Thursday 16th October
It is all very well setting the alarm for 5 am to wake oneself up if asleep but if one is lying
there awake already there comes a time when it just isn't worth waiting for the alarm to go off. In
my case that time came at 4.30 am. So everything advanced by 30 minutes and it was still dark with
just a hint of light to the East as I left the M6 at junction 40 heading for Martindale. Martindale
might been relatively close but the narrow lanes took time and it was actually quite light by the
time I arrived at the open space just past the old church.
There was a hint of the forecast cold wind about so I was wearing a sweater as I set out, almost the
first time that had been necessary since the spring, carrying what proved to be an unnecessarily
heavy pack. I had intended to take the adjacent PROW to gain the ridge of Beda Fell low down but a
more direct way was obvious a little way up the valley and with a long way to go I took the direct
route which might have been the first of several dubious routing decisions. The path was steep and
it was obvious when I reached the ridge that most traffic came up the ridge.
The promised cold wind was playing hard to get and I was distinctly damp by the time I had climbed
high enough up the ridge to feel something approaching its full force. I went from being
overdressed to underdressed in just a few yards but I was never sufficiently uncomfortable to put
on my anorak nor for that matter ever to take the sweater off though towards the later part of the
day I should have.
Meanwhile the sun was shining and there was hardly a cloud in the sky. Over on Place Fell a lone
stag was roaring while up wind towards The Nab (but surprisingly faint) it sounded as if several
stags were having a go. Another day when it was a delight to be out on the hills.
Angletarn Pikes proved to have 2 summits and after some hesitation I visited them both before
dropping down to the tarn. It was somewhere about here I saw my first deer of the day - 3 rather
indistinct forms heading for Patterdale. (Down in Patterdale it looked as if there was still a
frost on the grass but I saw nothing to indicate any frost in the immediate vicinity of my walk).
Post tarn I made the second dubious decision of the day by leaving the path (very) early and
striking out directly for Brock Crags. Some nasty tussock grass and no indication that anyone else
had been so foolish. If a short cut works in the Lake District then there is almost bound to be a
good path by now.
From Brock Fell there was (eventually) a solid climb up Rest Dodd (2nd deer of the day, 2 hinds) and
despite the climb I came very close to stopping to put on my anorak as the wind was so chilly but
idleness prevailed and I was soon in the lee and warming up again.
The initial drop from Rest Dodd down towards The Nab was very steep and here I had my closest
encounter yet with the deer. A stag with a fine head of horns and 12 hinds just above the Berlin
Wall. They made a leisurely exit upwind. The boggy depression was a bit Kinderish but by no means as
soggy as Wainwright had led me to believe. About 3 hours from the car park to The Nab.
As I retraced my steps to the wall it was clear that the roaring I had heard earlier had come not
from The Nab but somewhere on the upper slopes of High Raise or Rampsgill Head. Decision time again
and the 3rd dubious decision of the day. Instead of going back over Rest Dodd I contoured round the
steep West Flank. Not a particularly easy traverse with only a few odd sheep trods to make the going
a bit easier from time to time. I should have realised that it wasn’t a good bet by the lack of a
good path. I again encountered the deer and near the end of the traverse I forced the group that by
now numbered 20 - 30 to head downhill.
Safely across at last I set off for The Knott (still without a path to follow) and as I did so I
noticed the first walkers of the day, a pair heading away from me up Rest Dodd. From then on the
walkers came thick and fast. 2 crossing ahead of me up the main drag that bypasses The Knott and yet
another 2 poling their way up as I crossed it. Almost an hour form The Nab to The Knott was, to say
the least, a bit slow.
And there must have been at least half a dozen walkers in view as I left The Knott in the direction
of Rampsgill Head, a peculiar peak without a well defined summit. From there I was on old ground for
some distance as I had walked the ridge from Loadpot Hill all the way to Troutdale back in the 60s
when I was attempting to regain fitness after mangling my right ankle in a car crash.
A diversion to Kidsy Pike followed but I still wasn’t alone and only just escaped the summit (and
its solitary raven soaring just below) before the summit was inundated by a fast moving group of
some half dozen young men.
And then the long drag North along the Roman Road (with diversions off where necessary). Lunch (or
the first half at least) was taken in the less than satisfactory lee of a wind shelter on High
Raise. Lunch over I continued over Raven Howe, Red Crag, Wether Hill , Loadpot Hill (passing several
walkers coming the other way and meeting one actually on the summit of Loadpot Hill) before
encountering new ground on the approach to Arthur’s Pike where I saw the unlikely spectacle of a
skinhead runner wearing orange shorts disappearing smartly over the summit (surely not Paul R?).
Changing batteries on my Summit mysteriously increased the trip distance from 14.x miles to 134 but
apparently did not effect anything else. A second lunch was taken in the more satisfactory lee of
that summit (Arthur's Pike, not the GPS) before heading off towards Bonscale Pike.
At Bonscale Pike I faced yet another choice. Take the long and difficult contour route to Steel
Knotts or commit myself to the steep drop to Meliguards and the subsequent climb back to altitude
but I had had enough of rough tussock grass and traversing steep hillside so I steeled myself
<groan> for the last great effort. Unfortunately I didn't choose the best decent, committing myself
early to the steepest option, and doubly unfortunately reminding myself in the process that I should
really have cut my toenails the night before. I must have cut a sorry sight tiptoeing gingerly down
the steep hillside trying to place my feet at rightangles to the slope to minimize the pressure on
my big toes.
The climb up Steel Knotts was steep, so steep that I was forced to stop and admire the view several
times on the way up, which gave me time to watch the antics of a lake steamer which arrived off
Howtown with a loudspeaker announcement that they were looking at Howtown so loud that I could
understand it from halfway up the hill. Subsequent pronouncements, although just as loud were
sufficiently indistinct for me not to comprehend them.
The summit of Steel Knotts has the odd name of Pikeawassa. From there on it was downhill all the way
back to the car and mostly at a gentle gradient but by then I was creaking at the hinges and glad to
be able to stop at last. Still, a splendid day out and, as the elderly gent photographing the old
church remarked, amazing weather for October.
18 miles and 5800 feet of ascent in 8 hours 37 minutes. (Naismiths hobnailed boots never quite
succeeded in catching me up). 14 Wainwrights but unfortunately only 8 new to me.
--
Roger Looking North over the Aire Valley (and Marley Gasworks) to Rombolds Moor Top Posters
killfiled on sight