Posts tagged 'Carrock Fell'

Northern Fells Wildcamping – Part 3 – Rises and Falls

Posted by on May 21st 2010 in Annual Wildie, Great Escapes, Lakes Escapes, LMAO!, Wildcamping

So there we were, on Carrock Fell, trying to figure out which way to go next. As I saw it, we had three options:

  • Stay up high - take in Knott and Great Calva, drop down to Skiddaw House, cross the Caldew dryshod at the bridge, head East up Mungrisdale Common;
  • Take a middling route - ascend Knott, drop down Snab, ford the Caldew, head South up Mungrisdale Common;
  • Take a direct route - descend the flank of Carrock Fell to the bottom of Grainsgill Beck, follow the Skiddaw House service-road to the base of Snab and then proceed as per the middling option.

Predictably we couldn't agree, so we delayed the decision and took a short-cut back to the bothy-shed, where we made a brew and reassessed the situation.

Chris didn't fancy slogging up Knott and Great Calva, and I'd been up them before, so we resigned ourselves to backtracking down the beck and fording the Caldew at some convenient point. At least I had the opportunity to grab some pics on the way down, and we met a couple of walkers heading up the Cumbria Way. These were the first folk that we'd met, and by strange coincidence the bloke worked for the same company as Chris, albeit in the Netherlands not the UK. A bit later on we met another bloke sweating his way up the beck, we didn't chat for long as he seemed intent on gaining the ridge. Anyway, back to the beck pics...

 

Falls in Grainsgill Beck

A beautiful watersmeet

Passing the old mines, we decided to read the sign that we'd disregarded on the way up:

Don't disturb the rocks!

 

On reaching the Caldew we walked along the service-road looking for a place to ford the river. I was dismayed to find this stash of empties at the side of the road - FFS, if some twats have gone to the trouble of driving all the way up there for a session on the vodka, it wouldn't have been much extra effort to have taken their empties back down in the same car, would it? These lazy inconsiderate arseholes should be banned from the fells, IMHO. If we'd been heading down, we'd have carried the rubbish out, but we had to leave it.

 

Evidence of arseholes

 

Shortly after that we found a suitable fording-place. I rock-hopped to the middle and balanced on a slippery flat rock, looking for the next dry step, but there was none. With a quick two-step in the calf-deep water I was soon on the far bank, with damp boots and socks but no other ill-effects. I warned Chris about the slippery rock and advised an alternative, but she stepped on it anyway and it got the better of her. In slow-motion she leaned too far, her pack dragged her over even more and she ended up lying in the water. She was fairly-well drenched. I didn't dare to laugh. OK, OK, so I did laugh. Lots. And loud. Being a decent, caring sort of chap, I raced off downstream to retrieve the dropped water-filter bottle and left Chris to find her own way to dry land. She was wet but uninjured, so we sat in the warm breeze and had lunch while she dried herself and her kit. Oh, and we laughed a bit more, just for good measure:

Chris drying off

We were at the bottom end of Long Gill, and looking at the map we figured that the best thing to do was to go straight up to Bowscale Fell. Redressed and fit to go, we had one last look up the Caldew towards Skiddaw House. A bit further up the river we could see something that looked like a bridge, and Chris gave me some stick based on that impression. Luckily for my reputation, subsequent investigations indicate that there isn't really a bridge at that point, so the soaking wasn't in vain:

 

Looking up the Caldew

The walk up to Bowscale Fell was a real hard slog with no paths through the tussock-grass and mossy ground on the unremitting slope. Over an hour later we reached the top:

Chris approaching the viewpoint cairn near the top of Bowscale Fell

Bannerdale Crags and Blencathra from Bowscale Fell

A rare picture of me

From there the next objective was a rather more easy proposition, with gentle paths skirting the drop-off and leading up to Bannerdale Crags:

Bannerdale Crags

The view from the edge of the crags was worth the effort:

The viewpoint cairn on Bannerdale Crags

Blencathra beyond the summit of Bannerdale Crags

From there it was a simple and straight descent to the col at the source of the Glenderamackin...

 

Heading for the col

and onwards to a nice dry pitch on the north-west side of the col, looking down Blackhazel Beck.

Pitched above Blackhazel Beck

 

After another good meal and a lot of rehydration, Chris settled down early while I went out for an easy evening stroll to the cairn atop Mungrisdale Common:

Approaching the Mungrisdale Common cairn, with Skiddaw in the background

The back of Blencathra from Mungrisdale Common

Losing the light

After spending a while there appreciating the utter quietness of the place, I headed back to the tent, pondering the fact that we'd only seen three other walkers during the day. I was hoping for a sunset worthy of our efforts, but this was the best that could be mustered:

 

The sun setting over Great Calva

To be continued.

Northern Fells Wildcamping – Part 2 – On The Caldbeck Fells

Posted by on May 20th 2010 in Annual Wildie, Great Escapes, Lakes Escapes, Wildcamping

After a good night's sleep in very windy conditions we woke fairly early to find that the weather was still cold, breezy and drizzly. The views down to the valley were good but intermittent:

 

Morning clag

Great Lingy Hill bothy-hut from the first pitch

We had a hearty breakfast and packed away sharpish. After pausing for a photo-opportunity near the bothy-hut...

The bothy-hut

 

we branched off the Cumbria Way and took the easy approach to High Pike:

 

Chris starts up towards High Pike


Chris huddled in the shelter, staying out of the icy wind...

High Pike shelter and summit

while I wandered off to take some pics of the fell and its surroundings:

 

Carrock Fell from High Pike

High Pike trig-point, cairn and memorial bench

The Bench, in memory of Mick Lewis
The inscription reads:
HE IS A PORTION OF THAT LOVLINESS THAT ONCE HE MADE MORE LOVELY

The next objective was Carrock Fell. We descended to the Cumbria Way and skirted the top of the Drygill ravines...

Drygill ravines

where we got our first glimpse of Bowscale Tarn overlooked by its guard of impressive crags:

Bowscale Fell and Tarn from High Pike

After a slog along the wide ridge, taking in Miton Hill and Round Knott, we arrived at Carrock Fell's summit. It's an impressive place with extensive views in most directions, well-worth a visit:

Carrock Fell summit cairn

Skiddaw and its subordinates from Carrock Fell

We dropped back down to Round Knott and had a discussion about our next course of action. We wanted to walk the fells on the other side of the Caldew, but there were a few ways of getting there. There was much procrastination...


The descent from Carrock Fell


To be continued.

Northern Fells Wildcamping – Part 1 – The walk-in

Posted by on May 19th 2010 in Annual Wildie, Great Escapes, Lakes Escapes, Wildcamping

After the long drag up the M6 we nipped into The Mill Inn at Mungrisdale for a swift beer before parking the car at the road-side overlooking Bowscale Moss (my thanks go to Karl Holden for suggesting this parking-place). After escaping from the marauding locals that insisted on trying to bite chunks out of our kit, we hoisted our packs and set off along the pleasant country road, passing through Bowscale and on towards Mosedale.

 

Chris fends off the pack-munching livestock

On the approach to Mosedale we got our first decent view of one of our objectives - Carrock Fell:

Carrock Fell above Mosedale

After looking at the fell and considering the weather forecast, we decided to change the plan of attack - instead of tackling Carrock Fell head-on and overnighting somewhere between there and High Pike, we opted for the longer walk-in along the valley of the Caldew and up Grainsgill Beck towards Great Lingy Hill. We knew that this would add considerably to our mileage and would mean that there would be much ground to be travelled twice, but we wanted to be near to running water all the way, and we knew that the ridge from Carrock Fell onwards would be dry. As it turned out the walk-in was a pleasant affair with much to see:

The view up the Caldew valley...

where the gorse was in full bloom...

and the trees lean away from the prevailing wind.

We saw plenty of butterflies (Green-veined White (Pieris napi), female, first brood?)...

and a Red Squirrel that ran the full length of the wall from Swineside to Roundhouse.
Mouseover the pic for an edited version.

Remember what you were told about checking for dead sheep when drinking from streams?

We did 🙂

There are many interesting rocks in the bed of the river, here's one that appealed to my geological side:

Fold 1

Fold 2

A while later we reached the bend in the road where it heads off westwards to Skiddaw House, and we ascended alongside Grainsgill Beck until we reached the ridge. After much searching we found a patch of dry level ground and pitched there for the night, within sight of the bothy-shed (formerly a shooting-box) on Great Lingy Hill, within 10 yards of the Cumbria Way and 10 yards west of the beck (so as not to be breaking the law which prohibits camping on the Caldbeck Fells). Shortly after getting set up the weather took a turn for the worse as the wind got up and the rain set in, but we were warm and snug in our "room with a view". During one odd clear spell we thought that we could make out two people at the bothy-hut, but we couldn't be sure. Anyway, here's a couple of pics taken a few minutes before the clag came down:

 

 

To be continued.