A none wood, non craft post. This is more about me trying to balance life out a bit as an antidote to too much time recently at the computer. Friday night my friend Chris and I drove up to the Lake District fish and chip dinner in Windermere then set off up the hill in the dark. We pitched tents by Grisedale tarn and woke early to dense hill mist.
Undeterred we set off up again and were soon up by the snow.
Top of Helvellyn, as you can see still not much of a view.
Navigation by map and compass in this can be hard work with no visible reference points but Chris has an OS map program and GPS on his phone which makes life very easy. We carry map and compass as well, there are some very steep drops around here and you need to know exactly where you are.
This looks and felt like the gates to Mordor. It is the start of "Striding Edge" put that into google image if you want to see what it looks like on a clear day, it is stunning.
As we dropped down the mist cleared coming down toward Patterdale looked remarkably like home in Edale.
This is another pic to show, contrary to popular opinion, decent oaks are not uncommon in England today. In fact there are probably more and larger oaks in England today that there have been at any time in the last 1500 years.
After a very high carb lunch in Patterdale we set off back. I would have caught the bus but it doesn't run out of season. I love Cumbrian bridges.
The route back involved a few hundred metres less climb this is near the top, we were headed through the saddle to the left.
Back at Grisedale Tarn the mist had cleared.
Dropping down the other side.
and the destination Grassmere in view to the far left, nearly home.
20 miles in 24 hours with a pack and a fair climb. It made me realise I am not as fit as I thought. Pretty stiff still today and only turned 4 bowls in the workshop today.
Undeterred we set off up again and were soon up by the snow.
Top of Helvellyn, as you can see still not much of a view.
Navigation by map and compass in this can be hard work with no visible reference points but Chris has an OS map program and GPS on his phone which makes life very easy. We carry map and compass as well, there are some very steep drops around here and you need to know exactly where you are.
This looks and felt like the gates to Mordor. It is the start of "Striding Edge" put that into google image if you want to see what it looks like on a clear day, it is stunning.
As we dropped down the mist cleared coming down toward Patterdale looked remarkably like home in Edale.
This is another pic to show, contrary to popular opinion, decent oaks are not uncommon in England today. In fact there are probably more and larger oaks in England today that there have been at any time in the last 1500 years.
After a very high carb lunch in Patterdale we set off back. I would have caught the bus but it doesn't run out of season. I love Cumbrian bridges.
The route back involved a few hundred metres less climb this is near the top, we were headed through the saddle to the left.
Back at Grisedale Tarn the mist had cleared.
Dropping down the other side.
and the destination Grassmere in view to the far left, nearly home.
20 miles in 24 hours with a pack and a fair climb. It made me realise I am not as fit as I thought. Pretty stiff still today and only turned 4 bowls in the workshop today.
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