12.1 miles, 3,548 feet, 3 hours 32 minutes: Rothay/Miller/Low Sweden Bridges - up the Rock Step - Low and High Pikes - Dove Crag - Scandale - Red Screes - Roundhill Farm - Ambleside. Sunshine and high clouds, a cool breeze from the north east. No rain; terrain dry and firm with good grip. Very few about.
2+2 layers were fine. I heard that cuckoo again.
I have been up in Warkworth, Northumbria for a couple of days to attend a funeral. Yesterday I had a lovely, but breezy run on the beach and sand dunes between the mouths of the Rivers Coquet and Aln.
10 miles, 168 feet in 1hr 24 min. I must go to the beach more often, especially one that was as quiet as this one was. Only around a dozen people and 3 dogs seen. Wonderful.
Visibility good except in Hill Fog
7.12 miles, 2,854 feet, 2 hours 58 minutes: Tilberthwaite - Steel Edge - Wetherlam - Black Sails - Black Sails Ridge - Kennel Crag - descending path to just above the cottages - Hole Rake - Tilberthwaite. Overcast, with high clouds; the occasional patch of blue sky; rather hazy. No significant wind, no rain; terrain dry and firm with good grip. Very few walkers about; three fellow runners seen.
2+2 layers were fine once I had warmed up - it was only 5 degrees C when I set off, 8 degrees C when I finished.
Wainwright, when he wrote his Book Four, seems to have been completely unaware of the existence of Steel Edge. He does suggest the Black Sails Ridge as a way up, but not as a way down in mist. I think ascending via Steel Edge and descending via the Black Sails Ridge is the best way to do Wetherlam.
I know (knew) that area really well, as a friend used to own one of the little cottages you mentioned. A one-up-one-down. Eventually it was sold to a holiday lets company, who sold it again last year for over £300K !!! Basically, it was my introduction to the Lakes in the early 1980s. We often use to get the train from London up to Oxenholme and cycle to Coppermines, staying many a Christmas and New Year. with occasional weeks in the spring or autumn. Eeeee.. Halcyon daysOriginally Posted by Mike T
Am Yisrael Chai
7.8 miles, 3,378 feet, 3 hours 33 minutes: NDG - Stickle Tarn - Harrison Stickle - Thunacar Knott - Martcrag Moor - Stake Pass - High Raise - Sergeant Man - Stickle Tarn - NDG. Very sunny, with some thin high clouds. No rain, no significant wind. Terrain dry with good grip. Not many walkers about - two fellow runners seen.
8.24 miles, 3,085 feet, 3 hours 1 minute: Travellers Rest - Winterseeds - Grisedale Tarn - Fairfield - Great Rigg - Heron Pike - direct descent to Alcock Tarn - Greenhead Gill - Travellers Rest. Sunshine with thin high clouds, rather hazy; a moderate breeze from the south; no rain. Terrain dry with good grip. Not many walkers about.
A fellow runner overtook me ascending to Grisedale Tarn - she was willing to run where I walked as I thought the risk of tripping/slipping was too high. On the steps near the tarn I noticed drops of fresh blood on the steps - I do hope she was OK.
13.17 miles, 3,417 feet, 4 hours 5 minutes: Fairfield Horseshoe c/w from Rothay Bridge, taking the 4 grassy trods on the left on the ascent, keeping the wall on my left for most of the descent, and going around and back up and under the rock step. Overcast, with the cloud base at about 600 feet; intermittent mizzle/drizzle/light rain; a moderate wind from the south. Terrain damp/wet/saturated and slippery in places, especially the rocks. I saw about 30 walkers on the fell. Three fellow runners seen, though two were on the road.
Given the prolonged spell of dry weather we had been having, I had been wearing my Trailflys despite their worn away tread - they are such a comfortable shoe. Today I wore my new X-Talon Ultra 260 V2s for the second time - they were excellent, both in terms of comfort, and grip. When I first wore them they had rubbed/pressed on my right little toe, and I was concerned I had wasted my money, but they have been sitting in the sun packed tightly with paper, and I steamed and flexed the relevant part of the shoe, and it has made a huge difference.
11.22 miles, 3,318 feet, 4 hours 7 minutes: Elterwater Common - Swinescar Pike - Blea Rigg - Sergeant Man - Blea Rigg - Swinescar Pike - Lang How - Silver How - Elterwater Common. Overcast, with the cloud base at about 3,000 feet, and some banks of cloud below that. No wind nor rain. Terrain anything from dry to saturated - mainly good grip. Not many walkers on the fells, though lots lower down; no other runners seen.
260 V2s were again excellent.
I lifted a couple of pints of Jemima Pitchfork up to my mouth.
Don't roll with a pig in poo. You get covered in poo and the pig likes it.
A rather short (but steep in some places) walk from Wetton to Thor's Cave, round to the top of the hill for a picnic, and back to Wetton, with my wife, my son and his girlfriend. Completely bonkers, for a retired couple and a couple without regular working hours to do this on a Bank Holiday!
My son had mentioned a week or two ago that he had found out about Thor's Cave, and thought it would be worth a visit. Then my wife decided that she wanted to go somewhere interesting today, and remembered what he had said. Anyway, I don't feel that the experience was spoiled by the crowds. In fact I was very pleased to see the large number of small children clambering around on the slippery limestone; there are still plenty of parents willing to let their children experience a bit of mild danger.
In his lifetime he suffered from unreality, as do so many Englishmen.
Jorge Luis Borges
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