…at Rivington that is, I am in no fit condition to ascend any of the other renown “Pikes” – Dollywaggon, Nethermost or Scafell – even Knock Pike would probably be beyond me (ah but what a view)! I aim to walk up to Rivington Pike tomorrow (Sat, 25/2/12).

Photo courtesy of Mal Firth:

Anyway, in an ideal world I would bolt up the path from Rivington Hall Barn, along the painfully stony path, bear left to take me towards Catter Nab and Noon Hill Slack, up the muddy path towards Noon Hill and then over the moors to Winter Hill itself crossing over the start of the mighty River Douglas (okay I am trying to big up the environment here!) and Winter Hill Spring. From there it would be a case of touching the trig point on Winter Hill then descending via Crooked Edge Hill and ascending the northern face of the Pike.

However, the weather of late will have made some of this route pretty much a cattle-wade! Add to this my recent lack of fitness and I would have a recipe for failure and in-completion. So as to continue my walking year – and it has to be said that it hasn’t actually started yet, I am aiming to simply walk up to the Pike and back down again. On the way up I shall take the stony path to the left of Rivington Hall Barn – and on the way down I shall do my level best to avoid this as it can be a true wrecker of nice walks…it really is that bumpy!

I thought that I would start off my walking year with this particular hill for all of the obvious reasons:

1. It’s quite close to home at about a forty minutes drive from Southport.
2. It’s not that big…compared to my other haunt at Pendle Hill.
3. I want to do a sketching and maybe a watercolour painting of it and none of my current photographs would make suitable reference material.

Note to self: take your camera

I had planned on starting the year off with a trip to Pendle as per my previous post but the weather and my fore-mentioned lack of fitness intervened…I could dwell on this, but it’s probably best not to do so. The realism of the fact that I probably won’t be doing the “Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge” walk this year has sensibly set in – thus taking the pressure of me for the next few months. I should be able to get back to what I like best, going for a walk in the country with my camera, taking some pictures and writing about it a couple of days later…and hopefully in the very near future put up a painting of it on this web site. I hope that doing this, especially with all the other hills that I have yet to climb might make me develop a more personal relationship(s) with the hills, this hasn’t been an issue with Winter Hill and Pendle Hill, but they’re (so far) the only ones.

So, wish me luck, the prospect of climbing Rivington Pike does not fill me with dread so I should make it as long as my back holds out. We’ll see…