so when planning the walk one must sometimes choose between a long day (between two places offering on-route accommodation) or two shorter days involving an evening descent off-route (to a nearby village or farm) with a morning re-ascent. There are 535 access points where the Pennine Way intersects with other public rights of way. The route is crossed by many roads and passes through many villages and towns with good public transport. This makes it easy to sample a short section of the trail, or to split the Pennine Way across several holidays or long weekends. Most of the Pennine Way is on public footpaths, rather than bridleways, and not accessible to travellers on horseback or bicycle, but a roughly parallel Pennine Bridleway is open from Derbyshire to Cumbria. This route, open to anyone not using motorised vehicles, starts slightly farther south than the Pennine Way. Route A survey by the National Trails agency reported that a walker covering the entire length of the trail is obliged to navigate 287 gates, 249 timber stiles, 183 stone stiles and 204 bridges. of the route is on public footpaths, on public bridleways and on other public highways. The walker is aided by the provision of 458 waymarks. Peak District National Park The Pennine Way originally climbed north from Edale across the middle of the Kinder Scout plateau. It was rerouted to reduce erosion, and now heads west to climb onto the plateau by steps known as Jacob's Ladder. It then turns north to follow the western edge of the plateau past Kinder Downfall, crosses the Snake Pass road (A57) and climbs Bleaklow. From the summit the trail descends to Longdendale. In the dale it crosses the dam of Torside Reservoir to Crowden, the first village since the start of the trail away. From Crowden the Pennine Way climbs a side valley past Laddow Rocks to the summit of Black Hill on the border of Yorkshire. It descends across Wessenden Head Moor (the eastern part of Saddleworth Moor) and the A635 road to the Wessenden Valley. It climbs out of the valley to leave the National Park at Standedge on the A62 road. South Pennines From Standedge the Pennine Way follows the Yorkshire–Greater Manchester border north along a series of gritstone edges. It crosses the A640 road, then the A672, before crossing the M62 motorway by a long footbridge near Windy Hill. Past