Over the weekend, Kelly and I took a nice hike between two stops on the railway that runs up the Calder River. On the lower valley slopes, sheep graze over close-cropped hillsides of deep green grass bordered in dry-laid stone walls. But on the high ridges where no grazing occurs, the strange, low flora of the wild Moor reigns. The deep, spongy beds of moss, ferns, heather and grass extend for miles in spectacular mottled patterns. It's comfortable though uneven walking off trail. The ground is often saturated, but the structure of the vegetation allows a walker to stay relatively dry. Along trails, where the vegetation is flattened, it can be a boggy mess, and many trails are actually paved in stone. These amazing pathways of thick flagstone are indicative of the heroic efforts which have been invested in the Yorkshire landscape by its industrialists and community-minded residents. We had a great tromp up to the ridgeline, caught one of these stone highways (the 250 mile Pennine Way) for a few miles, then descended to hike along a canal tow-path into Hebden Bridge.
Well-made stone walls are a defining feature of this area and, I imagine, of much of the old country. When hiking in the hills near Leeds, these walls provide a welcome windbreak from the cool and often misty wintertime winds. If you've sought shelter from a stiff breeze behind a un-mortared wall, you'll know that the wind can find its way through gaps between the stones and create a weak draft. We passed this stone wall, where wind-carried grass had been chinked into these gaps by the draft through the wall. Also, hijinks from a rope swing on the way down.
