Chohem two

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I walked from Hemel to Chorleywood. The section coming out of Hemel station down London Road is probably the least pleasant part of the walk. London Road itself was very busy but with a slight detour to a visible set of traffic lights this was not too bad.
There is a lot less road walking than would initially appear from the route map. Felden Road has a wide grassy verge for quite some way, and other verges and a well-signposted permissive path keep you off the tarmac much of the time. Most of the tarmac is down two very small lanes with few cars.
One field north of Chipperfield was very waterlogged when I walked it, and there were some other pretty muddy sections, but for the most part it was fine underfoot.
The route was very easy to navigate and benefitted from some lovely scenery pretty much throughout. Bonus points for avoiding fields of horses which are fairly ubiquitous around Chipperfield and Sarratt!.

I walked from Chorleywood to Hemel Hempstead.
A good walk, Chorleywood common is a short hop from the station and then joining the Chess Valley walk following The Chess for a way through woods, commons and well made paths past Sarratt. Then there is Moor Lane, the first of several road sections. This lane is narrow with no verges, but very quiet, there was one car but it was crawling along at 15mph. All the road sections on this route are good, either very quiet and/or with good verges/paths beside them, with the exception of a 30m part as you enter/leave the South exit of Roughdown Common where care needs to be taken. Between the road sections there are many beautiful woods, riverside paths, quaint villages, common land and huge farm fields, lots of variety. The terrain is undulating and there are some nice views across the countryside.
Steps at either end, stiles and gates make this unsuitable for wheels.

I walked this from Hemel Hempstead to Chorleywood on a cloudy Saturday morning. There was not a lot of rain in the last week, and all the paths were easy going.

From Hemel Hempstead, I had some trouble getting to the south side of the station. Apparently you can only get out on that side if you have a special swipe card. So instead, I had to walk around and cross the very busy London Road to get to the start of the "real" walk. (photo #1)

There was a fairly long climb up through Felden along a road with no pavement, but also luckily with little traffic (photo #2). Much of the walk was be on a path, track, or road with hedges along each side. But it was never unsafe as there was very little traffic, and the traffic that did show up wasn't moving very fast.

After crossing Rucklers Lane, there was a long trek up and down a hill through grassy farmland (photo #4). At the bottom a lovely track brought me to "Tower Hill", where footpaths through fields were easy to walk. I did not like the signs "bull in field" though. Luckily, these signs were a lie. After a lovely walk through some woods, with some good views of a village in the valley below, I ended up crossing a road.

My pre-planned route (Chohem 1) had me go along the road, but luckily there is now a permissive footpath that avoids the road, where there was fast traffic. At the end of the field, there was now a pavement to make the walk safe, and a path through the woods allowed me to avoid another road walking section.

After walking past Rosehall Wood, Chohem 1 suggested I go through some fields to Dawes Common before going over another hill to get to the river
Chess. However there were a fair amount of horses in the field, and as I don't really trust these animals I decided to walk around them (photo #7). This is why there is now this Chohem 2! Unfortunately that meant a little road walking, but luckily again, there was little traffic.

This route also avoids a hill, and another few fields of horses. It also meant that I walked along the lovely river Chess for a fair distance, as part of the
Chess Valley Walk.

I spotted the first snow drops of the year along the lanes and the Chess Valley Walk themselves, and in the river a Little Egret (photo #9). Once I had crossed the river on a wooden bridge, the rest of this first section went through the Chorleywood House Estate, and Chorleywood Common (photo #11) to end up close to the tube station.

A lovely walk, even though there is some road walking involved.

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