Great Crag & Grange Fell

Today we travelled over to Rosthwaite (south of Derwent Water in Borrowdale) to walk 2 new Wainwrights. Rosthwaite is the current starting point for the Autumn in Lakeland LDWA walk we have done the past two years so the start up onto the fells was familiar to us. Looking across to High Spy in the distance with Castle Crag the tree lined fell in the front which is the lowest & to be our last of the 214 Wainwright's when the time comes. Looking back at Rosthwaite with its stunning fell back drop, the road bears to the right after the hamlet heading over the Honister Pass to Buttermere

A panorama from slightly higher up

Our first fell of the day, Great Crag (& yes he knows he is!)

Watendlath Tarn comes into view to the right of the picture

Good paths here that have probably had extensive work from the fix the fells project

It is quite marshy away from the path fed by the numerous streams up here

Some lower cloud on Skiddaw in the distance

We begin the final push for the summit & there is just a visible path through the heather

All of Watendlath Tarn comes into view

Great Crag (440m)

Looking across to our second summit of the day, Grange Fell

The views are amazing here, Great Gable to the left across to Pillar to the right of the picture

We will need to follow the wall in the distance until we are close to the summit

Crag takes following the wall a bit literally

We are about 30m from the summit & have a narrow path to pick our way to the top

And are rewarded with Skiddaw out of the mist with Derwent Water below

Grange Fell (415m)

This a perfect lunch spot

We start our descent with Blencathra in the distance

It wasn't until we got back to the car that we realised just how mucky someone was

A lovely walk on a really warm & sunny day, this beats Waberthwaite a million times over!

Seeing If Crag Can Swim

On Friday we decided to head to Ennerdale for a walk & as it was nice & warm decided we would go for a wade & try to get Crag to swim When we arrived the water was almost totally still with great reflections Pillar & Anglers Crag

Herdus & Bowness Knott

This panorama didn't quite work, but Andy getting his knees wet

Bess as always enjoying the water

We managed to get Crag to swim a few metres, but he wasn't keen to do it without us taking him to the deeper water, at least we know for certain that if he falls into something deep he can swim his way out of trouble

Wild Ennerdales UK Landscape Award Video

Gareth Browning put together this great video about Ennerdale as the submission for the UK Landscape Award, it includes some of the people we work with regularly on our work parties:

Waberthwaite Surveys DONE

This week we have focused on finishing the remaining Waberthwaite footpath surveys & completed them today. They have been pretty poor as most of them were low level with no great views & so many of the paths are either very overgrown or have obstructions (either man made or lively cattle) One of the best views is looking towards the Eskdale fells All well so far Until we find this by the house in the previous picture. The footpath links to the road through these nettles & barbed wire all over the gate even if you brave them

We go off path & find a gate in the field we can access the track by. Next path & this gate is tied shut, but too flimsy to climb, we decide not to & check it out from the other end

The ruins at How End on the Corney Fell Road

And looking down on the Eskmeals viaduct

Today just the one picture another typical path, nettles & brambles, we get through that to be greeted with an electric fence across the path.

We are very glad to have finished them & wont be volunteering for the low level southern parishes again, not only is it frustrating to come across paths in this disrepair in many cases we have been forced to walk along the A595 to get back to the car when we have planned a good circular walk that would avoid it.

Ennerdale Show 2010

Last week we went to the Ennerdale Show, we haven't been for a couple of years due to the weather so it was nice to get a sunny day for the show. The sheep have already been judged We took Crag as we thought the sights & sounds would be a good experience for him, however he just wanted to greet every dog & bark at anything he wasn't quite sure of (oh & yes pee on everything!) so we weren't up there as long as we planned! The shepherds crooks have also been judged An interesting tent was the Lamplugh History society who had some good clippings about the Anglers Inn that used to be on the lakeshore

One of the judging rings

The junior fell race is underway

More dogs being shown

And then the senior fell race is off

Looking back down on part of the show as we return to the car

Worn out with all the excitement

We spent a couple of hours there & bumped into various National Park, Trust & Forestry Commission people we know, but will probably leave Crag at home next year! At the weekend we were asked to check out a footpath near the lake as someone had reported to the park that the gate had been padlocked & the diversion was awkward, well they were right about the gate being locked

But the detour was to one side of the gate so not really that awkward

We extended the walk over to the lake to see this hole has appeared in the bridge by the weir

We think this probably needs addressing first

We walked the dogs to Longlands Lake on Friday & caught them both on the bed exhausted afterwards!