Kentmere Horseshoe

This is a walk I'd been hoping to do for a while, too long for the kids for now, but just about in reach of the Duck.  The car park was as small as expected, with only around 6 spaces, however arriving around 10am was ideal - not too early a start (ie we got in our awesome breakfast first), only a couple of cars already parked, but a few more arriving over the next 30min or so.  Some websites talk about a farmers field that is sometimes open for parking, this was definitely closed for our trip...

Difficulty: 7
Walkers: Tim, Caroline
10:20, 0.0km 0h00 0m, Start (173)
12:01, 5.6km 1h40 550m, Yoke (706, Wainwright, Hewitt)
12:24, 6.7km 2h03 634m, Ill Bell (757, Wainwright, Hewitt)
12:50, 7.6km 2h29 704m, Froswick (720, Wainwright, Hewitt)
13:25, 9.3km 3h04 864m, Thornthwaite Crag (784, Wainwright)
13:51, 10.9km 3h31 943m, High Street (828, Wainwright, Hewitt)
14:16, 12.1km 3h55 951m, Mardale Ill Bell (760, Wainwright)
15:01, 14.0km 4h40 1103m, Harter Fell (Mardale) (779, Wainwright, Hewitt)
15:31, 16.0km 5h11 1139m, Kentmere Pike (730, Wainwright, Hewitt)
16:03, 17.9km 5h43 1146m, Shipman Knotts (587, Wainwright)
17:36, 22.3km 7h16 1169m, End (175)

Followed the fairly obvious route from Kentmere going clockwise.  We didn't extend and do Sallows as well, but we did want to try and visit Thornthwaite Crag in better conditions than the day before, and we made sure we didn't miss out High Street since we had the time.

The view south as we set off on the gentle uphill.

Really quite beautiful paths.

The view from the top of Yoke.  We got to the top of the ridge, and then started walking up in the clouds, by the time we'd reached the top there wasn't much to see...

10 minutes later, the slight drop before climbing to Ill Bell was enough to get the view again!

However, once up to Ill Bell,  we were back into the clouds.

Sticking around at the top for long enough meant we got occasional views down, here looking back to Yoke with Windermere in the distance.

Now at Froswick, and the very appealing view of Thornthwaite Crag in the distance - clear at the top over there, if we just get there before the next clouds get blown overhead.

From Froswick, looking down towards Kentmere and the obviously depleted Kentmere Reservoir.

Up to Thornthwaite Crag, with a great view back down towards Windermere.  The weather was definitely clearing up.

The slightly less impressive view north, towards the walk from the day before.

Taken from the saddle point on the way to High Street, looking north at Hayeswater.

Now up at High Street.  I'm generally pretty impressed with the views from most Wainwrights, this was a little underwhelming for me...  We did meet with a few walkers doing the walk the other way around, and compared notes about what was coming next.

Again from  High Street, the wall showing the way towards The Knott, not, however, the way we were going.

At Mardale Ill Bell, looking towards the fairly large dip and climb back up to Harter Fell, with a few more people doing the same walk the other way around. 

From the bottom of the dip, looking south at Kentmere Reservoir.  This shows the first few peaks of the walk on the far side of the reservoir.

Same place, looking north towards Small Water.

From Harter Fell.

Again from Harter Fell, this time looking at the far ridge which was the start of the walk.  Quite revealing, especially since we'd not seen much of it when we were there...

Finally at Kentmere Pike we really could claim to be walking in the sunshine!  This marks the Wainwright peak.

And just a hop over the wall is the official Hewitt.  The completest in me makes sure that we make it to both!

Last peak of the day, at Shipman Knotts.  The walk took us through the undulations ahead, and we did slightly lose the official foot path at times.  Still, we made it back down safely.

Back down to the valley floor, looking back north towards the walk we had completed.

Brothers Water to Thornthwaite Crag in the mist

First walk of the long weekend, after driving up from Birmingham that morning.  A relatively early start meant we could fit in a decent length walk before making dinner for 8pm at the Duck.

Difficulty: 5
Walkers: Tim, Caroline
12:43, 0.0km 0h00 0m, Start (165)
14:00, 2.6km 1h16 460m, Hartsop Dodd (618, Wainwright)
14:39, 4.6km 1h55 636m, Stony Cove Pike (Caudale Moor) (763, Hewitt)
14:42, 4.7km 1h58 636m, Caudale Moor (763, Wainwright)
15:52, 6.5km 3h09 830m, Thornthwaite Crag (784, Wainwright, Hewitt)
16:32, 8.8km 3h48 857m, Gray Crag (699, Wainwright)
18:00, 13.1km 5h16 875m, End (166)

We parked at Brothers Water, but walking up through Hartsop we passed a closer large car park at the base of the fell.  Never mind, save that for another walk.  

The route up towards Hartsop Dodd. 

Looking back north towards Ullswater.

Hartsop Dodd.

Stony Cove Pike, the Hewitt.  The rain shower had truly taken over.

And just a hop over the fence, Caudale Moor, the Wainwright.

Coming down the valley west we come out of the clouds.

And back up to Thornthwaite Crag.  Nice and sizeable pile of rocks to spot.

At Grey Crag, looking north towards Ullswater.

Still Grey Crag, looking back south, with Thornthwaite Crag on the left and Caudale Moor on the right.

The occasional beautiful light to take your mind off the previous rain shower.

Descending back towards Hartsop and Brothers Water.

Cathedral Cave

We were driving back to Cambridge, so wanted a shorter walk.  We picked this one, basically the reverse of one we'd done before, so that we would end up at Chesters for cake.

Difficulty: 3
Walkers: Tim, Caroline, Grace (12), Evie (9), Poppy (6 1/2)
10:10, 0.0km 0h00 0m, Start (67)
14:57, 10.9km 4h46 328m, End (62)

We started off from the NT carpark in Elterwater, a short drive from where we had been staying.

The weather was pretty good - no real chance of rain, but not too hot for some walking.

Slater Bridge, looking back the way we had some from Little Langdale.

Onto Cathedral Cave.  We went in from the west hand entrance, which has a short tunnel to the main feature of the cave - a huge cavern with a higher level opening.  

Walking towards this window led to a short scramble up some rocks so we could look in through the window.  More exploring of this area, and Grace found the entrance to the longer dark tunnel.  We had a torch, so were able to explore.  The photo below was from the flash from my camera.  There was no-one else around, so it was great exploring the damp cave puddles and having to explore to find where to go.  This tunnel led to the east exit from the caves, so we could carry on our way.

On Colwith Force, where we stopped for an uncharacteristic early lunch.  Early, so that we would have done some walking before getting to Chesters for cake.  That way we would have made some more room for cake...

From there, onto Skelwith Force, which we visited first.  We crossed over the river on the 'new' bridge - installed in 2007, and not on my map.  Maybe it's time for a new map.

While Caroline took photos the children looked on, unaware that they were being stalked by the monster of Skelwith.

The monster turned out to be surprisingly compliant when asked to pose for a photo.

And then to Chesters, were we bought a few gifts and unfeasibly large slices of cake.  A great end to a great week.

Coniston Old Man

For the final day we had run out of easier peaks in the Langdales, so for a change decided to go up one of our favourite walks.  It was a chance for Evie to catch up with Grace for total number of Wainwrights walked (73) and for Poppy to move further ahead of Isabelle - by the end of this walk she was 61, Isabelle in fourth place: still on 55 after missing out on this week.

Difficulty: 6
Walkers: Tim, Caroline, Grace (12), Evie (9), Poppy (6 1/2)
10:35, 0.0km 0h00 0m, Start (56)
12:49, 4.7km 2h13 752m, Coniston Old Man (803, Wainwright, Hewitt)
13:24, 5.6km 2h49 775m, Brim Fell (796, Wainwright)
14:21, 7.8km 3h46 902m, Swirl How (802, Wainwright, Hewitt)
15:27, 9.3km 4h52 1018m, Black Sails (745, Hewitt)
15:50, 10.1km 5h14 1076m, Wetherlam (763, Wainwright, Hewitt)
17:51, 15.3km 7h15 1080m, End (56)

After a comparatively lazy start, compared to the two previous days, we drove to Coniston and parked in the village, knowing we had to pick up more milk and bread after the walk, and then walked up straight from there.  We had a vague plan to head left to Dow Crag and home, but decided that the weather was good enough (and we had enough legs left) to make it all the way around to Wetherlam. 

First the climb up through the slate workings, retelling the story of how many times Isabelle asked to turn back the first time she climbed up here.  This has been the benchmark by which her younger sisters judge this climb...

To Low Water, pit stop before the final climb up.  Looking quite cloudy up there... 

 Brief views down to the valley floor, but mainly the 'typical' conditions.

Beyond the Old Man we went over the pimple that is Brim Fell.  Not much view to speak of.

Finally, on the walk to Swirl How the view improves!  

Turns out the view only improved as we had gone down a bit.  I'm sure the peak is up here somewhere...

The extra peak for this walk was Black Sails, a Hewitt but not a Wainwright, we'd omitted this on previous trips.

And finally to Wetherlam.  From here looking around we could see virtually every walk that we'd done that week.

We used the ridge path back down towards Coniston, really wonderful views of the lake and the rest of the hillsides.

Having reach the main path back we crossed over at Miners Bridge and joined out outward track.