Tarn Crag: finding the path

First walk of the week staying at Pye Howe, right next to the path we had failed to find previously. Given the footpath was marked from the road, we took this opportunity to start from the house and to discover where the footpath went.  We were without Isabelle, since her DoE practice expedition was scheduled for this week, her help with Poppy up and down will be sorely be missed.

Difficulty: 6
Walkers: Tim, Caroline, Grace (12), Evie (9), Poppy (6 1/2)
9:44, 0.0km 0h00 0m, Start (97)
11:16, 3.0km 1h32 348m, Silver How (395)
14:46, 9.2km 5h02 803m, Tarn Crag (Easedale) (550)
16:14, 12.5km 6h30 947m, Blea Rigg (541)
17:45, 15.5km 8h01 986m, End (98)

Out of the house, and almost straight up the hillside.  With little difficulty we found the stile over the wall that we had missed 2 years before.  It was pretty hot work climbing up, despite the partial cloud cover and the occasional wind.  After getting to the ridge, we walked along to get to Silver How.  Here we were able to see lots of walks we'd done in years before.

Now the sun had come out more, so out came the sunscreen.  Evie decided to focus protecting her best bits.

We walked back along the ridge, starting climb up to Blea Rigg, but turning off to the left before reaching it, to walk down to Easedale Tarn for lunch.

It was the start of the bank holiday weekend and there were quite a few people, but still room to find our own rocks to sit on.  Most of the walk was fairly empty of people, as we'd deliberately picked less travelled paths.

After lunch we climbed up to Tarn Crag.  This was the hottest part of the walk - full sunlight, very little wind, and relentless climb up for a couple of hundred meters.  Evie especially was quite hard to motivate, we had to time the sugar rushes causes by the sweets we'd brought for best effect.  Still, we made it to the top of Tarn Crag.

We went back via Codale Tarn, a little less descent before climbing back up to Blea Rigg, but also a slight circular walk.  After passing the tarn, we then climbed back up to the ridge on the other side.

Back up to Blea Rigg, after missing it on the way out. 

We returned, not quite the same route back down, but close enough to find the stile back over the wall, I think give it another couple of goes and we'll find it with no problems!  This was the view looking up the Langdale valley, with the Crinkle Crags just visible at the end.

High Raise via a bog in the rain

This was definitely one of my planned walks where I had mapped out all the Wainwrights and split them up into walks that I felt were achievable.  Achievable it was, although I had some doubts as to my sanity when walking through miles in a bog - be careful what you wish for...

Difficulty: 6
Walkers: Tim, Caroline
10:19, 0.0km 0h00 0m, Start (68)
12:44, 6.3km 2h24 565m, Tarn Crag (Easedale) (550)
13:56, 9.2km 3h36 794m, High Raise (High White Stones) (762)
14:16, 10.2km 3h57 796m, Sergeant Man (736)
15:14, 12.7km 4h54 811m, Blea Rigg (541)
16:23, 16.1km 6h03 866m, Silver How (395)
17:11, 18.7km 6h51 872m, End (68)

The route was fairly straight forward - park in the main public car park in Grasmere, head up to Easedale, and continue going in that direction for quite a while...

So it was raining, and was forecast to rain most of the day.

This was looking up Easedale, towards the waterfall.  The path went right next to the waterfall in places.

Finally above Easedale and looking back down.  I was hoping to cut the corner off the path, so not going all the way to the tarn and back again, but it was far too wet to consider going cross country.

And finally to the first Wainwright of the day, Tarn Crag - here Caroline beating me to the top.

Me finding my way to the top, looking slightly bedraggled.  Oh well, only another 4 1/2 hours in the rain to go...

This is High Raise, finally. The walk to get here was pretty flat along a wet bog, in the rain.  I'm really grateful for waterproof boots.

And now to Sergeant Man, where we were treated to this awesome view across to the Langdales.

Finally we made our way to Blea Rigg.  I was so grateful to have gps confirming our path and our destinations at this point.  I'm happy that we would have made it down safely without, but it does make life easier.

And finally to Silver How, here looking back the way we had come.

Same point, looking forward towards Grasmere and Rydal Water.  It was starting to get a little gloomy by this point, so we were glad to descend and get inside in the dry for a change.