Summer reflections

The first snow of Autumn fell on Dartmoor today.  Snow has fallen in 7 of the last 11 Novembers. Perhaps the month should be renamed 'Snovember'.  The dusting of the white stuff has made me reflect on the Summer of 2015, when my relationship, and perhaps many people's relationship with Dartmoor and Letterboxing seems to have changed.

The last walk I recall completing was around Eylesbarrow.  Finding several letterboxes on the slopes of the hill, and in the valley near the bronze age Drizzlecombe menhir.  Taking some time to explore the ruins and remnants of the old tin mine which closed in the 1850s - roughly when James Perrott established his Cranmere Pool letterbox.  Human impact on the moor is long lasting.  Even when the memories fade, the legacy remains.  Set in stone.  A monument to past glory.  Bronze age Britons vanish.  Tin mines are exhausted of their ore and the miners leave.  The landscape they leave behind has changed irretrievably.

The confirmation of my Homebase Garden Academy status this Summer was fantastic for me professionally and personally.  A career change into the Great Outdoors was always my ambition.  An ambition that can be traced back to the Summer of 1991, when I made a connection with the Dartmoor environment - introduced to me through Letterboxing.

In the 25 years that followed, the Letterboxing landscape has also changed, almost beyond recognition.  I have spoken before of the developments that have occurred.  Those since the Millenium have altered the hobby greatly, such as GPS and the boom in Geocaching.  This year, more than any I can recall, has seen the largest number of Letterboxers actively retire from the hobby.  Various reasons may account for this.  The end of an era seems an over-the-top way to describe it, but the class of 1985 have finally chosen to hang up their compass for the last time in greater numbers than ever.  The landscape they leave has changed.  The resulting hobby must face some challenges ahead.  I relish a challenge though!  Whilst I grapple with my growing gardening career, please forgive my long silences on this blog as I walk less and blog even more rarely.  I still care very much for Dartmoor, and love Dartmoor Letterboxing.  Don't forget you can see what I'm doing in the 12 month academy on my other blog though.  Appropriately named perhaps: What goes down, must come up!

Access all areas

Despite the gloomy weather forecast, I found myself on Dartmoor on Saturday afternoon, packed and ready for a letterbox walk around Windy Post and Pew Tor.  I haven't walked these parts in many years.  A new set of letterboxes has been sited here, and my time away had generated a long list of clues to search for.  I parked in the car park just below Little Staple Tor, aiming directly for Feather Tor and the peaks beyond.  

The going underfoot was far tougher than I remember.  The grass and gorse were very deep in places and the lack of grazing livestock is clearly having an effect on the landscape.  On the southern side of Barn Hill, Spring's swaling, still very obvious, successfully cleared the undergrowth.  The wide pathways through the gorse were eroded and muddy, in an area which receives more than it's fair share of walkers.  It made me think about access to the moor, after all - to my East - remained Dartmoor's most sensitive, well-known and long running issues - Vixen Tor.

As I feared in my post (Vixen Tor and other restrictions) in January 2011, spray painted rocks surround the area.  That Vixen Tor has always been enclosed is not disputed, but the removal of a stile over the enclosure wall in 2003 sparked protest and trespassing until the courts ruled in landowner Mary Alford's favour in September 2011.  Based on my observations, displaced rocks from the wall, clear footprints inside the enclosure towards the rockpile, and damage to the barbed wire fence and fenceposts indicate that the public continue to access the land where the stile once stood.

Some 30 years ago, at least one Letterbox existed beyond this wall:  Named 'Vixana's Lair', in honour of the enduring legend of Vixana the witch, who, it is said, lived on this high Tor.  She used her powers to conjure up a mist when anyone came close. Disorientated and lost in the fog, they would inadvertently wander into the nearby mire.  Legend has it that Vixana was defeated by a local man with the assistance of a 'magic ring' enabling him to see through the mist, creeping up on her and pushing the unsuspecting witch to her death from the summit.

Partly in reverence to the story (and partly as the Letterbox no longer exists) I did not cross the wall.  My walk took me around Heckwood Tor and towards Pew Tor Cottage.  It was great to meet Caroline and Ian Kirkpatrick near one Letterbox.  The Kirkpatricks have long been great promoters of the off-Dartmoor letterboxes to which I have referred to this year.

I found 9 Letterboxes in all, and though some of those on my list were missing, I was satisfied with the afternoon's walk.

Away day

Back in March I said I hoped to return to Bodmin Moor after a day's (successful) letterboxing around Cornwall highest peak, Brown Willy.  A while ago, the opportunity arose to check out the area again, this time in the company of a regular visitor.  A seasoned geocaching and letterboxing pro in the form of Steve B.  Steve lives just off the moor, and often walks these paths.  With prepared lists, plenty of local tales, and knowledge of hidden letterboxes, this day was sure to exceed March's Bodmin Moor letterbox haul of 1!

Parking up in light mist at the village of Minions, it was a surreal start to what would be a great day's letterboxing.  I'd never been to this 'Warner branded' settlement before, and I haven't letterboxed with anyone in years.  First stop was Tregarrick Tor.  I was quickly reminded of how much this place has in common with Dartmoor - bogs and streams to cross on our path.  Steve pointed out the Poldark filming location.  The track to Tregarrick played the role of "Road to Illogan" in series 1, which made me chuckle.  After success at Tregarrick Tor, we headed to the Cheesewring, which is a popular tourist attraction round these parts.  A natural rock stack that defies logic, gravity and belief atop a giant quarry.  I was in my element.  The weather was beautiful, the pace of the walk was perfect, and the Letterboxes kept coming!  We turned North towards consecutive ridges of mysterious rugged tors.  At lunch on what I learnt was the appropriately named Sharp Tor, I was introduced to Bearah Tor and Kilmar Tor and the infamous High Rock.  Letterboxes on all of them, I was told.

The afternoon was spent confirming this was true.  Bearah Tor was breathtaking in it's scale.  An elongated series of outcrops stretching almost a kilometre.  As I observed at Rough Tor in March, the landscape appeared immaculate, as if undisturbed for centuries.  I mean that on the macro scale, not just in the geological sense.  Granite had weathered, crumbled, and lay untouched in small caves. Erosion, apart from in the peat near water sources, and near gateways wasn't obvious.  Ferns, grasses, and other upland plants grew tall between boulders.  The absence of feet - human and animal - and hands (Letterboxers) was staggeringly clear.

Approaching Kilmar Tor, the legacy of the Cornish quarrying industry came into focus.  Steve pointed out perhaps the last active quarry in the region high on Bearah Tor, and then the old railway line.  I had one landmark in sight though: High Rock.  From below, it didn't look that high, but on closer inspection, this was at least as impressive as the Cheesewring.  A teetering, balanced, natural wonder on the very apex of the ridge.  That I may find a letterbox upon it's summit was the only incentive I needed!

Kilmar Tor itself is another knife edge ridge of rough granite and even rougher vegetation, with a trig point hidden among it's outcrops.  At this point, Steve and I decided to call it a day.  We walked 15 miles, and found 19 Letterboxes.  I was once again bowled over by this diminutive Moor, and am already planning my next adventure.

Cheers Steve!

Firm favourite

I think I have found a new favourite place on the moor!  Come to think of it, I have many favourites, but this one, not previously among them, has possibly just edged it.  I hadn't previously considered Rippon Tor to be a regular peak to visit.  Situated beyond a wall in a 'forbidden zone' for Dartmoor Letterboxes, I felt little desire to make the trek.  That said, I've always appreciated the Tor: A recognisable landmark to the East, with a summit trig point that features in clues up and down the moor.

My most recent walk took me to the area around Bag Tor (another forbidden tor) and Saddle Tor - so I took the chance in the sunshine to wander up to Rippon and see what I could see.  And, wow, what a view! Rippon Tor is quite high, relative to the surrounding peaks.  At 473 metres, it looks down on a vast swathe of Devon.  Off to the South, cargo vessels in the channel could be seen.  Lyme Bay to the East was visible, as were the hills of Exmoor.  The Dartmoor skyline was equally impresive: from Penn Beacon above Plymouth past Princetown, Hameldown, on up to Meldon Hill above Chagford.  Below me were the far busier highpoints of Haytor, yet I sat in crowd-free bliss for nearly an hour soaking up the sight.

I don't resent the lack of Letterboxing on Rippon Tor,  There are plenty of items and artefacts to hunt out up there.  Dartmoor's only incumbant stone cross carved in relief into the granite bedrock is on the summit here.  Millstones, cairns and the Nutcracker make worthwhile distractions.

My Letterbox walk garnered 14 stamps including a couple that had gone unfound for several months.  This is surely an area that deserves further visits soon!

Damp

In my July 2015 post: "New clues: A walk of snipe", I included a warning, namely

"Please, please use common sense as you walk around between 4 and 6.  The dry season does not make the terrain any easier!  The pools around Rattlebrook Head and Lyd Head are deep, but can be very easily circumnavigated.  You have been warned!"

In hindsight, I realised that these words weren't that in-keeping with clue releases of mine or others, so I thought I would just provide a short explanation.  In two previous series, including last year's 'Depths of Winter' boxes I have read comments written in my visitors books, critical of the soggy route that the walk took.  I didn't take offence at the comments, but was left feeling that they were, perhaps, a little unnecessary.  In both previous occasions, as in my most recent series, the wet ground in question could very easily be circumnavigated.  Dartmoor is inherently wet underfoot.  The Dartmoor we know and love is what it is because of the environment, the weather, the weathering caused by water and ice.  I appreciate anyone finding my Letterboxes, I hope that my routes are not dangerous or unpleasant, and would hope that general common sense is applied when out on the moor, reading the lie of the land, taking the best path.

I have had one email already from a Letterboxer who admitted wilfully ignoring my advise and sinking up to their waist in a bog at Rattlebrook Head.

Take care out there!

August: Reasons to be cheerful

August is a month to revel in, to enjoy and exploit on Dartmoor.  Bird breeding has ended, and this will delight Letterboxers who have been detered from certain areas of the moor by the authorities due to the nesting habits of some rare - and not so rare - Dartmoor birdlife.  Lambing season too has officially ended, and this will please the dog owners who can now ditch the short leads, and (responsibly) let their pups roam free - until next March at least.

The MOD are off for their annual month long break from training in the three Military Ranges. No live firing will take place during August, therefore no Range will be subject to day or night closure.  Therefore, no mistimed North moor letterbox walks!  Also, the days are still long - sunset at the end of the month is still around 8pm - perfect for distant North Moor jaunts.  Met Office data indicates August has, on average, the driest and warmest weather of the year in the South West.  Which after the dreary July we've just had, is most welcome.

If you need further reason to visit Dartmoor this month: August sees many events take place. Okehampton and Chagford shows, and Dartmoor Folk Festival to name just three.  Sure, the kids are off school, and the roads are busier, but what better excuse do you need to grab some Letterbox clues and delve deep into the moor on a Summer's day.  Go forth and explore!

New Clues: A walk of snipe

Here are my Summer Letterbox clues,  This is a series of Letterboxes around Woodcock Hill on Dartmoor's North West corner.  Snipe are any one of 25 wading birds, including Dartmoor residents, the curlew and woodcock.  A 'walk' is their collective noun, and this series recognises the birds and the long distance paths that cross the Moor.  The route is about 7 miles in length beginning and ending at Prewley Water Works.  Of course, your route can be extended, or walked in different sections.  Please, please use common sense as you walk around between 4 and 6.  The dry season does not make the terrain any easier!  The pools around Rattlebrook Head and Lyd Head are deep, but can be very easily circumnavigated.  You have been warned!

No.1

No.2

No.3

No.4

No.5

No.6

No.7

These boxes have been removed from the moor.