Wild Ennerdale Work Party

Today we were back at Ennerdale on a work party. When we arrived we split up, Andy went off with the work party to the archeology site whilst Karen set off to change to cards in the two wildlife cameras in the valley. The first camera had taken 98 pictures mostly at night on Thursday last week when we had really stormy weather. The camera had been slightly dislodged & we think some grass was blowing in front of it now causing all the pictures to be taken. The other camera had taken 6 pictures, 4 had Crag or us in it when we set it up, but this one taken after dark with a little imagination may suggest there was something about.

No questioning there is snow now on Pillar

And the other side of the valley, Red Pike & High Stile Steeple & Scoat Fell

Karen & Crag return to the archeology site where the work party have been busy diverting a stream that ran through it. The site is believed to date back to the 13th Century & was believed to have been inhabited for around 300 years Andy by the new diverted stream. The Secretary of State had to give permission for this to happen as it is a protected settlement & we had Eleanor the National Park's archaeologist supervising to ensure nothing was damaged

This took us to lunchtime so to fill the day we drove to Bleach Green to do some drain runs. It is very windy here & the water is pouring off the weir

There are several places on the path that have flooded so we dug a trench next to the flood to let the water drain off. Here's one before we started

And afterwards

The valley looks beautiful with a light dusting of snow

Bernie unblocking a plastic drain that runs under the path

The last rays of sunshine hit Bowness Knott

A good days work & hopefully we will get some better results when we return to the cameras next

A Walk At Ennerdale

This morning we headed to Ennerdale to start the job of taking some of the panoramic photos for Wild Ennerdale to archive & then they can repeat the exercise in a number of years time to compare how the valley has changed. We had bought a lightweight tripod & found this made the job of taking the panoramas a lot easier. We need to pick good weather days to take these & today was absolutely beautiful Zooming in on Pillar & Karen is sure that is some snow up there? We have specific grid references to go to to take the pictures from. The first is this gate We are a reasonable distance from the lake here but part of the exercise is to capture the flora & fauna of the valley

This lonning leads back to the road at Broadmoor

The view as we get closer to the lake

Our favourite view of the lake & a great place for a dip

Our next spot was at the site of the Anglers Inn, but there were quite a few people there so we decided to try again on the way back. Looking back towards Bleach Green

And back along the shore we have just walked along

The next panorama from slightly further on looking west

Through the trees is Herdus

Bowness Knott

Then looking up at it from below

Holly & berries on this bush

Anglers Crag. The weather is set to turn later this afternoon & we think they have got it right as you can see the cloud bank approaching. There is so little wind at the moment that we shouldn't be troubled whilst we are here.

Karen was right (& Andy agreed) this is a light dusting of snow on Pillar (there was also some on High Stile)

We walk to Bowness Knott car park & then drop down to the lower lakeshore path for the next picture. Looking up at Bowness Knott

Mostly ferns here with along with a Silver Birch

Then looking up the valley

And back towards Bleach Green

We walk back to the Anglers Inn site & it is a lot quieter. The dogs play whilst we take the pictures

Up the lake

And where the Inn used to be located

Still playing

Some clouds have started to bubble in but you can see from the lake how little breeze is here

We had arrived just after 10am and the car park was nearly full, upon our return it was with loads of cars parked in the road too

Good to see so many people enjoying a beautiful place on a glorious day

4 down 46 to go, however these were easy low level pictures we have a few miles to walk to capture some of the more remote ones.

Footbridge Surveys 2010 - DONE

Yesterday we were back at Whicham completing the last four footbridge surveys for 2010. They were all on footpaths we had walked before as part of the Right Of Way Surveys we had done in the parish last year. The first is at Whitbeck Mill Looking towards the sea you can see from the fields just how much rain we had on Thursday The second on this footpath We are walking along the west side of Black Combe & the water is pouring off the fell onto the path

Looking up the slopes of Black Combe & it is so barren, not a tree in sight, just ferns

We walk back close to the car & cross the A595 for the last two, Andy had remembered this bridge was in a bad state of repair last year & it seems as a result of our surveys they have repaired it

Someone is happy playing in the mud

We looked back at the pictures we took last year as this stile looked new

And there it is from the other side last October

This picture from last year shows how overgrown this stile was And now again from the other side it is cleared

Our next obstacle is this small lake

Whereas last year it was the barbed wire

Another new stile

Last year Karen had gone for a wander to see if there was a stile further up the fence whilst Andy waited at the bottom where it should have been. This year we don't have to cross a barbed wire fence we have a new stile

The weather is closing in on Black Combe

We reach our last bridge survey of 2010 as it starts to rain

We had quite a wet walk back but were really pleased that our feedback from last years surveys had been actioned. Those repairs make us realise that this isn't just a paper exercise, what we are doing gets results. We might be the only walkers ever to use these paths but they are up to standard!