24th October 2007 dawned bright and clear with quite a sharp frost and my levels of anticipation were high that I was in for an excellent days walking. Tilly and Dusty were blissfully unaware as we left Horwich that fourteen or fifteen miles, with 3500 feet of climbing lay ahead of them.
We had driven through Windermere and seen cloud hugging the surface of the water which always fills me with wonder; further cloud inversions were to come in to view as we started to climb the flank of Steel Fell from Ghyll Foot. Helm Crag looked magnificent across the valley in her Autumnal cloak with the summit rocks changing shape as we climbed, just as AW promised they would.
Once the top was reached the view along the length of Thirlmere was glorious. Is that the Refreshment Hut I can just make out on Armboth Fell? Well maybe not!
Too cold to linger though we turned our thoughts to Calf Crag, a very gentle mile and a half away. Fortunately, the marshy areas on the way across were still frozen!
The summit of Calf Crag is rocky and an excellent viewpoint, but it was still too cold to hang around.
Greenup Edge was the next target and very wet was the path on the way to it. Flour Gill seemed to cover the whole hillside! Having reached the top of the pass, the way to Ullscarf, the most central 2000 footer was self evident, but again the path was very wet underfoot the whole way. Time for lunch by the summit cairn and yes, that was another person walking towards me; the first I had seen since leaving the car. The views from the cairn are fabulous with most of the giants on show.
Oh the joy of having to re-trace my steps along that boggy path and then diverting underneath the modest Long Crag towards my next goal; Sergeant's Crag, a shapely rocky outcrop.
Why do they have to make some ladder stiles near vertical? When you have two reasonably sized dogs it is quite a struggle lifting them on and off the platform at the top.
Anyway, on to the next fell; Eagle Crag and yes another troublesome wall to surmount.
Oh well. What a tremendous view when turning round to face Sergeant's Crag; the drawing on Page 1 of that chapter is a masterpiece it really does capture the real thing.
No time to dawdle, back to Greenup Edge and over Calf Crag once again. Now I knew from my Pictorial Guide that there is a path dropping into Greenburn Valley from Pike of Carrs, but where was it? No problem. I found the cairn showing where to leave the ridge. The sun was starting to drop in the sky and casting a shadow on the side of Steel Fell opposite.
A deceptively long way back to Ghyll Foot, not helped by the fact that Dusty had had enough for today and needed some coaxing. Tilly however was fresh as a daisy and would probably have gone round again had I asked her to. Then finally there was the car surrounded by chickens; 'no you're not having my last sandwich!'
Another fabulous day on the fells with glorious weather. Only 44 Wainwrights, 12 walks to do!!
All photographs taken with either a Nikon D40X (10.2mp) or a Nikon Coolpix 4200 (4.2mp)
