A free weekend!! Absolutely no plans whatsoever, and a fantastic weather forecast, what is one to do? Derr – no brainer of course. Book the YHA and off to the Lakes we go…
So Saturday morning, the ‘morning after the night before’ awaking to a left over kebab and a mouth that’s just been sandblasted is never pleasant. However, several coffees, and the bag was packed, we were good to go.
 |
| Kebab remains - yum |
By the way, when we say “we”, I actually just mean “me”. This was another one of those ‘finding yourself’ weekends whilst trying to stave off insanity being in my own company.
Arriving at Patterdale YHA at lunchtime, the first cheese and onion slice of the weekend was scoffed (well it saved carrying it) and Place Fell was the days target. The rough route in mind, was something like this, but as ever with the Saturday mini walk, the only target in mind was a minor Wainwright, and we would make it up after that.
 |
| Patterdale YHA |
Nonetheless, despite having no food to carry, the rucksack still felt reasonably heavy, with the temperature in the low 20’s, additional fluids were definitely required.
So off and up the hill, which is conveniently right behind the youth hostel, a steady climb with a lovely view down to Ullswater. The temperature was that warm that you could hear cicadas chirruping in the undergrowth, it was like being in Greece Lake District that we have grown to know and love? Whacky.
 |
| Looking back towards Ullswater |
Up and up the path went, plenty of people about and by sticking to that painfully slow, yet steady pace, I was overtaking people in their droves. I had a wry smile, as it seems like only yesterday I too was one of those people I was overtaking, with that stop / start mentality. It felt good. (for now!).
 |
| Motorway of a path to the top |
Once on top of Place Fell, things started to go a bit ‘free form’, no real plan from now on, and most people seemed to be heading off in a Northerly direction along the main path. So, West for me then! Besides, by going West (to coin a phrase) it meant I could bag another Wainwright, The Knight.
 |
| Place Fell Summit |
It was whilst en-route to The Knight, I realised, “wait a minute, its only , I cant check into YHA until , and I don’t want to make the same mistake of getting accidentally pissed in the pubs all afternoon (again)”. A rare luxury indeed, time, not to mention the fantastic views and the utter peace. No one about, so the top came off and time for a ‘little lie down’. Lovely.
 |
| The Knight |
 |
| Views down to Glenridding |
 |
| My bog finding record remains unblemished. |
Half an hour or so later, I continued over the bumps and lumps over-looking Ullswater to the final lump of the day, Birk Fell. It was here, I vaguely remember that the route (as previously mentioned), took a “path” directly off the fell down towards the lake. I also forgot that the same route had mentioned, and I quote… “The descent I used to get to the lakeside path was 'interesting' and not recommended” Hmm, hindsight’s a wonderful thing.
 |
| Steep slope |
Eff me, this was a mistake, an incredibly steep slope, which starts as bracken hiding mossy rocks, then goes through gorse, followed by an overgrown wooded area with ravines before finally hitting the main path that runs alongside Ullswater.
 |
| First bracken |
 |
| Then Gorse |
 |
| Wooded Ravine (just about the see the path below now, thank f*ck) |
 |
| ow ow ow |
It took ages to get down, and not without one or two “moments”. I could have kissed the tarmac (well gravel), by the time I was down.
 |
| The long and winding path |
It was also a surprisingly long trudge along the lakeside path back to the Hostel. By now it was , so I checked in and dumped the bags and went off in search of the highlights of Patterdale (all 2 pubs). It was still hot, so a long cool pint in the beer garden was bob on.
 |
| Pub No 1 |
 |
| Beer garden and Place Fell |
It was here that I had a good study of the map, to try and work out what that “path” was all about…
Yes dear readers, you’ve got it, I followed a ‘Civil Parish Boundary
Back at the hostel it was chaos, Young kids running riot everywhere. Good chaos. It was great! YHA’s can be like morgues, full of strange looking blokes on their own (rapists) with strange social habits (says me), so it was a refreshing change.
The only downside to all this busy-ness, was I couldn’t get into the self catering kitchen until late, so was starving and half pissed by the time I could eat. That just about did me in, so was flat out asleep for .
 |
| My bed for the night |
So Sunday morning soon came round and after a raw crumpet (toaster was toasted), I was out on the fells for . The peace of the place at this time on a sunny day was magnificent. Wildlife was everywhere and a badger just stopped and stared at me from just 6 feet away. The lake was flat calm. Surreal.
So today’s plan was something like this , but again nothing definite as there was so many options once St Sunday Crag was done. St Sunday Crag was the main objective, having liked the look of it on a previous walk.
 |
| A new dawn, a new start |
 |
| Pub No 2 from previous night (had wifi) |
First fell of the day was Birks, and after a little bit of backtracking to get to the cairn (the cairn isn’t on the true summit) it was over the undulating ridge for the steep climb up to St Sunday Crag….
 |
| All is still |
 |
| Birks (Place Fell in background) |
It was here that the previous days feeling of fitness evaporated, despite the ‘plod’, I still had to repeatedly stop and start, and although I was beating myself up at the time for lack of fitness, I think looking back, the previous days adventures had taken more out of me than I thought. To cap all that, two fellas came striding past me, chatting away, as if the hill didn’t even exist. They told me they were doing the entire parish boundary of Patterdale, which was basically a circumnavigation of every hill I could see on the horizon. Impressive. As they strode off, I could overhear them talking about the “regiment”, so felt a bit better for that, but nonetheless it left me a little deflated. They were out of sight within minutes.
 |
| St Sunday Crag |
So after an arduous climb up to the top of St Sunday Crag, I forced myself to take on some energy drink and flapjack and decide what to do next. The next hill in succession, was Cofa Pike….
 |
| Cofa Pike with Fairfield behind |
… Shall I climb all the way up there then? Nah. It was getting seriously warm again now, and Grisedale Tarn below looked seriously inviting, not only that the timings looked about right for it to coincide with lunchtime. So it was down through Deepdale Hause (great path) to the tarn.
 |
| Looking back to St Sunday Crag |
 |
| Grisedale Tarn and lunch! |
It was here that I had one of those “why do I enjoy this?” moments, yes the effort can be satisfying, but at the end of the day, to be in surroundings like this on a glorious sunny day, why kill yourself? I was here to enjoy it, not to just plod up and down for the sake of it. So sod it, decision made, I’m going nowhere. Top off (again), boots off, and a mega long lunch by the lake (cheese and onion slice number 2), I was there a good hour before even thinking about heading back.
The route back is a straightforward path down Grisedale valley itself, plenty of tourists and DofE’rs, (“is it far to the tarn mate”) all the way down. Took a while though, and we didn’t hit the car until 1 ½ hours later. So out about 5 ½ hours in total.
 |
| Outward Bound hut |
 |
| The path to home |
The CAMRA 2010 pub of choice this time was The Watermill, has its own brewery in the pub. V good.
Summits: 5 (4 Wainwrights)
Pubs: 3 (1 CAMRA 2010)
________________________
Decided. Everyone needs a target in life, or else it becomes like a pencil with no lead..... pointless. I’m 41 now (nearly), have done 44 Wainwright's over the last 2 or 3 years. 214 in total. So, let me announce it officially to the world (well, all 2 of you), I’m going to get them ALL done by the time I’m 50.
So that’s, 9 years, 170 to do, 1.6 Wainwright per month. I’ve done 4 just this weekend, it cant be that hard a target surely?......
