Members: Lorna Marsland, Iain McCallum, Andy Stratford, Jo Stratford, Dave Wylie, Keith Williams (meet leader).

Guest: Yvonne Holland.

I knew that the meet was going to be marred by water when I found that I had not turned the tap off on my camelbak and it had emptied itself into my daysack en route to Hayfield. Only my socks were saturated, but putting them on did bring back memories of repeatedly pulling on wet clothing before the advent of modern high tech waterproofs.  Luckily, we did have the latter available to us since the weather, as we started, saw Kinder at its soggiest. 

Iain was there well before the main party and away ahead of us as we made our dripping way up to the reservoir and Sandy Heys.  Once there, with a strong north-west wind blowing in mist and rain, we decided to go for the southern edges first in the hope that by the time we got to Golden Clough the weather may have improved.  Signs of a McCallum in the form of large ‘KMC’ letters scratched on the path encouraged Andy to forge ahead to catch up with Iain, who he met returning from The Downfall with the message that the Kinder River was impassably deep.

And so it proved; time for another change of plan.  This time we decided to abandon the western edges and follow the Kinder River over to Crowden Brook.  Slithering and slopping our way upstream, we were eventually able to cross the river and the watershed into southbound groughs.  Once on the southern edges with no serious sign of the weather improving, the feeling of the party was that there was no point in subjecting ourselves to any further purgatory by turning east for Grindsbrook.  Instead, we found shelter behind some boulders, had lunch, then headed off towards Kinderlow End.

Once committed to this, the cloud lifted, the sun peeped out and spirits rose – the day started to be enjoyable.  Iain peeled off down to Edale Cross while the rest of us kept high before dropping down to Tunstead.  By this time the sun was cracking the flags – or at least, trying to.  No sign of Iain by the time we got to Hayfield – he’d already slaked his thirst in the pub and left.  Someone suggested that we chuck buckets of iced water over each other – it being the craze of the day – but I detected no enthusiasm for this . . .     

Venue: Kinder Edges – a classic KMC bogtrot, though with more trot than bog because we need to protect the peat.

Start: Valley Road, Hayfield (by the wall on the south side of River Sett, SK 04268 86662)

Time: 09.30

Route:  Kinder Road to reservoir then ascend to Sandy Heys. Follow the northern edges to SK 12012 88050 then south across the plateau to southern edges. Follow these above Grindsbrook past the head of Crowden Brook to Crowden Tower, Pym Chair and Noe Stool and Kinder Low End. Descend to Tunstead and Valley Road.

Possible variations: From the Fair Brook, SW across the plateau to Kinder Gates then either to the Downfall and along the western edges to main route south of Kinder Low or from the Gates, SE to the head of Crowden Brook returning via Noe Stool and Tunstead.

Distance:   Main route – 14 miles or 6 – 7hrs.