Route Planner

[rambling oldie]

I  seem to be quite simplistic compared to many of you.  I haven’t tried getting to grips with gps yet so just use OS Maps on my pc or laptop to work out a route for my rambling group.  I start with a suitable pub for lunch afterwards then spend some time joining up a network of footpaths and other rights of way until a suitable 5.5 to 6.5 mile route evolves.  Actually ‘hours of fun.’ Then print it, file it with the others, eventually recce it then lead my U3A group on it.  Can’t think of anything much better in life, other than ballroom dancing with my wife.  
   

[fernman]

so just use OS Maps on my pc or laptop to work out a route for my rambling group.  I start with a suitable pub for lunch afterwards then spend some time joining up a network of footpaths and other rights of way until a suitable 5.5 to 6.5 mile route evolves.

That would work for my "local" Chilterns day walks, because 98% of the public footpaths are well-maintained, well-signed and well-used, although a large number of walking guide books for the area have been published over the years (I have about 25 of them) and I find it easier to follow a route from one of those.

For my multiple-day routes in Snowdonia, I have also made up my own routes like you do by joining up footpaths from the OS map. Doing a recce is out of the question as I'm 235 miles away, and I have found to my cost on several occasions that paths shown on the map simply do not exist on the ground, leaving me to struggle through overgrown grass tussocks, rushes and heather, make equally difficult detours around conifer plantations or find alternative footpaths. Therefore I prefer if possible to walk routes that other people have made, which I find from books, magazines and the internet, because if the author has walked it, the paths are going to be there!

[barewirewalker]

Doing a recce is out of the question as I'm 235 miles away, and I have found to my cost on several occasions that paths shown on the map simply do not exist on the ground, leaving me to struggle through overgrown grass tussocks, rushes and heather, make equally difficult detours around conifer plantations or find alternative footpaths. Therefore I prefer if possible to walk routes that other people have made, which I find from books, magazines and the internet, because if the author has walked it, the paths are going to be there!

I am sure that some of that description applies when you wander off piste in search of rare ferns. I seem to recall that it was your suggestion that I refer to the Library of Scotland, shortly after your reminder that I had posted a trespass in Somerset House on one of my urban ventures  .


A very valuable bit of info, not only are the OS 6"/mile maps available but also 25"/mile are online. From 1880-1940's. Make interesting reading especially when you might be puzzling why a bit of right of way just goes across a corner of a bit of land. Before one falls into the trap of believing the landowner, who claims it just an old way to work, the old maps may reveal the full route that several miles long.


Now there is a real chance to get up close and personal with hawthorn, blackthorne, briars, bramble and all things that slovenly land managers cultivates.

[fernman]

I am sure that some of that description applies when you wander off piste in search of rare ferns.

Ah, but while my searches have taken me off piste to some rather precarious places, such as up near-vertical slopes or beneath waterfalls as examples, they are not at all the same as going for a walk, although walking for two or three miles might be necessary to reach the sites, so boots are obviously desirable, while walking clothing is the most practical attire for its durability and to cope with the weather conditions.

For me there are two types of "ferning". One is visiting sites or areas of known rarities with a group of like-minded enthusiasts and this is often in wild or mountain terrain. The other is self-motivated days on my own spent in areas of ancient woodland in which I methodically cover every bit of ground and note all the ferns I find, with 6- or 8-figure grid references, which I then send to the appropriate county recorder. (It's just a specialised niche of general botanical recording.) The latter is just like spending all day in the outdoors on a walk, equipped with walking boots, poles, waterproofs, sandwiches and drinks, except  that the overall distance covered is far less.

EDIT: I should add that it was an interest in natural history that got me into walking, for back in the mists of time I attended evening classes and went on their field trips, when I noticed that some people wore walking clothing and vibram-soled boots. That gave me the idea to start going for "proper" walks, to be out in the countryside, see nature and keep fit.

[Oldtramp]

Paper map
Compass
Binoculars or (usually) camera telephoto for spotting stiles in the next hedge
Assorted guidebooks - Cicerone, Wainwright, Poucher etc.
Bus & train timetable
For anything that looks iffy ---- river crossings in particular, internet searches, posting queries, pestering locals until I find someone who'll help me wade the Duddon or the Solway or whatever


This old-fashioned method has got me all round the perimeter of England (Coast + Offa's Dyke + Scottish border), up all the Wainwrights, about 100 Munros and all the 2000-ers in N Wales and the Brecons, not to mention along most of England's Long Distance Paths. So I'm inclined to stick with it.  I did have an early GPS and found it useful when I was lost in mist above Kintail but it was otherwise a nuisance as I'd look, mesmerised, at it when I should have been watching where I was putting my feet.  When it stopped working I didn't replace it.  I have a 'robust' phone, resilient to being dropped, not a smartphone, and doubt GPS programmes would run on it, though I may be wrong.

[fit old bird]

OS paper maps. Pick a start place where it looks interesting, drive there if it's a day walk. Have an idea where I might walk, make it up as I go along. Pick a finish time, and walk to fill it. Don't want to finish early, don't mind finishing a bit later.


Ilona

[fernman]

Pick a start place where it looks interesting, drive there if it's a day walk.

That's OK if you're in, or within reasonable driving distance of, an area where there are plenty of places you can walk. Personally I can't grumble because the Chilterns in Herts, Bucks and even Oxfordshire are not too far from my home and they are absoutely full of footpaths.

Not everyone is so fortunate.

As an example, my late employers sometimes sent me away for a week or more for training, usually at dismal times of the year like November or February, but on one occasion it was in June and I was to stay in a pub in a small Lincolnshire village. With visions of the light evenings spent exploring the countryside from my base I took my walking boots. My hopes were dashed because there was nothing but crop fields with a couple of roads through them and the only public footpath followed a river for a few hundred yards behind a row of dwellings before it came back onto the road again.