Hobbit's Fells hikes

In the Fall of 2023 I began leading some hikes for the Friends of the Fells, trying to bring in some longer and/or more strenuous outings than the usual offerings. Here's a running log of them, with links to the FoTF's calendar area at Eventbrite.. I usually try to give them fun names and descriptions!

Skyline and More! (Sep 2023)

Bear Hill and Beyond (Oct 2023)

Northeast Adventure Loop (Oct 2023)
In conjunction with the 30th-anniversary festival at Greenwood

Silver Cross Cruise [or was that "Challenge"?] (Nov 2023)
Visiting the old Silver Mine site, among other things

Better Black Friday (Nov 2023)
Let's head for the woods, not the malls!

Wandering the West (Feb 2024)
Down the western perimeter, plus finding town boundary stones and their interesting history.
Includes a map link to the combined 2023 routes

Walkin' O' the Green (& other blaze colors) (Mar 17, 2024)
a 6+ mile "tower-to-tower" tour for St. Paddy's Day (with lots of wood frogs! pic audio )

"Seven Hills" Rocky Ramble, with plenty of elevation change (Apr 2024)
Over the hills and five-ish miles away

Tower-to-Tower Take Two: re-did the "Walkin' o' the Green" route, with more people this time (June 2024)

Orange You Glad ... to be outside? (Aug 2024)
Walking the whole Reservoir Trail (orange blazes, 6 mi)

Rock Circuitous: Mostly Rock Circuit in the eastern Fells, with random diversions (Sep 2024)
Similar to "Seven Hills" but more like a lazy figure-8, that still took in most of the big rock outcrops. [Map]

Yes, Virginia , it's apparently "National Take A Hike Day": (Nov 17, 2024)
A slightly easier ramble up through the Virginia Wood area and returning via some random assortment of other
trails, celebrating a perfect Fall day and the fact that we still seem to have a civilization for the moment

I decided to "wing it" for Randomness Around Reservoirs instead of trying to set a route in stone. (Jan, 2025)
[Especially since I was out of area beforehand.] A bit longer than my original guesstimate, but
a good time was had, the rain managed to mostly hold off, and we got to play on the reservoir ice!

Despite a busy spring, I squeezed in a chunk of Cross Fells and looped back via other trails, (June 1 2025)
pointing out various (and aging) "infrastructure" aspects along the way

Northwest Passage was another vague ramble around the North and Middle reservoirs;
only two people total, but it was a pleasant 6+ miles (Aug 17, 2025)

Nobody else showed up for the comedically-named "Blue-Green Algae" hike, so I did the loop myself. (July, 2026)
This let me compare the actual walk to what I had pre-planned in the online OSMAnd mapping tool.
That's a great resource, giving similar functionality to the route planner built into the GPS app, and allows
us to create and download a GPX file without even needing an account. Highly recommend!
The result was this overlay of the planned versus actual tracks, showing minor deviations.
(Red is planned, blue is real-life track after completion. Went a little astray near Sheepfold...)

Hobbit's history of guided Middlesex Fells hikes