A wet day on Bowscale fell.

Fancied doing something on the Northern fells, Bowscale fell sort of jumped out at me. Must have been over 20 years since I last climbed up there. I remember following a scrambling path from Mungrisedale  up through Gorse and Bracken to reach the 2306ft  summit via the east ridge early one summers morning. I recall continuing on to Bannerdale crags and returning over Souther fell before returning to the tent for breckie....Hey we could do that again I thought, but this time I also wanted to visit the fabled Bowscale tarn en route....I will be great I thought,i thought about it again and again....2 weeks I have been thinking about it, cant wait.

We left Doncaster at 5 am..beautiful blue skies, but we had a feeling it wasn't going to last. The feeling was right, as we passed over Stainmore into Cumbria it all took a turn for the worse, I drove the length of the Eden valley with windscreen wipers going full pelt, they still couldn't take it and at one stage we had to slow down to a crawl...it will pass I said,by the time we get to the Lakes....Fingers crossed. We pulled up into the little layby at Bowscale, it was clearing up [a bit]. Best put waterproofs on just in case.

No sooner had we left Bowscale and the bastard rain came down big style...I mean real rain, I tried sheltering behind walls, I tried sheltering behind Karen...I sort of lost it and shouted every four letter word I know at it. But still it rained...don't get me wrong, I quite like rain, but not when you are trying to take photographs, not when you have been looking forward to a walk for 2 weeks...Anyway, not going to go on about it, carried on along the track towards Bowscale tarn. This was once a popular route in days gone by, Victorian ladies would have been escorted along here on ponies to visit the tarn. It would have been part of many folks grand tour of the Lake district. Today it is much quieter, just daft buggers out bagging peaks or even dafter buggers going for a wild swim in the tarn.

We arrived at the Tarn, a beauty that sits in a craggy glacial combe. This was going to be the highlight of my walk, but not in this weather. I had planned on a paddle,or a refreshing wild swim, but not in this weather...Bowscale tarn biggest claim to fame is that 2 immortal trout live here...William Wordsworth wrote about them in a poem...No sign of them today though...As I say, this was going to be the highlight of the walk, but I think we stayed all of one minute before pushing on. Steeply uphill now following a grassy rake towards the edge of the combe, I had hoped for a shot of the tarn from above but the camera was put away into my rucksack...I felt quiet pissed off

We trudged on towards the summit shelter...it was blowing a hoolie up there, it literally felt like people were throwing buckets of water over us...soaked through by now. All fell walkers will know this situation well.

We banished all thoughts of continuing along the ridge to Bannerdale crags and took the wimps route down alongside The Tounge headed down to Mungrisedale..Things began to clear up a bit and we were treated to some lovely views of Bannerdale. These views make everthing seem worthwhile..I kept looking back up to Bannerdale crags. In a way I wish I had continued up there, I felt that we had failed to do the walk. Karen said its not a race, not a competion and she is right, those other hills aint going nowhere, they will still be there for future visits.

Nearing the valley saw evidence of the power of Mother nature as the path beside the Glenderamakin river had been washed away and the bridge over Bullfell beck was teetering on the brink of collapsing. A soggy boggy detour was asked for.

We trudged back along the lane from Mungrisedale to Bowscale...I suppose it was quite a good day. But then ive never known a day in the Lake district that wasn't.