On Wednesday our wanderings took us from the car park at Pinchinthorpe into Guisborough Woods and upwards to the Hanging Stone.
Thanks to everyone who wandered with us including our four-legged wanderers.
From the car park, we followed the old railway, which now forms part of the Guisborough Branch Walkway Nature Reserve. The cafe there serves excellent coffee and marvellous slabs of flapjack, which get the cockles simmering after you have been up on the moors bagging a few hills. Sadly, at 7 pm, on a breath-fogging January evening, we were about 3 hours too late...
Within the building, there is a visitor centre and public conveniences which along with the cafe are open from 9 am to 4 pm daily.
After doing a slight warmup around a field, don't ask, we headed up into the woods and joined one of the main forestry tracks which wind around Hanging Stone Wood and Highcliff, as far as Charltons to the east and Roseberry Topping to the west.
The climb up to Hanging Stone was fairly easygoing as the thaw of the day had given way to the freezing night. Having climbed up on the old stone itself we paused and looked out over the town of Guisborough and beyond towards Redcar and the coast. How often in the past 10,000 years, since the moors were first inhabited, had our ancestors stood in the same spot looking towards the sea? Take away the harsh glow of our electric world and the view, at night at least, would not be so very different from those who came before us.
The earth and heavens change slowly, with care, only humankind marks its canvas with careless, rapid brush strokes.
From our ancient vantage point, we followed the path up onto the main forest track which runs along the top of the ridge between Roseberry Common and Highcliff. Above us Orion the Hunter appeared in a clearing sky that was now peppered with stars. Although cold the wind had dropped leaving us loping along in near-perfect conditions.
After following the Cleveland Way for a short distance we dropped down onto another forest track which lead us down through Hutton Woods.
The wood's origins are like their trees deep-rooted, extant documents mention it by name as far back as the 11th century.
The track leading from Hutton Moor to Hutton Village is a fast downhill, which makes it a heart-pumping, muscle-stretching, half-a-mile of running joy; Which will forever remind us of our friend Ian "Go Run " Gorin who left us far too soon in 2019...
"You will always hold the crown for that segment Ian, trot on mate..."
Once through the village, we followed the road for a short while; Before turning off onto the farm track leading us past the area known as Hutton Gate, which from 1854 until 1964 was the name given to the branch line railway station that stood nearby. We continued on this track for about a mile as it joined the walkway and took us back to our starting point.
In all, we covered just under 5 miles and climbed around 700ft, not too shabby for a midweek mooch.
After gathering our monkeys and parrots together we repaired to the Cross Keys for a well-earned beverage and a chinwag.
Until next week trot on...💪🦍
Good route 👍