Minty (Stephen), the survivor from one of my previous hikes (please see: ‘Taking Minty Walkies on Marsden Moor’ 21/10/14) had booked the day off as he is a wee bit of a sadist and wanted to join me on another walk, so I suggested a ‘short’ walk up to the Stoodley Pike monument on the summit of Stoodley Pike a 1,300ft hill above Todmorden in West Yorkshire. I planned the walk to leave from Hebden Bridge to walk along the Rochdale Canal and then turn onto the Pennine Way where it crossed over the canal and then to walk up to Stoodley Pike.
Minty picked me up from home and after enjoying a breakfast in the Wetherspoons pub in Brighouse we made our way over to Hebden Bridge, parked up and then set off through the small Pennine town and then onto the towpath of the Rochdale Canal. I was soon snapping away and anything and everything much to the annoyance of my companion, he soon came round though and I noticed in the corner of my eye he actually joined in, taking photos with his mobile. Deep in thought and conversation we both suddenly realised that after we’d been walking for over 3 miles from Hebden, we should have left the canal and joined the Pennine Way, scrambling to look at his ‘satnav’ (I try to not use satnavs when walking solo if I can help it), Minty saw that we had missed the exit from the canal just over a mile back. Because of the way I had planned the walk, I looked and saw that we were going to come down off Stoodley Pike this way so I decided we could just carry on and do the same walk but in reverse order so we carried on along the canal until we reached Shaw Wood Rd (where we would have joined the canal to walk back to Hebden) and started the gentle climb up the valley side.
Minty picked me up from home and after enjoying a breakfast in the Wetherspoons pub in Brighouse we made our way over to Hebden Bridge, parked up and then set off through the small Pennine town and then onto the towpath of the Rochdale Canal. I was soon snapping away and anything and everything much to the annoyance of my companion, he soon came round though and I noticed in the corner of my eye he actually joined in, taking photos with his mobile. Deep in thought and conversation we both suddenly realised that after we’d been walking for over 3 miles from Hebden, we should have left the canal and joined the Pennine Way, scrambling to look at his ‘satnav’ (I try to not use satnavs when walking solo if I can help it), Minty saw that we had missed the exit from the canal just over a mile back. Because of the way I had planned the walk, I looked and saw that we were going to come down off Stoodley Pike this way so I decided we could just carry on and do the same walk but in reverse order so we carried on along the canal until we reached Shaw Wood Rd (where we would have joined the canal to walk back to Hebden) and started the gentle climb up the valley side.
By now, I felt cocky, saying to Minty “this climb is easier than I was expecting” with a huge cheesy grin on my face, this was soon wiped away as this so called gentle climb started to get steeper and steeper and I started getting out of breath and my legs even started to feel heavier and like I was hiking through treacle. About 20 minutes later, we turned onto New Rd and I then instantly knew that it would be worth the hard climb as we started to see our first views of the wooded valley below and the stunning 17th century farm and manner houses (which I love) and the road turned into a nice gentle quiet country lane (Cross Lane) with stunning views and we caught our first glimpse of the Monument on top of Stoodley Pike. I got mixed emotions here, first I was totally amazed by the sight of it, even from this distance it looked very impressive but then the steepness of the climb to the top suddenly hit me and I can’t repeat on here what I wanted to say.
Anyway, we pushed on and walked through the beautiful little hamlet of Mankinholes, again full of beautiful 17th century buildings and my camera almost overheated from the use it was getting and I just know I’m going to have to come back here again and explore the area, especially in the hot summer months. Just before Mankinholes Bank turned right towards Lumbutts (another place to visit in the summer) we turned left onto a rough track that headed up towards Stoodley Pike (now looking more like the north face of the Eiger) and after almost a mile on here we turned right onto a footpath and started the hard climb to the summit. I now was starting to suffer again losing my breath and my legs were almost like jelly again but I did keep stopping, not to catch my breath or take a rest but to turn around and take in the stunning views over the Pennine hills and the deep wooded valleys and the town of Todmorden opening up below as I got higher and higher. By now, the weather turned for the worse and we started getting pelted by rain, sleet and strong winds. It felt like it had taken hours but we eventually reached the top, I turned around and looked down and saw the way we had walked up and the high that I always get during my walks suddenly rushed to my head and I honestly felt amazing, taking in long deep breaths of the fresh air and feeling any negativity leaving (not that I’ve had much negative feelings recently), I’m going on now so I’ll just let my ‘walking selfie’ below show you how I felt!!
We walked up the spiral staircase inside the monument to the viewing area so I could get some more photographs of the views before we started our journey back to Hebden Bridge. By now the rain clouds had closed in and the wind was blowing us away so we made our way down the Pennine Way and further down the valley and shelter from the wind so we calmed down a bit and started taking our time walking. The route was now starting to get pretty boggy, almost covering my boots and up to my shins when Minty (the numpty) shouted “eerrr the path is over there”, we had managed to walk off the Pennine Way into the bog and I couldn’t believe it when my feet were soaked and there was a paved path just a couple of feet away. After about an hour (we can be slow walkers) we were back onto Rochdale Canal and enjoying a nice steady relaxing walk back into Hebden Bridge.
It was another cracking walk and I think I managed to get some decent shots even though I was attacked by wind, sleet and rain from all directions, again I can’t wait to get out there again, I plan on walking Marsden to Todmorden via Stoodley Pike as soon as we start getting longer days, but I also plan on returning in the spring or summer to further explore the beautiful hamlets in the hills surrounding the town.