The Dales Way

As I start to write this post (mid June) I have just started to run again, and am currently in week 3 of a self-prescribed Couch to 5K programme, rebuilding my running fitness. But I spent more than 3 months not running due to a knee problem which started at the end of February. Irksome and frustrating. Anyway, I won’t elaborate as injury woes are not particularly interesting unless they are your own; the main thing is that the knee has steadily been improving, and that I have been able to walk and hike throughout this period, as well as maintain my gym habit.

I missed two planned races due to my misbehaving knee: the Thames Path 100 and the South Downs Way 100, both by Centurion. They’re now in the diary again for 2027. I managed to volunteer on the Thames Path race which was a good thing to do, and the overnight shift at the finish line, whilst not as exhausting as running the race, was pretty tiring nevertheless, so that went part-way to giving me a dose of that much missed sleep-deprived ultra feeling.

I decided to do some long-distance walking to fill in the gap left by not-running. Usually I stay in pubs or AirBnB’s, but I have backpacked in my younger years, and I reckoned that with a lighter tent I could do the same again, and also make these outings a bit more affordable. My tent from the old days, an A frame Ultimate tent, about 40 years old, is still going strong and I have used it as recently as last year, but at 3kgs it’s too heavy and bulky to go fastpacking with. I already have pretty lightweight gear purchased to satisfy the Spine races kit list, so a lightweight tent was all that was lacking. After some research I settled on a trekking pole tent from Durston, the X-Mid 1.I bought it directly from Durston in Canada, and enjoyed following its pretty rapid FedEx journey via the US to the UK.

In the meantime I had decided that when it arrived I would walk the 81 mile Dales Way, from Ilkley to Bowness-on-Windermere. It is local to me, so the logistics are easy, and although the southern half is very familiar to me I don’t get bored with it. I had never actually walked it in its entirety. I have run it, in the opposite direction, as an ultra in 2022, my first overnight ultra with Punk Panther. My running club has also run it a number of times as a group relay, finishing in Ilkley, where I have also covered some of the sections, mainly the later ones nearer to Ilkley (as the faster runners are put on the earlier sections!)

The weather forecast looked quite good for a Tuesday May 19 start, with rain on that day but drier for the rest of the week. This would prove to be quite far from the truth! All I now needed was my tent, which dutifully arrived on the Monday. I put it up in the garden to test it, and I was all good to go the next morning.

Day 1 – Ilkley to Kettlewell – 24 miles

I took the train to Ilkley, just a ten minute journey, planning for a start of the trail at 7:30. It was absolutely tipping it down, forcing me to be sensible and stop in a shop doorway on The Grove to get my over trousers out of my pack and put them on. This was a faff, especially as I was using the OMM front pack in addition to my back pack, a great feature but it does make taking your pack off a bigger job. After this short delay I walked down to the Old Bridge and the official start of the Dales Way and I was on my way.

On a Tuesday morning I usually run with a group of running club friends at Bolton Abbey, which lies on the Dales Way just north of Addingham. We have coffee afterwards and I had planned my start time to be sure to be there in time to join them for a cuppa. I walked faster than expected and arrived too early; I had to sit outside the Cavendish Pavilion and wait for it to open at 10. After a lovely coffee break with my friends I cracked on along the trail. Lots of geese and goslings and ducks and ducklings on the river, as well as lambs in the fields, all very enjoyable pastoral scenery, very English and very Yorkshire. There were showers on and off but it was relatively warm, so I took my waterproofs off again around Appletreewick as I was boiling. I passed Burnsall, crossed the Wharfe on the little suspension bridge near Hebden and made my way towards Grassington. Dark clouds were gathering in the sky and it was warm and humid, like a thunderstorm was coming. I was hoping to make it to Grassington before the rain…..I almost did, but not quite. The heavens opened just after I left the river to walk up the hill to the car park, probably less than half a mile, but the rain was so heavy I got a pretty good soaking! I took shelter in the car park toilets and dried myself off. I put my waterproofs back on, and then took them off again as the rain seemed to ease off and it was still warm. I was getting irritated with my own faffing!

I had hoped for a quick tea break in Grassington but having spent a while in the toilets waiting for the torrential rain to stop I felt I needed to crack on. It also felt very busy, and once I reached the market square I realised why: there was filming going on for ‘All Creatures Great and Small’ attracting a lot of onlookers. In fact the road was blocked off. I had to wait a few minutes whilst they were filming a very vintage car coming down the cobbled street. All thoughts of sitting in a cafe with a cup of tea had evaporated as I do not like crowds and this was definitely not the place to be for me today. As soon as we were allowed to walk in the road again I pushed on up the hill through the little town and out into the fields towards Kettlewell, another 6 miles or so.

I know this part of the trail reasonably well (or would like to think so), but this didn’t prevent me from getting temporarily very confused with the nav 🤦‍♀️which sounds completely ridiculous I know, especially in broad daylight. A typical case of FFF (faffing in a farmer’s field). Shortly after you leave Grassington there is a very obvious broad path through the field but if you follow that, as I did, you eventually reach a huge stone wall with no gate, gap or stile in sight anywhere. My gpx didn’t help in the least at that seemed to favour an alternative route through a green lane between two walls 🤷‍♀️ and I couldn’t get there either. I back tracked and thankfully bumped into a helpful farmer who pointed out the right way, which went diagonally across the field and was totally not obvious on the ground, and the next stile was too far away to see. Thankfully after this navigational embarrassment matters were more straightforward all the way to Kettlewell where I arrived just before 6pm. Although not before I had clambered over a gazillion stiles which are a. very high and b. have an awkward little ‘door’ at the top usually on a very tight spring.

I had booked a pitch at the Wharfe Camp campsite. I had looked at reviews of the main Kettlewell campsite and read stories about it being very busy and noisy with even a party atmosphere, resulting in poor sleep, so I decided to play it safe and avoid that one. The Wharfe Camp campsite is adults only, no groups, no visitors and no dogs. It was a bit expensive for camping but it really delivered on being quiet, with excellent facilities too. There was wifi. The shower was particularly good. The toilet and shower block was heated, sheer luxury! As it was cold and wet outside (it had started to rain again in the evening and never stopped) that was especially welcome. I pitched my tent and cooked (i.e. heated up) some food myself, I was too tired to venture back into Kettlewell and get a pub meal. Also, this trip was about doing things on a budget where possible, and pub meals are not cheap these days! My first night in the new tent was OK: the tent was great, my sleep less so. I was slightly too cold and the monsoon-like rain hammering down on the tent didn’t help. I lay awake worrying about what the ground conditions would be like for me on the next day, going over the highest ground on this trail. In fact listening to the torrential rain made me feel so miserable that the thought crossed my mind of getting the DalesBus back to Ilkley the next day. Thankfully my mood lifted as the dawn broke. I checked the opening times of the shop in Kettlewell, it had been closed when I arrived and it would still be closed when I would have to leave. I had just about enough calories left to make it through day 2 to Dent, a stretch without shops along the way, but I was really hoping for some honesty boxes instead.

Day 2: Kettlewell to Dent – 27 miles

After breakfast and packing up I was back on the trail at 7:30, ready for a long day’s walking to Dent. It was still raining. The weather would be mixed all day, dry periods interspersed with heavy showers and a stiff headwind most of the way. The walking was initially easy, 4 miles along the Wharfe to Buckden via Starbotton. I had memories of shuffling along here during Lady Anne’s Way 75 last February and meeting some fearless turkeys, but none in sight now. Instead I met some walkers at Buckden who were clutching paper bags with food, I had read that the village shop there is permanently closed but I thought I would just double check with them where they had got that food from…..As I suspected, packed lunches from their accommodation. We had the usual brief ‘where have you come from today and where are you going’ conversation. During my time on the Dales Way I found most people take a slightly more leisurely approach to the daily mileage than I do 😉 I cracked on uphill towards Hubberholme with its lovely church. I looked longingly at the pub (gasping for a coffee) but that didn’t open until 12. Just beyond Hubberholme I had a nice short break though, eating some flapjack. I enjoyed the next stretch along the river: Yockenthwaite, Deepdale and Beckermonds, and relived memories from my run in 2022 when I had come the other way and travelled this section in the night under a full moon with a friend.

I climbed up the road to Oughtershaw. For a long time I had been looking around longingly for honesty boxes. Not that I was hugely hungry, as I wrote above I knew I had enough calories to survive until evening, if not I would have waited for the Kettlewell shop to open. Still, I fancied eating something different. Most of all I wanted coffee but I knew I would be unlikely to find that here, though I had high hopes for Nethergill Farm, a few miles beyond Oughtershaw. Imagine my surprise and delight when I stumbled across this honesty cafe in a large archway at the Ruskin Hostel. What a total gem! They had wifi, a kettle and coffee and tea, and lots of snacks for sale. I made myself a coffee and stocked up on flapjack, crisps, and an apple. Whilst I was there two walkers whom I had overtaken near Hubberholme joined me and we had a lovely chat for a while, I even had a second coffee.

All good things must come to an end and I still had a lot of miles ahead of me, so I said goodbye to my temporary companions and hit the road again. Past Nethergill Farm where the cafe was open, but I had no need of it now. I went onto Swarthgill farm, after which you leave the track and are crossing moorland to Cam Houses. This was grim underfoot, a total squelch fest, as I had correctly envisaged the night before when I was lying in my tent listening to the rain. Still, no worse than what I have dealt with on countless other walks and runs. Once past Cam Houses there is a brief but steep climb up unto the Cam Road and the highest point on the Dales Way (1700 ft). The full force of the wind (and rain) hit me here and it wasn’t the most fun section, even though at least it was downhill. I remembered trudging along here (in the opposite direction) on the Spine Challenger South in the dark, fog and rain and in the grip of severe sleep deprivation, not to mention with my IT bands screaming at me in agony, so it can always be worse. A lot worse! I met a couple of other walkers who like me were leaning into the wind and were not having the most fun time either. We exchanged commiserations. I tried to jog a bit on the last part of the descent to Gearstones, mainly for the psychological benefit of reminding me that I am a runner, and giving the temporary illusion that the miles go by a bit faster. Tricky, largely because of my knee, but also the weight of my pack, around 7 kg. Light for camping, but still heavy for running I find.

After the descent to Gearstones, having travelled largely west for a while, the trail takes a right turn and turns north across Gayle Moor / Blea Moor towards Dent Head. For the first section across the moor there appeared to be a choice, the official Dales Way following the footpath, or an alternative along a bridleway which runs parallel. I chose the footpath thinking this would be good karma, but regretted it! I only have vague memories of it from the race, I do recall it was unpleasant and unclear, but at least it had been dry then. Now it was super hard work, up and down on very squelchy ground. When I reached the road I met two women walkers coming the other way and we were discussing route choices, I recommended they look at the bridleway instead, it must have been better!

After leaving Blea Moor and reaching the road the course runs west again through Dentdale, to Cowgill and Dent, along the river Lune. I had passed the watershed as well as the county boundary, from Yorkshire into Cumbria. Whilst I was getting quite tired now I was cheered by the weather improving, there were now some sunny spells to cheer me on. The hay meadows at their very May best and full of flowers on the approach to Dent were also a great delight. I was very glad to see Dent church appearing in the distance and arrived at the High Laning campsite at a quarter to six. Unfortunately the village shop as well as the campsite shop had already closed 😪 but I had enough food. There was an abundance of space at the campsite, beautiful large fields to camp in and the facilities were good, though I was wondering if they would not be a bit small if the site were full. Only two wash basins. Anyway, that wasn’t my problem, as there were just a handful of us. Next to me were two men who were bike packing. They had been very cold and wet too on the Cam Road. Again, I was too tired to even consider going to the pub, so I warmed up my packet rice with vegetables and munched on more flapjack before settling down for an early night.

Day 3 Dent to Sprint Mill Bridge – 21 miles

Sadly it was raining hard again when I woke up. The weather forecast for the week had turned out to be wildly off the mark! I had a relaxed start to the day as my friend Gill was due to meet me in Sedbergh to walk with me, so I did not need to leave until 8:15 in order to get to our rendez-vous point at Birks at the agreed time. I enjoyed the early miles through more hay meadows along the Lune, recalling how hot it had been when I had run here during the race, so much so that we had dunked our t-shirts in the river to cool off. I had just recovered from another minor nav mishap in the woods at the southern end of Sedbergh when I saw Gill coming towards me, by the Pepperpot folly, a landmark I had seen several times but had forgotten about.

There were many pleasant miles along the Lune, and a couple of spectacular Victorian railway viaducts, Waterside and Beckfoot. It stopped raining at some point. We crossed the M6. We stopped at another honesty box where I bought orange juice and dark chocolate. I ate more flapjack. Somehow I cannot remember that much about this section. In part probably because I had company and also because the landscape is not that spectacular, apart from the viaducts then.

We had pre-arranged to camp at Sprint Mill Bridge just a mile outside Burneside. Gill had left her car here in the morning and had brought lots of food for our evening meal. Gill is always much better on the food front than I am! I tend to be a bit lazy and just make do. We arrived at Sprint Mill Bridge just after 4pm to a warm welcome. It is a private house, an old mill on a weir in the river Sprint (which shortly afterwards becomes the Kent) as the name indicates, with an amazing garden and therein just a few camping spaces. There was also a menagerie of goats and ducks. A real hidden gem with super friendly owners who have lived there for 50 years. Also a room in a barn where there was a kettle and coffee and tea, so no need to get the stove out for this night. The toilet and washing facilities were a little rustic I would say, though definitely clean. Let’s just say we went without washing….It did only cost £5 after all. Gill and I walked to Burneside to retrieve her car and get some more supplies from the small supermarket there. Burneside did not look the most appealing place, it is dominated by its paper mill and seemed to have little charm, though I may have been prejudiced by reading this same opinion in a guide book. Either way, I was glad to return to Sprint Mill.

Day 3.5 Sprint Mill Bridge to Bowness – 10 miles

We awoke to the sun appearing in the sky! Finally, the weather I had been waiting for since Tuesday had arrived. After breakfast and packing up we left at 8 am for the final stretch. Well, Gill would walk four miles with me to Staveley, where I would continue and she would return to Sprint Mill to collect the car, and then pick me up from Bowness, saving me having to return on the train. I left my camping gear in the car, there was no need for it anymore so I might as well lighten my load a little. The miles to Staveley were very pleasant, walking alongside the river Kent. I had a brief snack stop on a bench at Staveley just after Gill had left and then pushed on for the last six or so miles. It was nice, uneventful, quite a bit more up and down than I remembered. In fact I found it striking how precious little I could recall of this section. I guess it had been the start of the race where I had been chatting with other runners and not paying that much attention, I had also never recced it so I had only ever covered this once, and in the reverse direction. So it all looked pretty new to me now. I encountered an honesty box on a farm where I bought a can of Coke which was very welcome, as I was getting quite warm in the sunshine.

As I was walking along I decided that if I reached the finish before noon I could reasonably call this day 3.5 rather than day 4 😉 Whilst I would not have been so keen to add those 10 miles onto the previous day it would have been quite possible. But this was definitely the nicer option, an easy ‘less than half a day’ to finish. I reached the bench marking the finish at Bowness at 11:28, well inside my self-imposed limit. Gill was already there waiting for me and after a coffee and cake stop at the Goat Gap cafe on the A65 we were both home by mid afternoon.