read more >