Rain forecast above 400m, red warning for phones

The combination of a car park within driving distance that we'd walked past earlier, and the alluring prospect of ticking off a bunch of peaks led us to this walk.

Difficulty: 5                                                                     

Walkers: Tim, Caroline                                                            

10:25, 0.0km 0h00 0m, Start (181)                                                 

11:51, 3.7km 1h25 553m, The Knott (739, Wainwright)                               

12:22, 5.4km 1h56 642m, Rampsgill Head (792, Wainwright)                          

12:24, 5.5km 1h58 642m, Rampsgill Head (792, Hewitt)                              

12:39, 6.4km 2h13 692m, High Raise (High Street) (802, Wainwright, Hewitt)        

13:01, 7.4km 2h35 733m, Kidsty Pike (780, Wainwright)                             

14:00, 10.3km 3h34 885m, Rest Dodd (696, Wainwright, Hewitt)                      

14:41, 12.3km 4h15 906m, Brock Crags (561, Wainwright)                            

15:54, 15.3km 5h28 919m, End (179)                                                

Starting from the car park the far end of Hartsop, we headed up the valley towards Hayeswater and up the hillside to the left.

After looking around the Filter House on the left of Hayswater Gill, we crossed over.  Down here it's all quite bright!

Caroline and The Knott, after the fairly steep climb up the side of the hill.

From The Knott, looking towards Rest Dodd and The Nab just getting the last of the sunshine.

Following the Coast to Coast path, we got an advance look at Kidsty Pike, twas to be the last we had around there...

Rampsgill Head, writing this several months later I can't now recall whether this is the Wainwright or the Hewitt.  I'm guessing since it's got a proper cairn marker it's the Wainwright!

With the vain hope that conditions at Kidsty Pike would clear up we headed north to High Raise.  At this point we did have a slight disagreement about the correct direction to leave, very easy to get confused over which direction you came in from given the lack of landmarks or any kind of real slope to get your bearings.  Thankfully the compass didn't lie.

Now at Kidsty Pike, and after looking forward to the view down to the south we were sadly disappointed.  It was really raining quite relentlessly, and had been going on for long enough by now that it became easier to accept that it wasn't actually going to clear up.

We walked back the way we had come via The Knott and then turned northwards towards Rest Dodd.  Another hour in the rain ticked off.

Now at Brock Crags, with some actual navigation to do - comparing the walls and paths to the map to make sure we made it safely to the Wainwright over the various lumps and bumps on the way.  Still raining.

We descended, to be honest we lost the path at one point, but was able to track the route by matching the stony outcrops to the map and was able to easily rejoin slightly lower down than we were aiming for.  Coming lower it decided to actually stop raining, after raining continuously while we were above about 400m.  The sad footnote to this route is that taking this set of photos sadly was too much for my poor phone, which gave up the ghost on the start of the long drive back to Birmingham.  It was pretty sad, since we were going to listen to an audiobook off my phone.  It was less sad since I got to buy myself a new phone - which is hopefully more waterproof! 

Blencathra the fun way

These set of 5 peaks looked tempting, and within striking distance, so with a slightly lower forecast percentage of rain we set off to the North.

Difficulty: 7

Walkers: Tim, Caroline

10:27, 0.0km 0h00 0m, Start (229)

11:39, 3.7km 1h11 328m, Souther Fell (522, Wainwright)

14:24, 11.7km 3h57 923m, Blencathra (868, Wainwright, Hewitt)

15:14, 14.2km 4h46 936m, Mungrisdale Common (633, Wainwright)

15:57, 16.8km 5h30 1022m, Bannerdale Crags (683, Wainwright, Hewitt)

16:35, 18.7km 6h07 1097m, Bowscale Fell (702, Wainwright, Hewitt)

17:59, 22.6km 7h31 1113m, End (230)

We parked at Mungrisdale, in the car park outside the village hall.  We were aiming to cross the river at a footbridge to the south of the car park, but it was still missing after flood damage from a few years earlier, so we walked back up past the car and over the road bridge and pass the Mill Inn.

We walked along, before finding the (fairly disused) path up the fellside.  The views to the south saw that rare blue sky phenomenon!

Now at the top of Souther Fell, not a particularly remarkable summit, but pretty expansive views.  Somewhat worryingly that blue sky wasn't anywhere to be seen.

Now at the south end of Souther Fell, we could see the shape of the walk to come - dipping down and then following the left side of the valley up towards the distant top.  Which was clear of cloud!

Alongside Scales Beck, with Scales Tarn just over the ridge.

Panorama at Scales Tarn.  Blencathra opposite, and there are two ways up.  Now I'd done my research and given the lack of wind & rain I was determined to give Sharp Edge (on the right) a go - Caroline passed, choosing to go up the left path.

It was a sharp as they said!  Very enjoyable, if I had the nerves to take them I could think of some girls that would have loved this.  I did overtake the group ahead - two kids ambling along, and the father patiently helping his wife along.  I felt for him.

Views looking back down. 

The fun bit, where mere walking along balancing with sheer drops on either side turns into how close can I get my face to this rock.

Blencathra, with a commanding position looking south.

Feeling flushed with our successes, and the lack of rain, we took a detour towards Keswick, to get the view over to Derwent Water.

Coming back up towards Blencathra again. 

And this is where we did our typical 'get the other Wainwrights as we're close'. This is Mungrisdale Common, a nice wander over from Blencathra.

And now back up to Bannerdale Crags.

From here we followed the ridge around, the ground getting soggier as we went.

There was still grass in evidence, sticking up from the main ingredient that the hillside was made from.

Finally we splashed over to Bowscale Fell.  I think it's fairly conclusive evidence that I tend to walk faster than Caroline.

Wandering down back to Mungrisdale and the car the green valley floor opened out as we picked our way through the ferns.  Which were soaking wet.

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.