Booked a B&B for me and Anne at Patterdale for the weekend.
I haven’t been to Patterdale before and I have to say the scenery is awesome.
I had this idea that we could tackle Helvellyn via Striding Edge on the Saturday. However, given the fact that Anne hasn’t been well and hasn’t done any walking for a while it was a ridiculous proposition. As it transpired the weather was foul on Saturday (all morning) so it would have been plain daft to try. So by the end of the weekend I had managed three short walks (only around 3 miles). One with Anne and two on my own.
Walk 1 – Arnison Crag.
This small fell is close to the B&B (Home Farm) so on Friday evening (just before 6) I set off and a very slow pace as I kept stopping to admire the views and looking at the map to try and identify the surrounding hills. After a while I came to the wall that climbs up the fell and then just near the top there is a bit of a scramble away from the path to get to the summit. Fabulous views of Ullswater from here as the weather had cleared a bit.
This was a tidy little climb and got me in a sweat, and I realised that Anne would not have been able to do this one, so Helvellyn was a silly idea.
The path was waterlogged in places so my walking shoes got soaked – I need some decent winter kit I think.
My legendary map reading skills came to the fore again, as at this point I thought I had climbed Birks (The path up to Birks is parallel with the wall for a while) After coming down I tried a short cut back to Home farm but this went wrong as I wasn’t on the path I thought I was. Got back after about two hours.
Only about three miles as I kept stopping to admire awe inspiring scenery. Very enjoyable and at least one baby Wainwright to claim…by co-incidence walk number 1 in book number 1!
Walk 2 – Aira Force
We spent the morning on an Ullswater cruise to stay out of the heavy rain. This was a very enjoyable two hours. Luckily as the boat was coming in the rain stopped and the sun started poking through the clouds. So a short drive to the Aira Force National Trus car park and a fantastic walk up the river to admire the falls and then back down on the other side. This was easily as impressive as the Ingleton water falls walk we did a couple of year ago.
About three miles.
Walk 3 – Grisedale Beck
I had a bit of time on Saturday evening before we went for dinner. Anne had a rest and I set of from Home Farm down the footpath along Grisdale Beck. I walked as far as the bridge over the Beck which starts the Helvellyn route and then I took the footpath of to the right (as I was heading back to Patterdale) so I wouldn’t have to go back the same route. Incredibly I gave some walkers accurate directions – they weren’t sure if they were on the right path to Patterdale.
From this path I met the one which climbs up to Birks. (The one I thought I had been on , on Friday). Taking the left fork here I headed back for Home farm crossing Hag Beck at some stepping stones (these were nearly covered after all the rain ). Across the bottom of Arnison Crag and back in time t set of for dinner.
Another short 3 miles.
This was a fantastic weekend even with the heavy rain – I will definitely be back to do that Helvellyn walk.
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