Three magic days wandering the Eastern and far Eastern fells
Thursday June 21st Rest Dodd, The Nab, Brock Crags
Well I can't believe I just spent two hours creating this post and then lost everything. So this version will be somewhat shorter.
In summary the route was :-
- Hartsop
- Hayeswater
- Rest Dodd
- The Nab
- Brock Crags
- Hartsop
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| Hayeswater Gill |
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| Hayeswater |
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| Top of Rest Dodd |
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| Nab Summit looking to Rest Dodd |
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| The Nab |
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| Brock Crags Summit |
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| Brothers Water |
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| Footbridge over Hayeswater Gill |
After returning to Hartsop I drove back to Glenridding to Gill Side campsite.
A brilliant start to the trip. About 9 miles OS OL 5
Friday June 22nd Dollywagon Pike, Seat Sandal, St Sunday Crag, Birks
The evening before we did a recce up to Lanty's tarn so the first bit of the route would be straightforward.
After a reasonable (but not brilliant nights sleep) I got up early for a brew and was joined by thousands of midges. So - motivation to get started
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| Meg at Lanty's Tarn |
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First Section of the walk
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After climbing up the rise via Lanty's tarn between Glenridding and Patterdale we dropped down to the main track up the valley.
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| Climbing hut on the way up the valley |
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| A little friend enjoying the view |
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| A nice rest in the shade of the climbers hut |
We soon arrived at the cairn which marked the start of the climb up Dollywagon Pike. Steep, hard and hot - this was a brutal climb in the heat. The zig zag path reminded me of Ben Nevis.
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| Grisedale Tarn |
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Dollywagon Pike summit with Nethermost Pike and Helvellyn in the background
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After a brief stop at the top to admire the magnificent views we headed straight down the side of Dollywagon Pike on a steep path and then straight up the side of Seat Sandal.
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| Grisdale Tarn |
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| The track down the side of Dollywagon |
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| The magnificent St Sunday Crag from the top of Seat Sandal |
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| Seat Sandal summit |
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| Section 2 |
From the top of Seat Sandal I retraced the path down and joined the path around the tarn. The path is a couple of hundred yards from tghe edge of the tarn before gradually dropping down to the stepping stones at the North East side of the tarn. We stopped here for a well earned rest and Meg had a nice cool dip in the tarn accompanied by another retriever. Just around the stepping stones were hundreds of tiny fish.
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| Zig Zag up the side of Dolly Wagon |
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| Section 3 |
The next segment of the walk was straightforward navigation until we got to the top of St Sunday Crag. Straight up to Deepdale Hause and then join the ridge path to the summit with Cofa Pike behind. I was so happy to get to the third summit of the day, that I thought the last section would be a doddle - so without looking at my map I set uout for the clear path to the top of Gavel Pike thinking thta this must be Birks. It wasn't until I had dropped down to Lords Seat and the path had disappeared that I realised I had gone wrong. Once again my trusty Garmin got me out of jail, However, this (frustratingly) involved more climbing to get back to near the summit of St Sunday and then head onto the correct ridge leading to Birks. After a while we were at the modest summit of Birks.
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| Cofa Pike |
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| St Sunday Crag Summit |
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| Helvellyn Range from St Sunday Crag |
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| Gavel Pike - Not Birks !! |
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| Birks Summit |
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Grisedale Tarn from the path up to Deepdale Hause
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The route down to Patterdale and then to Glenridding was steep but straightforward.
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| Last Section |
An epic day out. 14 Miles , 11 hours, 4 Wainwrights. OS OL5
Saturday June 23rd Beda Fell
Up early to break camp. Apart from a cup of tea I had no desire to share my breakfast with the Midges, so by just after 7 I was on my way round to the other side of Ullswater to climb Beda Fell. This fit the bill for a relatively short there and back walk so I could then get on with the long Journey back home. The other choice would have been Clough Head but that would have been another 4 miles.
I parked at St Martin's church, and followed the directions from Mark Richards book. At first I couldn't find the path that led to the start of the ridge but soon I was on the walk proper clambering over Winter Crag on the way to the summit.
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| Beda Fell Ridge |
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| Happy Meg at Beda Fell summit |
This was a lovely walk and a perfect end to a magnificent 2 and half days walking., and 8 Wainwrights in the bag.
