Wet walk with the Ramblers.

08/09/2018.

Raining properly this morning...I sort of like it...Pulled into the Fairholmes car park with the windscreen wipers going full pelt, what the hell is going on here, the car park is almost full, I went round in a circle for a couple of times looking for a spot to park...its 9 o clock on a wet Saturday morning and the car park is already chocka..eventually found a space and pulled in. Looks like there is some kind of event going on..people jumping around, doing stretches..fit types, rippling muscles, legs like rugby players. After a few minutes it dawned on me that there was some sort of running event on..i realised this as I watched a middle aged man dip his fingers into a pot of Vaseline before sticking his hands up his shorts and rubbing it into his thighs [ and god knows were else]… Im here to meet up with the Doncaster ramblers Saturday walking group for a classic walk up to Derwent edge, not sure where they are going to park...Before long there were a few of us assembled around the shop and toilet area waiting to be off...We waited for the walks leader, she turned up and got a ticket for her car window, couldn't believe it when she didn't know where she had parked her car five minutes earlier [ this is going to be interesting]….Only 10 of us today, but in this weather that's pretty good...We watched the runners take off..20 odd miles apparently...all was quiet now, a quick briefing and we were off..passing Derwent dam, hoods up, brollies up, heads down.

The reservoir to our left was looking very low, this rain is just what we need so we shouldn't really moan about the weather...after a mile or so our leader missed the turning up to Abbey brook, Diane a guest rambler from the Sheffield group soon realised this and pointed it out so we backtracked to the path...its a lovely path that rises gently into the hills, its a beautiful place, in fact its one of my favourite places in the whole of the Peak district...The rain eased then stopped and we decided on a quick elevenses stop

Chomping away...Bannanas, Pork pies, Cheese and coleslaw sandwiches...it didn't take long before we realised we were completely surrounded..you could feel the tension in the air...those Sheep take no prisoners...best move on..The valley narrowed and I do believe got even more beautiful, there are some lovely colours on the hills at this time of year.

We left the shelter of the valley, heading up to a little hill out on the open moors..The hill in question being Lost lad standing at 1699ft it is certainly open to the elements..well it was today..The hill is said to be named after a young shepherd who centuries ago became lost on this hill in a blizzard and died...his body was found the following spring next to a rock where he has scratched away the words "Lost lad"...chilling.!!...Theres a large cairn on top and a toposcope pointing out many of the surrounding landmarks...I like this hill...one of our group clambered up the summit cairn to straighten a pole sticking from the rocks...heres a photograph of it.

On to Back tor next for our lunch stop, huddled behind the rocks for shelter..didn't stop long...enjoyed a sarnie and a coffee but its not the same without a pub stop..a couple of pints midway sort of adds something..still never mind...we then walked along the length of Derwent edge...really wild along there today...rain slicing in from our right..really strong winds...its the sort of weather that you wouldn't send a dog out in...especially a chihuahua as it would have ended up in the next county...We passed all the highlights of the edge...The cakes of bread, Dovestones tor, The salt cellar, White tor and the Wheel stones [Coach and horses]...after which our leader decided to cut the walk a bit short to descend back to Ladybower via the Grindle barn...not a bad decision as it began to chuck it down..i think we were all soaked through..spirits were still high ...I like cats ,I like dogs....back in the valley all that was required was a right turn  to follow the road back to the car park...really enjoyed it, it takes more than a bit of rain to spoil a day.

Alone on the fells.

31/08/2018.

A solo walk today...The reason being that my faithful walking companion, Alfie [My dog] has overdone things after his walk around Dovedale, then a walk along the Ullswater way from Howtown to Glenridding..He is 11 now and the last couple of days have worn him out. We have decided its time for him to slow down a bit and enjoy his later years at a leisurely pace. Karen [ My wife] fancied a rest day too, so she is staying back at the cottage to enjoy a chill day with old Alfonso...The walk for today was going to take in a couple of Wainwrights, Angletarn pikes and Brock crags..So there I was walking the path through the valley talking to myself or enjoying the occasionally conversation with the local sheep. I noticed that without the dog by my side the Sheep never run off, in fact they seem quite tame....Anyway im going to stop going on about chummy sheep now, before I get a reputation as someone who gets over friendly with Sheep....Its a great path through the Patterdale valley rising at a gentle gradient up towards Boredale hause. As I rose the views got better and better,

The Mountains across the valley looked superb in the morning sunshine...The Fairfield range...St Sunday crag...and the Helvellyn group all looked amazing, luckily my side of the valley was mainly in shade..keeping cool made the climb easy..all felt great, this is what walking is all about, this is why we do it...a short steep section and I was up to Boredale hause, a mountain pass between Place fell and Angletarn pikes.It links the Patterdale valley with the Boredale valley...its a grassy pass with many paths that can be confusing in mist..not so today, the path to Angletarn pikes being easy to find on the right.

The higher I walked the better the views.

To my right now lie the two rocky tops of the Angletarn pikes, I couldn't remember which was the higher of the two so I visited them both for good measure. Apparently the northern top is a few feet higher but the southern one is where I stopped for a breather and a drink looking down to Angle tarn. Old Wainwright said that this was one of the most beautiful of Lakeland tarns..it certainly looked beautiful today, glittering in the sunlight...I sat and looked at it for quite a while..

Snapping out of it....Time to go down for a closer look...its a great place to have a look around, two little islands and a small peninsula..it can get quite busy, especially with Wildcampers.. I remember camping here myself a few years back...In fact one of my favourite wildcamp memories was made here..i thought back ....it was one of the wildest nights you can imagine, strong winds and rain hammering down all night, my tent collapsed and I spent a wet 8 hours lying there trying to sleep with the tent on top of me..At first light me and my two camping buddies decided to break camp and get down off this damn hill..My mate Keith, who is a bit of a wild camp legend, lost it...not only his temper but also his tent as a huge gust of wind lifted it 100 foot or so into the air before dropping it on the other side of the tarn...his face was a picture, a picture that I still giggle about to this day. The weather couldn't have been more different today.

Moving on I had another Fell top to visit ,Brock crags an easy walk from the old gateposts on Satura crag...The 1844ft summit stands alone on an undulating ridge..I had hardly seen a soul on the walk so far then amazingly 2 other couples arrived at the summit the same time as myself, it seemed a bit strange to talk to someone that only had 2 legs..One bloke that had come up directly from Patterdale pointed me in the direction of a path that, like a fool I decided to follow..a path that got fainter and fainter and eventually petered out after 20 minutes or so...angrily I walked back to Brock crags...I would find my own way down..i toyed with the idea of heading off towards Rest dodd then The Knott before descending to Hayeswater...then after studying the map I decided on a direct pathless route back down to Hartsop following an old wall...

How steep could it be?..Legs were soon trembling [ glad I never had the dog with me ]..It was so steep that I had to stop halfway down for a drink and bite to eat...making it down to Hayeswater gill, glad that was over..i will stick to the path next time.

Nearly back now...it had been a grand walk...2 more wainwrights added to my second round. ...sadly its home tomorrow, never mind ...we will be back soon.

The Dovedale skyline.

29/08/2018.

Another walk from our holiday cottage in Hartsop, its great walking straight from the door, without having to take the car out. That's the beauty of this area there are walks from the door for every day of the week if wanted..Today we choose a walk around the skyline of Dovedale taking in 5 Wainwright fells...Hartsop above how..Hart crag...Dove crag...Little hart crag and High Hartsop dodd...We set off along the lane from the village until we came to the layby and bridge over the Goldrill beck..from here there is a decent path to Brothers water, but we needed to get up onto the ridge so it was up up up on a slippery path through Low wood. Grabbing at Tree roots, branches or clumps of grass we pulled our way up through the trees, getting hot, fleeces came off, hats came off..We eventually made it up above the treeline, some lovely views of the valley began to open up behind us..Crossing a ladder stile and we had made it onto the ridge..its a cracker, rising gently curving like a sickle to enclose the valley of Deepdale.It was the view back to Place fell that grabbed my attention...I was going to enjoy this walk along the ridge.

We were to follow the ridge all the way up to Hart crag..The way ahead looked awesome, especially towards Fairfield, a fantastic wall of crags. It was along here that we bumped into a group of three ramblers doing a recce for a walk they were planning on a weekend away.It turned out that they were doing the same walk as us only the other way round..We stood and chatted about walking and hills wishing them luck we set off in opposite directions...Out of the wind before we reached the top of Hart crag we decided on a coffee and a bite to eat..spicy vegetable pasties and vegetarian Scotch eggs made a nice change from sandwiches..As we munched we watched as several walkers wandered around between crags on the other side of the valley. It dawned on me that they were searching for the path up to the Priest hole, a cave high up amongst the rocks, I remembered finding it on a wild camp trip many years ago. Its a cool place...even got a visitors book.

Our path skirted to the left of Link cove, a sort of hanging valley, up a steep scree slope to Reach the top of Hart crag at 2698ft this was to be our highest point of the day. 2698ft sounds great..i have never used metres when out walking, I refuse too. Makes my blood boil...I wonder if when we have left the EU that our maps will go back to feet, ditching metres..wouldn't that be nice..We were now on the Path known as the Fairfield horseshoe, there seemed to be several people doing it today...

We stood for a while taking in the views, it had been worth every drop of sweat to get up here..The next top, Dove crag didn't seem far off ...an easy romp and we were soon there but hang on we realised that we were at the cairn that stands above the crags the true summit is a little further close to the path...I like to visit all of the cairns just to make sure. Theres nothing more annoying than finding out later that you never quite made the summit...done that a couple of times before, making a return visit necessary. Turning off to the left we leave the Fairfield horsehoe down steeply now to the next top...Little hart crag.

Little hart crag is a delightful little hill standing just above the magical 2000ft mark, it is known as the Sentinel of Scandale...it has the appearance of a crouching watchdog..it takes its duty of guarding the pass very serious missing nothing of the happenings there.I wondered if he liked other dogs wandering across his patch..he probably sniggered like Mutley when he saw Alfie disappear into a boggy hole.. he struggled but made it out eventually..Jet black...a putrid smell filled the air...we sat by a small tarn for another snack...that putrid smell putting me off my flapjack.

A nice path along the ridge now heading back to the valley..Alfie rolling in various puddles slowly getting cleaner.An extremely steep descent lay ahead of us [Karens fave]..Me and alf romped ahead..it can be so painful on the legs coming down these grassy slopes..i like to bound along almost running, you forget about the pain and are down in no time...Halway down I met two Ladies  that were a little on the shall we say large size...they had never done any hill walks before and were struggling..one said it was her 40th birthday and wanted to do something worthwhile to celebrate it..she pointed to where they were going...up to Red screes and down Middle dodd..A bit ambitious I thought.. I asked the second one how she was getting on...she said she was dying..You will be fine I said although I knew she wouldn't...I carried on...I could hear No1 shouting at No 2..GET UP !!!..at the barn at the bottom I had a 10 minute wait for Karen.

Walking back through the meadows Near Hartsop hall we took a last look back at the way we had come down..I could still hear those large ladies shouting at each other...a couple of characters from Viz magazine came to mind...

Right... so do we return via the decent path alongside Brothers water or do we go to the pub first?..What a pathetic question..The first didn't touch the sides.