The Wild Wet - no photos today
The only trouble with clear, sunny days like this is that everything looks so good and I am tempted to forget my planned walk and climb one of the “best done in good weather” hills. Blencathra looks magnificent today, Halls Fell Ridge and Sharp Edge were calling to me but I carried on to Loweswater for some fells that I haven’t climbed before.
I parked the car at Maggie’s Bridge and walked past the Kirkstile Inn and over Church Bridge, up the lane and through the conifers to the start of the path up the north ridge of Mellbreak.
The initial climb is up a path slanting across the steep scree, quickly gaining height until arriving at a grassy ledge where you can peep round the corner and see most of Crummock Water on the other side of the fell. Then a scramble over rocks and heather with another couple of grassy ledges, ideal places for taking in the exceptional views on a very clear, and for the moment, a warm day.
It was a brilliant feeling arriving at the north summit of Mellbreak, it was warm and clear and the views all around were sensational. A very pleasant walk southwards along the unexpectedly wide ridge, easy enough to start daydreaming on a warm day but I suspect it would be much less pleasant getting through the bog in the middle on a wet day.
The south summit is much less inspiring although it made an excellent view point for planning the rest of the day’s route, it was warm enough now to change into shorts.
Down the steep grassy slope and cross Black Beck, in order to avoid losing any more height I decided to climb up Gale Fell rather than follow the path down to Scale Force. On a wet day this would have been a very bad choice, but today anything is possible, I’m sure I found traces of a footpath in a number of places. It was generally a steep climb up grass and boulders with some optional scrambling over the pink rocky outcrops.
The summit of Gale Fell is well worth a visit, the view down Mosedale with its solitary tree, the summit tarn, the interesting pink boulders, and the only view of Floutern Tarn that I know about. The south side of the fell only offers heather and swamps on the way to Starling Dodd but there were a couple of ducks enjoying the peace in one of the pools.
Up to the summit of Starling Dodd with its art nouveau cairn and my first meeting of the day with other walkers. Another superb viewpoint, but with some clouds in the sky the cool breeze forces me to put on my jacket and gloves. The walk over to Great Borne is easy but all the better because of the dry weather, the many rocks at the summit and the triangulation pillar are all a fashionable pink colour.
Took a quick walk down to the west for a quick view of Ennerdale Water and then back to the summit to follow the new fence northwards down Steel Brow towards Floutern Pass. Not much of a path down the steep grassy slope but the fence provides useful handholds until reaching the extremely wet pass. I had to stride over one fence, cross a swamp for about twenty yards and then a higher stride over a fence with a strand of barbed wire across the top.
This place must be abominably wet on a wet day. Follow the path eastwards between Floutern Cop and Floutern Tarn, then traverse Whiteoak Moss to the dry land at the base of Hen Comb. Straight up the grassy hill in the absence of any paths, finally finding the faint path that follows the ridge to the summit and more views of the superior kind.
For a small fell it’s a long way down, but very pleasant with easy walking and great viewing, and yet another fence to stride over half way down. At the intake wall at the base of the fell the path as such finally peters out, I could have strode over another fence and made way to Loweswater but I decided to be clever and head back to the car park at Maggie’s Bridge.
The only problem here was the fence between me and Whiteoak Beck, too high to stride over and the barbed wire on the top made it too awkward to climb over so I had to take off my rucksack and squeeze between the middle strands of wire.
Cross the beck and follow the wall until reaching the path leading to High Nook farm and then on to Maggie’s Bridge.
Andy Wallace 13th April 2002