Alan's Ramblings - bleaklow tag

A busy day on the moors

Sat, 22 May 2010 21:38:00 GMT

I got a phone call from Fiona yesterday asking me if I'd help with some research work being done on Black Hill by the University of Manchester on behalf of Moors For The Future (MFTF). Beth is doing the research and she's using a spectrometer to measure the light reflected from different types of vegetation over the course of the year. She's doing this so that subsequent aerial surveys can be analysed using the information. Areas of different vegetation can be identified on the aerial survey by looking for areas with the same absorption characteristics as found on the ground survey. The spectrometer is a ASD FieldSpec Pro supplied by NERC, one of the UK's research bodies. It allegedly portable - well, perhaps if you have a donkey it is, because as well as the spectrometer there are four lead-acid batteries, a laptop and a number of other bits and pieces. to be carried, so myself and David went out to help Beth - and poor David got the biggest lump to lug across the moor :-)

The readings can only be taken when there's no cloud obscuring the sun, hence Beth's heavenward gaze. Each plot has to have four readings taken, one on a white reference tile and three of the vegetation, from different positions to get an average reading. You can see the reference tile and the sensing head in the pictures above. There's a bundle of fibre optics that takes the light from the sensing head into the spectroscope on David's back, where the light is analysed and the results fed into the laptop that Beth is carrying. I had the difficult job of carrying a clipboard and writing stuff down :-)

A couple of hundred meters away from us there was another group of people who were also working on the MFTF project. The moors in the Dark Peak are an internationally important habitat, Blanket Bog. The peat was formed originally by Sphagnum Moss, but over the last hundred or so years, environmental degradation caused in part by the Industrial Revolution has taken its toll and much of the Sphagnum has disappeared, and there has been widespread erosion of the peat. MFTF have been re-vegetating the moors with heather, but Sphagnum is one of the really important species to re-establish because it is responsible for generating the peat in the first place, and locking up CO2 as a result. MFTF have contracted Micropropagation Services to prepare Sphagnum pellets so that they can be spread across the moor to effectively "inoculate" the ground surface with new Sphagnum.

The pellets are going to be spread from helicopter using an adapted agricultural sprayer, they were testing out the system and working out the snags in preparation for spreading the pellets on a wide scale. It took three years to get to the current stage, so there's an immense amount of effort going into this environmental programme. There are more details of the project on the Moors For The Future website.

After heading back from Heyden Head to Holme Moss summit, David noticed what appeared to be smoke drifting across the Bleaklow plateau. We are in a period of high fire risk at the moment due to the recent dry weather, and we've had catastrophic fires on Bleaklow in the past, so David and I had to bail out and leave Beth on her own so that we could go check out the smoke. We drove round the other side of the Bleaklow plateau and up onto Snake Summit expecting to see smoke, but there was nothing visible. We headed off rapidly down the Pennine Way to Alport Low where we could get a clear view of where the smoke had apparently being coming from, but there was nothing to be seen from there either - we passed Terry on the way with a group he was out with, and he also hadn't seen anything. I managed to get hold of Mike on the radio, he was on Kinder and had seen the smoke as well, but by the time we got to Alport Low there was nothing to be seen. Most puzzling - the three of us had quite clearly seen smoke from Holme Moss, all I can think if was that it was a small accidental burn that someone had put out quickly.

We then headed back to Snake Summit where we met up with Peter and Bob, then headed back round to the north side of the plateau again to put up "high fire risk" signs at Crowden and Arnfield - kinda ironic really - before heading back to the briefing centre and then home.

Wrecks walk

Tue, 25 Apr 2006 07:56:28 GMT

On Thursday last week I got a phone call from John Owen, one of the other rangers, asking me if I'd like to help out on a guided walk. I'd agreed before he told me that I'd just let myself in for, a 24km trog round seven of the aircraft wrecks that litter the Peak District. I got in contact with my friend Bob to get GPS coordinates for one of the wrecks I hadn't visited and he mentioned that he'd been having problems getting GPS data into Google Earth, so I decided I'd record the track of the walk with my GPS and see if I could get it into Google Earth. The GPS management I use (OziExplorer) can export data to Google Earth, so I've provided a 'fly through' KMZ file, if you have Google Earth installed you should be able to load the file and then press F10 twice to start the tour. Fortunately Google have just added high resolution photos of the Bleaklow area so you can actually get a fair idea of the terrain. The KML file also includes the boundary of the Peak District National Park as well as the route of the Pennine Way within the park.

Because of the distance involved we started bright and early at 9:00am. For me that just required a leisurely stroll the 150m from my front door to where the walk started. We had 14 people turn up at the starting point in Old Glossop, some who had come from as far as Norfolk for the walking festival. The forecast was for poor visibility , and it was spot on - there was a heavy overcast sky as we started down Mossy Lea, but thankfully it didn't look like it was going to rain.

We headed up Mossy Lea, passing Shire Hill on the right and Lightside on the left before heading up Doctor's Gate and and up Crooked Clough, climbing up past the footbridge and then stopping for a quick rest before heading up Ashton Clough. This view is west back down the valley, towards Glossop. The high ground to the left is Coldharbour Moor.

This is the bottom of Ashton Clough, a steep gorge that climbs 240m in about 750m, and the sides are even steeper. A Douglas C-47 (Dakota) crashed up on the edge of James's Thorn to the west (left) of this picture. Over the years bits of the wreckage has slid down into the bottom of Ashton Clough - here you can see the cylinder block of one of the radial engines.

This is the location where Douglas C-47 2108982 (Dakota) of 314th Troop Carrier Group USAAF crashed on 24th July 1945, just below James's Thorn. Unfortunately all the crew were killed. If you look at the GPS track just below this point you can see how we zigzagged up the hill, due to the steepness of the slope, some of the folks scrambled up the rocky bottom of Ashton Clough, those with a more nervous disposition took the (only slightly) easier route up the left hand side of the clough. The fence in the immediate foreground is part of the fence that was put around the entire Bleaklow plateau as part of the Moors for the Future project, and the rocky area in the background is Higher Shelf Stones.

Just above the wreck of the Dakota is all that remains of Lancaster KB993 of 408 Squadron R.C.A.F., which crashed 18th May 1945. The crew of six were all killed. This view is looking west back towards Glossop, and beyond that, Manchester. By the time we got here the low mist and cloud had burned off and it was really quite warm - spring is finally on the way!

We then headed over to the wreck just north of the trig point at Higher Shelf Stones. This is Superfortress B-29 44-61999 "Over Exposed" of the 16th Photographic Reconnaisance Squadron U.S.A.F. It crashed on 3rd November 1948 whilst descending through cloud, just days before the crew were due to return home to the USA. This is the biggest wreck site in the Dark Peak, a significant amount of wreckage remains. A couple of years ago a wedding ring belonging to one of the crew was found at the site, and was eventually returned to the granddaughter of the crew member. There is a memorial service here every Remembrance Sunday (the Sunday nearest to 11 November) for the crews of the 50+ wrecks in the Dark Peak area. The smoky mist near the ground is water vapour coming off the peat - as the mist burns off the surface of the peat heats very rapidly as it is so dark, and water starts to evaporate from it, re-condensing as it hits the still-cool air.

Due to time constraints we missed out the Botha and Wellington wrecks to the north and instead cut across to the Blenheim on Sykes Moor. This was Blenhein Mk.I L1476 of RAF 164 Squadron, which crashed on 30th January 1939 while on a training flight from RAF Church Fenton. This is hidden in the bottom of a grough and is quite difficult to find, but the GPS coordinates I was given by John Fielding were spot on. Finally we headed over towards John Track Well before crossing over the newly-replanked shooting path to Glossop Low and thence back down the quarry track to Old Glossop. All in all a splendid walk - any day when it doesn't rain and doesn't require thermals is a good one :-)

Helicopter in the hills

Fri, 07 Jan 2005 10:45:49 GMT

The Moors For The Future project are back on the job again, spreading cut heather on Bleaklow as part of the attempt to re-vegetate the eroded peat. I helped out with loading the lift bags last year, and this year I'm getting to help with the second part of the process, airlifting the bags onto the moor. My first stint was this Wednesday - we drove up the track to Glossop Low where we were airlifted by the helicopter onto the moor:

As we were walking to the drop area, a couple of guys and a dog came up to us, the dog was a rescue dog wearing a distinctive NSARDA coat, so we guessed there was a Mountain Rescue callout in progress. It turns out that someone had been missing since the previous day, and a total of six MR teams were looking for him. They asked if they could use the helicopter to help search for him, so as a result we had to mooch around for a couple of hours while they looked for him, without any success unfortunately.

Once the helicopter returned we split into two teams of three, and each team took a set of GPS coordinates where the bags were to be dropped. The helicopter can lift six bags at a go and drop them in pairs, so each team member stands where the pilot needs to drop a pair of bags. Helicopters can only hover into wind (and it was very windy and cold!), so the person who is most downwind holds their arms up to signal the helicopter for the first pair, and he works his way upwind dropping bags as he goes. It's quite disconcerting to have to stand there as half a dozen large bags come swinging towards you - the pilot comes in fast and low and drops the bags within six feet of you, sometimes closer - and he's only a short way above your head, looking at you through a window in the floor of the helicopter and a couple of tatty wing mirrors attached to the outside of the chopper:

After he's dropped one set of bags, he flies back to the staging point on Glossop Low and picks up another six, and delivers them to the other three man team. Whilst he's doing that, the first team gathers up the lifting strops and parcels them up into a rope bag so they can be taken back down to the staging point the next time around:

And finally, here's the result of our handywork - all the white blobs are lift bags full of heather waiting to be spread. Whilst we were waiting for the helicopter we spread some of the heather brash - it needs to be spread about 1cm thick over the bare peat, and it's surprisingly hard work - the easiest way, bearing in mind the strong wind, was to toss armfuls into the air and let the wind do the spreading.

We had to pack in about 3:00pm because the RAF declared a no-fly zone over Bleaklow so that they could get one of their Sea King search and rescue helicopters in to look for the missing guy - unfortunately he's still missing, and the search has been called off until Saturday, which doesn't bode well for the individual concerned :-(

Snow, Hare

Sun, 05 Dec 2004 04:31:01 GMT

A couple of weeks ago we had the first snow of the year - according to some pundits we are in for a cold winter this year. I was out on patrol that weekend, trying to finish my survey of the Bleaklow fence. Unfortunately the snow made it such slow going that by the time I'd reached Grinah it was time to turn around and come back. I finally got the survey finished yesterday, it took me seven days in total to cover the 32Km and record the 153 stiles and fences - much of the time being taken up by walking to and from the fenceline rather than along it.

Anyway, I got some photos of Bleaklow in the snow which I've posted below. The first one is of the 'mushroom rock' at Bleaklow Stones - a well-known example of the sometimes wierd shapes that the gritstone weathers into. I've jazzed the picture up a little, but the sun really was directly behind it ;-)

The footprints in the snow in from of the rock are those of the mountain hares that live up here - you can see the prints even more clearly in the photo below. This was taken from Bleaklow Stones, the western end of the Kinder plateau can be seen to the left of the photo.

On the same day I was out blundering around in the snow and falling through it into what seemed like just about every rank peat bog in the Peak District, Bob and John were over by Lightside, about 2Km from where I live. John spotted this hare up in the rocks - they often hide up in areas like this as it gives them protection from both the weather and predators - not that they actually have that many predators in the Peak District!

They are normally fairly skittish (well, they are Lepus timidus after all ;-), so Bob and John spent some time carefully approaching it and as well as the superb photo below, John got some excellent video footage. It is just in the process of shedding its brown summer coat and switching into its white winter camouflage - not a particularly sucessful ruse bearing in mind the limeted amounts of snow we get - all the snow that was on the ground when these pictures were taken has long since gone.

If you are interested in more information on Mountain Hares, I can recommend a visit to both The Mammal Society's page on them, and the image collection at ARKive.

The Peak District from space

Tue, 09 Nov 2004 08:07:34 GMT

One of my neighbours, Tim, is a lecturer at the University of Manchester and is doing research on Bleaklow as part of the Moors for the Future project. I chatted to him at length about the work that's being done at Mark's birthday party back in September, and today he mailed some me some interesting satellite photos from a conference held recently by the Moors for the Future project.

The first one is a picture of the UK at night., showing the contrast between the urban (lit) and rural (unlit) areas of the UK. I've outlined the Peak District with a red square (if you click on the picture you'll get a larger version which is a bit clearer). The unlit area corresponds very closely to the boundary of the park. The Peak District is within 1 hours drive for 20 million people, or about 1/3 of the population of the UK, and looking at the sea of light that surrounds the Peak District I can see where they all come from. Surrounding the park from the top clockwise are the lights of Leeds/Bradford, Sheffield, Nottingham, Stoke-on-Trent and Manchester.

The second photo is a daytime satellite image taken on the 18th April 2003, which is when we had the massive fire on Bleaklow with I wrote about at the time. The red square outlines the smoke plumes from the Saddleworth (upper) and Bleaklow (lower) fires. There was a very strong easterly wind on the day in question, and as a result the Bleaklow plume stretches out into Liverpool Bay and is over 100km long.

You can also see the moorland fires in Scotland, both in the Southern Uplands and on the Ardnamurchan peninsula.The Bleaklow fire was almost certainly started deliberately - sobering to think that the actions of just a few morons could cause an environmental disaster that could be seen even from space.