The Calderdale Hike is one of the 'old school' events - a longstanding fundraising event for the Scouts that was popular long before people even talked about "trail racing". The first time I did the Hike was in 2019, when I first started doing a lot of ultra-distance events. It was on Claire's "always wanted to do" list, and we needed some mileage ahead of the Fellsman/Hundred, so it was a natural one to do this year.
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| Lovely rainbow greeting us back to Sowerby |
Some other random connections with the Calderdale Hike: it's closely linked with Calderdale Radio Volunteers (the emergency comms branch of Halifax and District Radio Society, my local group since I started experimenting with amateur radio earlier this year). It used to be a regular part of the Runfurther series - I was in the thick of the issues with results in 2022, and the acrimonious disputes between "walkers" and "slow runners" about the early start. More on that later.
One of the things that's unusual about the Calderdale Hike is the regular change in route. Every 3 years there is an entirely new route with new CPs. It's a nav event, although a suggested route is published on the website (as a pdf map, not as a GPX). In an ideal world you work out the route you want to follow ahead of time, consider alternatives and make decisions. For the second time I had to do that in a big hurry, although it did work out mostly OK.
There is a distinct early start for walkers on the long route, which is very early indeed. This is the point that has been at issue in previous years - slow runners who weren't confident about finishing in 11 hours have entered as walkers, and some very competitively minded walkers have seen running as "cheating" and complained to the organisers. Obviously no organiser wants to invite complaints from participants so a firm exhortation is given that any running on the part of a self-declared "walker" is against the rules.
It's worth noting that the fastest walker was (again) Bernard Corfe, who disappeared into the distance from the start at an absolutely astonishing rate and finished far faster than a lot of the runners, without ever running a step. The difference between running and walking is ambiguous, especially at very long cross country distances, and at olympic race walking levels often cameras are needed to discern the difference.
IMO if you're interested in competing, then it's a race. If it's a hike, you shouldn't care if someone else finishes faster.
...anyway...
We got up to Sowerby at about 6.30am. What seemed like half of Calderdale rescue team was on kit check. They were a bit dubious about my quite worn Altra Lone Peaks (oops, never even thought about that!) but let them pass.
There were only about 15 people on the early walking start, and we got going more or less on the dot at 7. Most people took the same route down the hill along the walled steps, then through the mill on the other side. After that a few people took different routes up the hill.
After the first CP the far side of Norland Moor we carried on along the road before realising we'd missed our turn. Some faffing about and some really nasty paths (a lot of paths in the vicinity of Sowerby Bridge are little maintained, and uncooperative landowners are a bit of a plague) we got back onto our chosen route. A weird wiggle through someone's yard that involved shoving a pallet out of the way, then a steep climb up a muddy bank (all perfectly legit paths) took us to Barkisland and more familiar paths.
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| Withens Clough from the Calderdale Way |
The next CP was by Ringstone res. Many antenna were in evidence, and this was a theme at all the CPs for the rest of the day. I was nosying to see what they were (mostly 2m I think). Someone had been fairly close behind us for quite some time, but we lost track of him just after this CP as he took a different route down to Ryburn.
Our route to Ryburn wasn't fantastic. We took a direct route round the moor instead of faffing around small paths, but the stile was missing at the end of the farmland and we had to clamber a bit (yes, still a legitimate path!).
At Ryburn we were on paths we'd used in some of Chris Goddard's local walks, and we crossed the bridge and started heading up to Ryburn res, munching through some pastries on the way. On the way around the res we passed a group of half a dozen or so who had started just behind us. I think they went the right way when we went wrong at the first CP.
Up past Baitings res (cake at the CP!) and on up Manshead. This is very familiar ground for me - I've been up this way a few times lately. On the way over Manshead we passed another few people, then we opted to take the Calderdale Way rather than the path by the river. That meant we could push on fast rather than faffing with the steep steps. I later calculated that it was about .5km further, but still think it was probably faster (.5km at 10min/km == 5 mins. I'm pretty sure faffing with the steep slippy steps down from Turvin lane, plus picking through the mud before arriving at the Hinch would take longer).
At the Hinch we ate some (more) cake and pushed on. Up the steep slope towards Stoodley Pike and down the other side. We caught up the group of 4 who'd opted for the road early on just here, although it seemed like they were losing one of their party as he was limping badly.
Down to Stoodley Lane and we paused to remove waterproofs (and eat more cake) before heading up towards Blackshaw and Dukes Cut. There was some sort of altercation going on at Dukes Cut as someone was making a very big production of getting a small 4x4 through a very large gap. More cake.
At the far end of Dukes Cut we took the Hoofstones Fell Race route towards the Hameldons before turning right on a clear path I'd never used before that took us all the way over to the Pennine Bridleway above Widdop. Nice path, one I'll use again.
Widdop. LOTS of cake! An easy stretch along the road, with a couple of minor turns to get to Walshaw. At Walshaw two runners came up behind us wondering about the best way. We suggested the track down through Hardcastle (which was our route choice, although not the recommended route), and then the rain started to hammer down and we put waterproofs back on.
All the way through Hardcastle to the Blue Pig (EVEN MORE CAKE, very very jolly volunteers!) and then along Hebden Water into Hebden Bridge, which was heaving with early evening boozy tourists. Along the Greenway to Mytholmroyd, and the CP was in the bus shelter near the bottom of Hall Bank.
We walked briefly with a medium route walker up Hall Bank but pushed on ahead, through Nab End quarry and along Moor Lane to Moor End and the final CP. As I expected the path across the road from the CP was blocked (it has been for years) so we followed the road down to Mirey Lane, taking the path across the fields to cut out a pointless tarmac loop.
Down through Sowerby village and back to the cricket club to complete the route in 10 hrs 45. We could actually have entered as runners, just about!
The finish was quieter than last time I did the event, and a delicious jacket spud and a cup of tea were very welcome. We chatted for a while with two runners who'd been timed out at Widdop, before packing up and heading home.
I didn't enjoy the Calderdale Hike so much the first time I did it. I found the cliquey-ness of the local running clubs rather hostile. This time I really enjoyed it, it's just my kind of event.
Massive thank you to everyone involved in organising - all the volunteers on the CPs and at the cricket club were really friendly, and thank you to whoever baked all that cake.
Radio stuff
I took a little Lora-aprs tracker with me to see how much of the route had coverage. It did pretty well except for the empty wastelands over near the Hameldons and Widdop.
Kit
- Montane element stretch waterproof
- Kalenji waterproof trousers
- Patagonia Terrebonne jogging bottoms
- short sleeve awdis t-shirt
- Rab fleece hoodie
- Paramo Fuera windproof (black one)
- UD Fastpack 15
- compass
- OL21 map
- malt loaf
- Ti thermos of chai
- UD water bottle
- Patagonia nanopuff gilet
- buffalo gloves
- SOL survival bag
- buffs
- Zebralight head torch
- SOTA lora-aprs radio
- First aid kit (blue one)
- Altra Lone Peaks
- Bridgedale socks
- powerstretch gloves
- Ron Hill cap
Food carried
- Malt loaf
- salted cashews
- couple of nut bars
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