In June our walk was supposed to have been lead by Bas and Pauline but they had been incapacitated and then gone on holiday and then then the weather had been too hot, yes too hot to do a recce. At the last moment has was ill and so, yours truly had to step in. Fortunately as the weather had cooled down a bit by then it was just lovely on the day. I had done the walk a some years before but luckily Bernard and I were able to go over it the previous day which was just as well as we ended getting lost a couple of times but were also able to cut out bits that were very steep or had difficult stiles.

On the day sixteen of us left Ribchester going upstream before mming off past Stydd church and the old alms houses. We then headed off on some quite narrow steep gravelly paths where, even the grasses towered above us. Eventually after passing through Buckley Woods we came out on the Longridge road and were able to picnic in the carpark of the Angel Inn. From here the route back to the river was mainly downhill and there were lovely views. A couple more ups and downs besides the river and we were back in Ribchester where we all fortified ourselves with tea and cakes while sitting outside the café on the busy main road, watching the passing traffic and some tree surgeons cutting down a huge tree just across from us. Quite fun watching other people work.

Kath and Peter were our leaders for our August walk which turned out to be a lovely day despite the weather warning. A good number had already assembled by the time we left Brinscall Baths at 10.30. The sky was grey and there was a little bit of precipitation in the air but it was quite warm. We were carrying umbrellas but luckily never needed them as the day brightened as we wended our way by the side of the Goyt I towards White Coppice. Turning off well before this beautiful little hamlet we made our way up hill towards Higher Wheelton.

Stopping to admire some horses and their foals we chatted to a huge group of walkers going in the opposite direction. They said that they called themselves the Wednesday Walkers and came from all over Lancashire. There were
nearly fifty of them and were really spread out. I had to think that because of the distance from front to back some of the back markers would have been lost along the way.

Coming into Lower Wheelton we stopped at a café for one of our number to buy a little something for her lunch. We don’t often find cafes or even shops in the middle of our walks so she was very lucky as otherwise we would have had to share some of our picnic lunch with her. Anyway we all enjoyed our al fresco picnic on one of the bridges over the canal. After lunch we carried on along the canal for a while then up through Withnell Fold and across more fields before dropping down into Brinscall. A lovely walk leaders, I just hope you will be able to do it again sometime.