Yorkshire Walks - My Walking Diary route no 28

The climb up to the church at Middlesmoor

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Route No 28 - 29 December 2001
Scar House Reservoir & Middlesmoor
Nidderdale

Map: OS Explorer 298 Nidderdale at 1:25000

Nidderdale from the moor above Scar House Reservoir	After a lazy start, I arrived at the Yorkshire Water public car park at Scar House Reservoir at the head of Nidderdale just before eleven. It was a bright winter's morning and very cold with icy patches on the roads. Everywhere was still covered in thick white frost that gleamed in the winter sunshine. It was a glorious day for a walk. I set off across the dam and took the Nidderdale Way heading down the valley. After about a mile the track crosses a steep little gulley where another walker with a husky passed me with a cheerful greeting as I was grovelling around on the ground trying to get a good photo of some icicles hanging from the bank. After another half a mile I came to the shooting hut which was unlocked and I went in for some lunch out of the cold wind. The walker with the husky was already there.
The husky is a bitch - I never thought to ask her name (I'm not really a doggy person) and she was very friendly. Apparently she is an Alaskan Malamute husky, a heavily built dog used as pack animals - he has a couple of panniers that the dog carries when he and his wife go walking together so that his wife doesn't have to carry a rucsack. He told me that it is the faster Siberian husky that is used to haul a sled. After lunch I continued on the bridleway around the moor top, past another more elaborate shooting hut, to the road at the top of Trapping Hill above Lofthouse on the road to Coverdale. I followed the road down into Lofthouse and from there took the path across the fields up to Middlesmoor church.stop.		Sunlight through the icicles
Alaskan Malamute Husky	There is a wonderful view down Nidderdale over Gouthwaite reservoir from the church. In Middlesmoor I rejoined the Nidderdale Way to follow it for the last three miles back to the car park at Scar House reservoir. As I climbed the lane from Middlesmoor the sun was getting low in the sky and by the time I reached the edge of the moor about half a mile from the end there was the chance of a photo of the sun setting behind the clouds over to my left and as I turned for the descent to Scar House there was the full moon just rising over the other side of the valley. By the time I arrived home at around 5.00pm it was quite dark. The whole route was around 10 miles and took me just under 5 hours including my lunch	The church at Middlesmoor
An elaborate shooting 'hut'	Nidderdale from Middlesmoor Church Winter Sunset	Scar House reservoir with Great Whernside beyond