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.