A cold start to 2026
- Dave Shaw
- 21 hours ago
- 2 min read
My 2026 walking season started with a cold morning hike! We spent the week between Christmas and New Years on Lanzarote in the Canary Islands. It was a goregous 60 - 70 F the whole week, with plenty of sunshine. Getting off the plane at Leeds Bradfort Airport a 9:00 PM with a temperature of 28 F was quite the shock. It wasn't any warmer at 8:00 AM the next morning when I started my hike.
My first stop on most hikes is the Dacre Village Store. Ryan, Andy and Laura make a mean Latte, and I can grab a snack for the hike. If Dennis is going with me, then he will fuel up here with bacon bap, or maybe an extra-large New York Style Goujon Style Chicken Sandwhich.
Today's Hike was from Dacre Banks to Glasshouses. I use Stava to track my hikes:
Strava has a couple of advantages when hiking - I can use the beacon function so that someone knows where I am. They also have the ability to overlay heatmaps on the map, so you can get some idea that you are going the right way. They also produce a cool map at the end.
The trail is mostly along the river Nidd. Today I stayed on the north side - there is also a trail on south sides for parts. The river wasn't running as fast as last year - a week of dry will let the flow normalize. There was still a fair amount of water going over the Weir at Dacre Banks. For those who don't know, a Weir was an early 18th century way to harness water for power. A Weir would be built across the river, slowing down the flow. A chute/small channel would then be built off the side to funnel water to a waterwheel that was used for power. In this region, the power was for the local mills.
This hike is mostly along the river to the old mill at Glasshouse. I'll do a seperate blog on the building area at some point. Lots of cool history and industrial relics near the mills, which are now condos. Below is a picture of what the trail is like. There are quite a few birds and ducks along the river bank - and I've encountered deer on my early hikes as well
After the hike, if I have been good, I will head down to our local pub, The Royal Oak, and have a nice pint and a Sunday Roast. Today I got to sit next to the fireplace, which was especially welcome after the cold hike.
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