Footpath Patrols in The Lorton Valley

On Saturday we travelled to The Lorton Valley to complete two footpath patrols.  We have had these for a few weeks but with the road closures & then last weeks snow we haven’t been able to get over to them.
The roads were clear but we soon came across this rather snowy track.  Crag has to roll in any snow he finds!

It has drifted into a strange wave shape here
Do we report this as an obstruction to this gate?
This tree is your classically shaped tree, but when you look closer it has been severely uprooted some time ago but managed to continue growing upright
Many fields have newborns in them

We then started to get very closely followed by some sheep which considering we had Crag with us was strange as the sheep normally run away from him.  We figured these fields aren’t walked much & the only humans these sheep see is the farmer with food.


We then walk past Stanger Spa, it is one of the few saline spa’s in the UK, bit cold today for us.
Despite the lack of rain there is a lot of water in this field, Grasmoor in the background.

A very enjoyable walk & a nice play in the snow

Blake Fell & Gavel Fell

Yesterday we headed out onto the fells with Peter (who had been working in the area).

We started off at Cogra Moss

These look like waves on the water but it is in fact frozen like that

Heading off on the forest track

This beck is pretty frozen too

Looking down on the end of the forest track.  It had been a gentle climb in the trees, this got the lungs working.

It soon became gentler as got closer to the summit

Knock Murton with a little of Cogra Moss in view

We have reached the summit, looking back at where we had walked

The west end of Ennerdale is just visible

A panorama from the summit

In the distance Fleetwith Pike & Buttermere

Zooming in on Crag Fell & Ennerdale

The summit shelter on Blake Fell 573m

Grasmoor & Crummock Water

A gentle descent before a short climb to our next summit

The view looking west with Knock Murton

Looking at our next summit Gavel Fell 526m

We retrace our steps to begin with

Knock Murton & Cogra Moss

After a lunch stop we decide we have time to loop Cogra Moss on the forest track rather than head straight back to the car

We are down, looking back up at Blake Fell

Although we had climbed these two before we had not used this route.  The walk was about 4hours and it was great to catch up with Peter again

Revolution Series 4 At The Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome

On Saturday we travelled to Glasgow to watch our first live cycling event. It was a sell out crowd for the 4th & final event of the cycling revolution series.

It is not until you stand above the track that you appreciate just how steep the bends are

We were not allocated specific seats so decided to sit looking down the finishing straight.  We knew from watching it on TV that it was likely to be warm as they like to keep the velodrome at above 30c & it was roasting hot, we got through a lot of water.

Not your average bike rack, I imagine there are a few £’s worth of bikes in there

Again until you are there you don’t realise just how close the cyclists are to the audience

Practice for the Keirin

















The competitors warming up

At the start of the event all the competitors do a lap for the crowd

Craig MacLean (he won Paralympic gold (as the sighted rider to a blind competitor) in London)

Jody Cundy (famous for his rant at London & he won Paralympic bronze)

The back of Ed Clancy & James McCallum after winning the Madison Time Trial.  Ed Clancy almost single-handedly ensured his team won the series by competing in almost every event (& doing very well in them)

Lastly the Keirin event

We had a great night & were entertained by some brilliant cycling. 

Hedge Laying

Just a few pictures from this weeks two day work party:

On Tuesday & Wednesday we were hedge laying at Howside Farm over looking Ennerdale Water.  Tuesday was glorious but we didn’t have the camera, we just took this one picture on the phone showing the snow-capped fells.

Wednesday we had the camera, this is the hedge we had laid the day before:

Most of it is done by hand, but when we come across a larger tree a little help is required from the chainsaw

And it is done and the view is restored

We had two bonfires burning all the brash

It was hard work and our muscles certainly knew we had been upto something, but it is very rewarding to see you are making a difference.