Woolly hats optional as the Ramblers take a hike back towards grass roots

It’s just before 1pm on a sunny Sunday . After what seems like weeks of drizzle the sky is blue, it’s warm enough not to need a coat and the car park at Thruscross Reservoir is packed.

A short hop from Harrogate, the waters of the Washburn valley have long been a magnet for anglers and today the unseasonal temperatures have also lured dog walkers and families outdoors.

There’s also a group gathering around a man with clipboard. They’re all wearing waterproof trousers, a few are already making inroads into their packed lunch and flasks of tea, but despite appearances, close up these are not your average Ramblers.

No one in the group is retired, in fact almost all are young professionals who just happen to be members of Take a Hike, an offshoot of the organisation designed for younger walkers. The group’s website says membership is open to those in their 20s and 30s and while there are a few grey hairs among those about to set out on the 4.5-mile walk around the reservoir they are still a good few decades younger than the stereotype the Ramblers have been trying to shake off for the last few years.

“We don’t ask for birth certificates and we do have a lot more people in their late 30s than their early 20s, but the idea of the group was to give people a chance to get out into Yorkshire with people more their own age,” says walk leader Tim Rollett, who describes himself as youthful 41.

“It’s true the Ramblers has a bit of an old-fashioned reputation, even when you look on their main website the pictures tend to be of people of a certain age, most of them wearing woolly hats. There’s nothing wrong with that, but there was definitely a gap in the market for a younger groups.”

Over the last couple of years the Ramblers has been on something of a mission to reinvent itself. The organisation airbrushed the word association from its title, got rid of an apostrophe and commissioned a new logo. It was also about going back to its roots.

When it was set up 76 years ago, the aim was to give the industrialised working classes an escape from noise and pollution. The smog may have lifted and traditional industries been replaced by desk jobs, but the Ramblers realised that they could offer something many of us crave, easy access to open green space.

It worked. The organisation has recently reported a noticeable rise in membership from the under-40s, and Take a Hike is thriving. They currently have 400 or so registered members and 20 of them have turned up at Thruscross and are rewarded

“I’m amazed. Normally whenever I organise a walk, the clouds turn dark and the heavens open,” says Tim, who by day works in the risk management department of Leeds City Council. “But even on really bad days you tend to at least get half a dozen people turn up.

“Some people use it as a bit of a training ground if they are planning to do a much longer trek, but you don’t have to be super fit. Some people just want a bit of a stroll on a Sunday afternoon, for others it’s a way of getting fit. Walking ticks a lot of boxes for people. It’s exercise, it’s outdoors and it’s free, but walking alone isn’t much fun and besides it’s also a good way of meeting people.”

Many of the members joined the group after moving to Leeds and the surrounding area for work. Most are single, although some have not remained so for long, and the group, which is also known by some as Take a Spouse, has boasted a couple of marriages.

“It’s a bit more of a natural way to meet someone than say speed dating,” says Martin Earp, who describes himself as 40 plus. He works in investment banking and joined the group when he moved up from the south of England. “Walking has definitely got much more popular than it was a decade ago and I think people of my generation, who probably moaned when their parents made them go out for a walk on a Sunday afternoon, are rediscovering their love of the outdoors.

“It sounds very virtuous, but there’s also a great social side to a group like this.”

Martin is one of a core group of members who organise and lead the calendar of walks, which range from gentle four-mile ambles to more gruelling 14-mile hikes. Today is on the easy end of the scale. There’s a couple of steep inclines as the path wends its way around the reservoir and a couple of experienced walkers are upended by the soggy grass under foot.

“I’m pretty lazy,” says 35-year-old Nic Oliver, as we pass through a wooded section of the walk. Given that she’s previously scaled Yorkshire’s Three Peaks, walked the Inca trail and recently returned from an eight-day ascent of Kilimanjaro with a friend she met through the group it’s not a word which many would use to describe the 35-year-old from Gomersal.

“I’d never really gone out walking before I joined the group. I didn’t have any gear, but it was about building up to the Inca trail three years ago. The truth is that if I wasn’t part of the group I know I wouldn’t go out walking as much as I do.

“Of course you can still just get in the car and drive out to the Dales or the Peak District, but you have to think about where you want to go walking, you have to plan the route and you have to persuade someone else to come with you.

“This takes all the effort out of it. You look on the website, see what’s happening and just turn up. You don’t need to register beforehand and if something else crops up that’s fine too – you don’t feel like you’re some how letting the team down.”

Most walks go off without a hitch, although last spring on the same route we are doing now Nic was confronted by her first adder, which for the rest of the group provided an unexpected photo opportunity.

With membership costing £30 – you can try out a few walks before committing – it’s considerably cheaper than joining a gym and from the evidence of those who turned up at Thruscross it inspires a greater degree of commitment with even the weekday evening walks pulling in a decent crowd.

“The internet is the main reason it’s taken off,” says Phil Hadfield, who works as a freelance researcher. He grew up in the Peak District and joined Take a Hike when he moved to Leeds. “Someone can post a walk just a few days before it’s going ahead and people come along.

“I was a member of a similar group when I lived in Northumberland and I really got a feel for that whole region. It gave me a picture of the place that I would never have got otherwise.

“I used to live in Leeds, but having been out to the countryside walking so much I knew that I wanted to leave the city and I’ve just got myself a place in Burnsall. I guess that means I not only joined the group, but ended up buying the T-shirt as well.”

A little under two-an-a-half hours after we set off we’re back at the car park. We only passed half a dozen others en route and even in a large group the Yorkshire countryside in autumn still looks pretty spectacular.

“Sometimes you wake up on a Sunday morning and driving for an hour or more just to go for a walk seems like the last thing you want to do,” adds Nic. “But you know what, however rough you feel getting out into the country always makes things seem a whole lot better.” And with that the young (ish) Ramblers are off to boost the local economy at a nearby pub.

For more details visit www.takeahike.org.uk