CRIMSWORTH DEAN

Encouraged by a cooler, misty morning Frank, Ian S, Jan, Paul and Stella headed up Crimsworth Dean to start work on a sort of 'path-botox' project: i.e. starting an uplift of a path which is slowly sliding down the hillside . . .  and in wet weather is lethally slippery. 

The path runs south above Crimsworth Dean Beck towards Hardcastle Crags

There's always kit to carry before we can start

In several places the path needs straightening and levelling.  Today we tackled the worst section, which involved creating a new route through the head-high bracken.  The ground is tinder-dry which made the digging out easier than we expected (although the fire risk is a worry at the moment).

This is the old path, disappearing down the hillside.
 

And this is the high bracken we needed to route the new path through

..

Early stages

Making progress

We started from both ends - a bit like the Channel Tunnel - and with a bit of waving at each other above the bracken we managed to connect up with the existing path further along, past the sagging section.

Here you can see the new path running above the old.

We have "closed" this section of the old path with piles of cut bracken to encourage walkers onto the new route.  Several people came through today as we were working.  With a bit more footfall the new section will be well compacted.  The camber on this needs a bit more attention in places, and there are other sections to do, so we'll be back, perhaps when the bracken has died back a bit.

We are very grateful to the farmer who let us park by his barn and ferried our tools on his quad-bike to and from a point near the start of the path.  It's a steep hill and that saved us a lot of sweat.

Today's work was funded by donations to CROWS. These are hugely appreciated. Thank you.