Had a good one yesterday or should that be a bad one? Went upto the dark peaks to repeat one of my favorite walks from last summer – the Edale Skyline. Basically doing the round of Winhill, Mam Tor, Rushup Edge onto Kinder edge and down to Edale Cross. That was the plan at least until I got there.My original plan of parking in Hope changed as I worried about driving down Winnats Pass at -3 degrees centigrade. Don’t like sliding down hills, even in a Volvo 
so I ended up parking at a free car park just off Rushup Edge.
Walked along the edge and then onto Brown Knoll which is were the ‘fun’ began. If you don’t know Brown Knoll, imaging this – a large off-camber field on top of a layer of peat. There is one main path for about 2 miles over the knoll which passes right past the trig point. This wouldn’t be too bad but there are small groughs running parallel with the path every 50 yards or so. These randomly vary between being hard with little squishyness under foot, through 3/4 of a foot deep trenches made with each foot step to finally…. the man eater:) I stepped in one grough and instantly realised I was sinking. It was too late, I was down to half way up my thighs. Trying to pull the deeper leg out wasn’t happening and I was worried. Luckily, I remembered the quicksand survival technique of stayying flat, so basically lay down on the mud. When my torso was flat, I could rotate my now unweighted hips and my legs appeared, luckily with boots still one – note to self, tie those laces tight until circulation stops before crossing peat bog.
Now the only probably was that I was covered in mut, pretty much upto my chest. Although it was sunny, it was only about 5 degress and I really didn’t want to get cold whilst wet. So I took my trousers, gaiters and coat off, and replaced them with my waterproof trousers and fleece. Never wore waterproofs next to my skin and don’t want to again. Still, at least I could start to warm up and dry off.
By the time I was dry, I had reached the edge of Kinder Scout. Whilst not on my planned route for the day, since I was now longer going to have to get to Hope, I decided to carry up the Pennine Way to Kinder Downfall, then follow the bridleway to Crowden Tower. Now this is only my 2nd attempt at crossing Kinder and my first along this path. Making the Downfall was easy, but following the path SSE was fine for the first kilometre or so down the path but as you leave the path, I got immediately lost on the groughs. I HATE PEAT. I REALLY HATE PEAT. I decided to backtrack to the Downfall and return down the Pennine Way but I met with a couple that I tagged along with to the edge of Kinder – cheers for the compass bearings!!
It was about 14:00 when I finally got off Kinder. Walked along the edge past Grindesbrook Clough and onwards to The Nab. I didn’t think I had enough time to get to Edale Cross then back so descended down to Edale and back up Mam Tor. Ran out of energy up this as I had neglected food intake. Luckily I only had about 400 metre walk from the top to the car park where I happily quenched my thirst with a litre of water / orange juice (with bits:) ).
[...] girl as an “unavoidable knee-deep bog”. She’s obviously never walked over Brown Knoll. It wasn’t particularly pleasant, but neither was it unavoidable (or knee-deep for that [...]
I know you thoughts, Following a lazy icorrect map read, we trudged across Brown Knoll last spring and I managed to sink as deep as you. i told the rest of my group following who were in low spirits, only for one of them to do the same and she took some pulling out. Made us all laugh though which helped.
Not a safe place to be alone or inexperienced but at least we bagged it!