| Location | High Rigg, Wordworths Street, Keswick |
| Those Present | Jerry, Bill, Mark and myself |
| Dates | October 27th - November 3rd |
Mark came on the Saturday and left on Tuesday evening.
Saturday October 27thBill and Sally picked me up at 9:30 and we arrived in Keswick at about 3:30pm after a very slow journey full of road-works. Mark arrived at about 5pm. That evening we went to Portinscale to sample the steak pie at the Farmers Arms. It was just as good as ever. The Jennings was also excellent.
Sunday October 28th - Grasmere, Chapel Stile, Great Langdale
It was the best day of the week, with blue skies and a few white clouds. We parked in the central carpark in Grasmere and walked up the Red Bank road until a track to the right took us across the slopes of Siver How, climbing gently to a dip in the skyline. From the col we went straight down along the right bank of Megs Gill to arrive at Chapel Stile. We were following a combination of two of Bob Allen's 'short walks', and this was the point at which they intersected. We went down to the main road and read our instructions. 'In front of the school, under some magnificent beech trees, a track leads.............'. It took us some time to realise that as he was half way round his walk, he was standing at the back of the school! Having placed ourselves in the right position the way was much clearer. We took the metalled track past Thrang Farm and went down to the river and the slate bridge over Great Langdale Beck and followed the embankment to another footbridge which took us back to the road. After about 50 yards we took the track to the New Dungeon Ghyll and then along the road for a few yards and down to Side House Farm, from where a path went across the slopes of the valley side to Oak Howe and back to the school. We walked back up the side road to re-join are first walk, where we took the path which climbed beneath Raven Crags to join the main Elterwater to Grasmere track. On the way up this Sally slipped on a wet rock and twisted her ankle. Makes a change from 'woman slipped while descending wet grass ........'. From the top of the rise a good track led down to the Red Bank Road and back to Grasmere. We stopped at the gingerbread shop, but they had just sold out. To make matters worse the person who had bought the last packet was standing on the pavement outside and eating it.
We went to the D&G that evening, but the Theakstons Best was very disappointing. In fact it was so bad that in desperation I tried a pint of Yates. I last tried one in 1988 in the Old Dingeon Ghyll, and it hadn't improved in the intervening 13 years! The OP however was excellent, although I find it a bit sweet to drink much of.
Sally's ankle was to painful for her to come out with us. We parked at Seatoller and walked up the old road to Honister. The skies were clear, but there was a very strong wind blowing in our faces. Even so it was a relatively easy climb, and much more pleasant than the new road, up which I had slogged 15 years earlier on the way to Great Gable. From Honister we took the path to the right and headed for Dale Head. Wainwright describes it as 'the easiest ascent of a major fell. Although further than expected the gradients are easy' and says that 'those who park at the top of the pass may feel they have cheated the mountain'. We all found it quite a slog, and the wind, which by now was gale force, didn't help. We stopped for a while at a shelter just below the summit, but didn't linger on top as it was difficult to remain upright, and we didn't fancy the quick descent to Newlands. We went down the steep path, fortunately now repaired, to the sheep-fold at Dale Head Tarn, where we stopped for lunch. My left knee was complaining bitterly about the descent, and we still had Rigg Head to look forwards to. After a slow and painful descent we finally arrived at level ground by the river, and it was a great relief to be able to walk properly again.
Tuesday October 30th - Great Wood, Ashness, Walla CragIt was still very windy with the threat of rain in the air, so we decided on a relatively low level walk. We parked in the Great Wood car park and took a pleasant path which led to Ashness Bridge. From here we followed the path, which we had previously used several times in descent, to Walla Crag. As we gained altitude the wind grew stronger, and by the time we had reached the head of Cat Gill it was almost gale force. It had also just started to rain, so we put on our waterproofs before going down to Rakefoot. On the road past the farm was a bucket of disinfectant, and on the stile leading to the footpath was a notice to the effect that there was no access to Keswick via Springs Farm. This was our only contact with the aftermath of F&M, but didn't affect us as were were going to turn of the path and head for Great Wood and back to the car. My left knee was still very painful even on the gentle slope down through the woods. When we got back to the house Mark packed his car and went home.
Wednesday October 31st - Easedale
It was a pleasant day, but still too windy for anything very high, so we drove to Grasmere and walked up to Easedale, round the tarn and back via Far Easedale. A very pleasant walk which we all enjoyed. My knee had been very painful on Monday and Tuesday, so I took a couple of Ibuprofen before setting off and it seemed to behave itself.
I had begun to have doubts about whether I could continue walking, but if I can still do walks like this I will be happy.
On the way home we managed to find some gingerbread.
We parked in the Bowder Stone car park and took the path to the head of Troutdale, where we climbed Wainwright's 'golden ladder' to Kings Howe. This time I remembered to take a photo of the memorial plaque. We went down from Kings Howe on the path towards Brund Fell, intending to join the Watendlath to Seathwaite track at the top of Puddingstone Bank, but having missed the indistinct path to the left we found ourselves descending steeply and rather unpleasantly to join the path through the woods. We went down through the woods to the Borrowdale road, which we followed for a few hundred yards before turning left onto the track which leads to the Bowder Stone.
Friday November 2nd - High Rigg
It wasn't such a pleasant morning as the previous two; cloudier and duller, although the wind had dropped, and after a brief discussion, which could easily have lasted all morning, I made an executive decision and we headed off for High Rigg.
There's no need to describe it here - we've done it twice before, but it's still an excellent shortish walk and obviously popular with the more mature fellwalker. It seems however that the average 'more mature fellwalker' is still a lot quicker than we are; as we were putting our boots on a car parked next to us and its occupants, an elderly retired couple, set off in the anticlockwise direction to St Johns. We met again briefly on the summit of High Rigg, but by the time we got back to the car park they had gone.