First Hike with Hiking Club

The pedestrian footpath between the walls.
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So I decided to join the hiking club so that I could get out of Bradford on the weekends and see some of the countryside. We've actually signed up for a weekend trip at the end of the month to the Lake District, so I also wanted some practice hiking trips before that.

Sunday morning we met up at school and walked over to the train station. It was a short ride to Mytholmroyd, the "town" where we started our hike from. We hiked from that train stop to another in Todmorden. The first part of the hike was uphill, but not too steep. I never asked how advanced these hiking trips were before we set off so I was a bit worried that it was going to be a very long day. As it turned out once we made it to the top it flattened out.

It was a beautiful day for a hike, the morning started off crisp and not a cloud in sight.

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I enjoyed being away from the noised and business of Bradford. From the top of the hill we were able to see across the valleys and see little towns nestled down below us. It was a beautiful day for a hike, the morning started off crisp and not a cloud in sight. That's a rare thing I've come to learn.

After about an hour we came to a cross in the trails, we decided to go the long way around to extend the walk. About 3 minutes after that decision we weren't sure if we had made the right one. We stumbled across some very very soggy ground. I was trying to hop from one tuff of grass to another. One guy misjudged the "sogginess" and sunk in up to his ankle. Then he couldn't get free because of the suction and another guy had to help pull him free. I thought he was going to loose his shoe. I was pretty happy with my non-hiking black boots, my toes stayed dry!

Mytholmroyd
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I was never really sure of where we were or where we were going. I just showed up and followed Will, who had the map. We walked along pedestrian footpaths that were in between walled off pastures. We saw lots of sheep and even a few cows. Including one who wanted to stand directly in our way. Often we had to climb over rock walls to stay on the "trail." We walked by houses and through stables and little towns.

The midpoint of the hike and where we stopped for lunch was the Stoodley Pike Monument. When we finally arrived at the monument we were granted an amazing view of a valley. The side of the hill just dropped off and sloped down to a little town below.

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You could climb up inside the monument and walk around the outside of it. It was a circular stairway, but interesting because there weren't any lights. You go around the first turn and are all of a sudden surrounded by darkness. This seemed to be a popular point to hike to because we saw quite a few other hikers up there.

When walked down to Todmorden we had about an hour before the next train came, so we all went into a Pub. It was nice to sit and talk and watch a football game. We were all also very tired so sitting was a bonus at that point.

This is the view from above where we started.
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It is tradition for the hiking club to go out for Curry at Omar's on Sunday nights. I went home and took a quick shower to get all the mud off me and met up with them for dinner. Before I went I also stopped by my roommate's Sunday Roast they cooked. They made a big dinner for about 10 people and I was invited so I wanted to say hi. At Omar's I ordered something that I can't remember, but will order it again because it was really good.