We were in The Lake District for the August Bank Holiday, great weather for walking but very busy – unlike the last Bank Holiday - where we had Great Gable to ourselves after a bad forecast kept people away. It was grim back home but we walked in shorts and Tee shirts.
Saturday and we were in the Old Dungeon Ghyll car park and away in good time. What a beautiful morning, we headed up Redacre Gill onto Pike of Blisco. The first climb of the day is always tough until the blood gets flowing. I didn’t really have a plan but it wasn’t what we did that’s for sure. I’d thought that we would walk until early afternoon and then head down, probably from Rossett Pike – But! Jayne made a call to her Mum from Pike of Blisco and she asked if we would be going over the Langdale Pikes – Jayne said yes! I looked at her and said “will we?” I was a bit surprised as it is a pretty full on walk – what we call a two Banana walk – and we only had one. She couldn’t believe that I was letting her off without doing the whole circuit of Langdale. We have done this walk before but usually in the opposite direction. There is a lot of slow and tough ground, ten tops ( depending on where exactly you go in the Langdales) over 15 miles and over 6000ft of ascent – a decent walk. The atmosphere was very clear for August, things had turned prematurely Autumnal last week so instead of warm weather haze it was very clear. We could make out buildings on the Isle of Man, we could also see rain in the distance, over Morecambe Bay and out in to The Pennines. It rained over there for hours and you can see it in the background in a lot of the photos.
We walked from Pike Of Blisco across Red Tarn to Cold Pike onto Crinkle Crags – Including the bad step. On Crinkle Crags we met a very Fit 65 year old from London, wiry and experienced, we crossed paths and walked with this guy for quite a while, it slowed us all down a bit but it didn’t matter. Bow Fell for sandwiches and our one banana. We picked our way down Hanging Knotts, the direct route to Rossett Pike. When there isn’t a well-worn path on the direct route there is always a reason – because it’s hard usually! This was the start of the second half of the walk but the afternoon was ticking by, if we were doing it I wasn’t prepared to cut corners and miss any tops so were committed to the whole thing.
We had a long slog over Rossett Pike, It’s a long fell, across Stake Pass and Martcrag Moor. After the dry summer and a wet August the fells were noticeably wetter underfoot and Martcrag was very boggy. Onto Pike of Stickle and Loft Crag. By mid-afternoon the Langdales were very busy with large family groups, every top had a small crowd on it, we took a photo and enjoyed the view and moved on – briskly! My old knee and ankle injuries were starting to tell a story by now but there wasn’t much I could do about it. Across to Harrison Stickle and I decided to include Thunacar Knott as it’s a short easy diversion on the way to Pavey Ark. Stood at the top of Pavey Ark looking over Stickle Tarn I knew that it was going to be a long painful descent – and it was. The mile or so from the New to the Old Dungeon Ghyll wasn’t so bad as there is a path through the fields which was nice and gentle on my aching joints. Eight hours wasn’t bad as we never hammered it, just wanting to enjoy our first big day on the tops for quite a long time. The golden Rule in Ambleside was calling – after a shower.
On Sunday we had another beautiful start although there was a fair bit of cloud later. We drove over Kirkstone Pass and down to Hartsop, there’s a little car park up the dead-end road through the village, it’s only small and you need to be there early, it was already filling as we got there. We had a tough first climb up the nose of Hartsop Dodd, steep but fantastic views. I’d thought long and hard about how to make the most of the fine forecast for today and views from the first climb proved that it was worth it. The day took us over 17 miles and fourteen tops, the ground was easier than yesterday so we finished an hour sooner but it was still a tough day.
Caudale Moor, Stoneycove Pike, down to Threshthwaite Cove, an out and back to Gray Crag and a quick early sandwich on Thornthwaite Crag. High Street, were most walkers never go near the summit but bypass it on the main path – something that’s true of a lot of tops and a lot of walkers – each to their own. Rampsgill Head out and back to High Raise and Kidsty Pike, back to Rampsgill Head and onto The Knott, Rest Dodd. We normally do an out and back to The Nab on this walk but not today, it might have caused some friction wi’ our Jaynie. Across Satura Crag to Brock Crags, we only had the twin tops of Angletarn Pikes to go and we were done with the tops. I usually find Angletarn Pikes hard work at the end of a long walk but we used a different path this time and they didn’t’ seem so bad. The problem with this walk is that you think it’s all over now but it’s a long fast yomp back to the car- around three miles with a little bit of climbing as well, it certainly magnifies the aches and pains.
Monday was forecast to be wet, very wet the further south you went so we headed north. It rained over breakfast and we feared the worst, gale force wind were also forecast and sure enough the trees outside the dining room were straining at the leash. I t might have to be a short leg stretcher. We headed for Keswick and parked below Dodd. We were the only ones there, gales and rain and it was the day of the Keswick show ( Grasmere Games and traffic gridlock yesterday) The rain stopped but it was a dark and grey day. We creaked our way up Dodd with aching legs, I don’t think Jayne was impressed but we plodded up Carl Side, battered by the wind. Once on Carl Side we were wind propelled along Long Side and over Ullock Pike. There was a bit of blue in the sky to the north and a bit of sun but not much. We descended via The Edge and back along Longside Wood. Nearly seven miles and 2000 ft of ascent.
Over two and a half days we climbed almost half the height of Everest, stood on 28 tops and walked 40 miles ( we clocked a couple of evening miles) we used to do eight day weeks in the Lakes with every day a full on day but over the last few years we haven’t made the effort to travel up there, we need to get our act together – and some new knees!
Use Flickriver Badge Creator to create a badge linking to your photos, your group or any other Flickriver view.
You can place your badge on your Flickr profile, Blog or Website.
Add to your iGoogle or Netvibes page
Flickriver widget for iGoogle or Netvibes can display almost any Flickriver view - most interesting today, by user, by group, by tag etc. Once added to your personalized homepage, just edit widget settings to select your desired view.
Clickr on one of the buttons below to install:
Embed on your Web site
To embed this view, Copy and Paste the following HTML code:
Add 'Search on Flickriver' to your browser's search box. Works with Firefox and Internet Explorer.
Install search plugin
"View on Flickriver" Greasemonkey script
A Greasemonkey script that adds Flickriver links to various Flickr photo pages - user photos, favorites, pools etc, allowing to quickly open the corresponding Flickriver view.
Also, allows quickly viewing any Flickr photo on black background in large size.
