The forecast for our wildcamping weekend was a point for concern. All of the sources were telling us to expect shed-loads of rain, low temperatures and lightning. I'm happy to report that the forecasts were well wide of the mark. Friday afternoon was warm and sunny, the night was a bit rainy, Saturday started misty but soon cleared to a sunny day with a light breeze. A little overnight rain was soon dried out by glorious sunshine on Sunday morning. Because the forecasts had deterred a lot of walkers, for the main part we had the hills to ourselves. Excellent!
Details of our route are as follows:
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- Friday: Parked up outside the Police Station at the Glenridding Tourist Information Centre and bought a 48-hour ticket
- Took the steamer "Raven" to Howtown
- Bonscale Pike 1718ft
- Overnight camp next to the Swarth Beck sheepfold
- Saturday: Arthur's Pike 1747 ft
- Loadpot Hill 2201ft
- Wether Hill 2210ft
- High Raise 2634ft
- Rampsgill Head 2581ft
- Kidsty Pike 2560ft
- The Knott 2423ft
- Satura Crag
- Overnight camp on the shore of Angle Tarn
- Sunday: Patterdale via Boardale Hause
- Glenridding via lakeshore and roadside paths
We had intended to go up High Street, Rest Dodd and The Nab, but Chris was struggling with her breathing and we didn't want to risk her having problems with her asthma, so we dropped down and took things easy.
Suffice to say that we had a great time, apart from the tick menace (they were mostly small black beasties about 2mm across, but we saw a few evil-looking brown and red ones that were over 5mm across). We tested out some of our new kit, got sunburn, took far too many photos (over 240), saw lots of wildlife and had fantastic views in all directions.
My tally of "Wainwrights" is now 159 (not counting repeats), which leaves 55 still to do. This keeps me on course for breaking the record for the slowest ever "casual compleation" of the famous 214
I've whittled down the photo-stash to a paltry 82(!) which I'll embed in a handful of posts later. Here are a few to whet the appetite:
The head of Ullswater
Swarthbeck sheepfold - the pitch for the first night
Looking back down the High Street path
Thornthwaite Crag
Reeds and rocks at Angle Tarn
Angle Tarn in the morning light
The one good thing about a bad weather forecast - you get the place to yourself.
Brave man using Angle Tarn water supply!
“Brave man using Angle Tarn water supply!”
We only used the Angle Tarn water for washing, and only after it had been boiled. I carried in a ball-aching 4 litres of good drinking water from Sulphury Gill.
I was somewhat amazed that we had AT to ourselves from pitch to strike - one pair of wildcampers did pass our pitch in the evening, but they carried on up to Satura Crag (which is where I wanted to pitch, but Chris over-ruled me). Mind you, AT was noisy - the place was overrun with geese which didn’t stop fighting or shagging all night!
The pitch at Swarth Beck was a chance find - sheltered, a good water supply, and a flat turf platform to pitch on. It’s a shame that it’s directly on the path (we didn’t notice this in the dark). Luckily, nobody passed by while we were there.
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