Where to Walk?

You will have noticed that I have not written walking guides, you could not print out my blog and take along to find your route. This is not my intention, I just hope to ‘inspire’ you either to ‘take a hike’ or may be just reassure you that there is a wonderful world out there even when we are stuck doing the more mundane things in our lives.

Walks in Silverdale and Arnside - Walk 11

But how to choose a route? There are a lot of walking guides out there. Online and in books. I have now set up a ‘page’ (static blog) Planning a Walk, where I am going to list any good guides    I come across and have recommended. Please feel free to contribute. What about my own journey? When I first came back to the area winter was approaching, September 2010, and the weather quickly became very cold and the mountains were pretty treacherous, although they looked enchanting. I had a lot of ‘local’ exploring to rediscover, so I simply pulled out the Ordinance Survey map and followed any footpath I could find. This worked pretty well though I did end up getting lost a few times. My ‘A level’ geography was a long time ago and my map reading a bit rusty. After a couple of months I started to travel further into the Lake District and cover some old ground but it was all so hazy I definitely needed some kind of guide. One day when I was out I noticed someone following a really neat little book. Just the right size to fit in a pocket. It turned out to be a Cicerone Guide. I have mentioned these in previous blogs, and I have now used them extensively, though not exclusively. As happens they are published in Milnthorpe, my local market village. I went to visit Cicerone last week and they are friendly and enthusiastic about their publications. The office is in an old building, rather ramshackle, not what you would expect of a swish state-of-the-art publishing business. I wandered in calling out to attract some attention, for a minute or two, before I was met by a smiling person coming down a creaky staircase. Having explained who I was it was suggested I went up to meet Sarah, from marketing.

All at Cicerone were friendly and enthusiastic and dressed as though they were about to take off for the hills! Cicerone has its own great website which you can tap into so I am not going to go into great detail of them or their products. My greatest recommendation is to say that my copies of their books are dog-eared and a little battered! As the books are written by different people, the content is not always in identical format. Sometimes, if I have any criticism at all, there is too much detail to absorb while you are actually walking. If I am organised, not often, I have marked with a highlighter pen any turns of a straight track before I set off, and always combine use of the books with an OS map. Personally, I have not used any of the books for overseas, but have had them recommended by the Kathy and Greg who walked with me early in November.

South Lakeland Walk 52

Walks in Silverdale and Arnside - Walk 11

As my hill walking started to sprawl higher and wider I decided to brush up on my map reading skills, so went on a mountain navigation course, which I can also recommend, but that will be the subject for another day.

The images in this blog all come from Walks from Walks in Siverdale and Arnside or South Lakeland both by Cicerone – be a good Chrismas present!