Wainwright's Way Stage 2


 

Walk 1 Windermere to Patterdale 29th June

We couldn’t have picked a worse day weather wise, as it rained almost all day and with very low cloud and mist there were hardly any views of the Lakeland landscape we were walking through which was a great shame. 

We set off from Windermere all togged up for the bad weather and we were soon standing on Orrest Head. From here we crossed farm land to join Longmire Road track which we followed up past the The Tongue. As we climbed steadily up the track to the ridge between Froswick and Thornthwaite Crag we were soon walking in thick cloud and mist so by now it was only the spirit of the group, not the views, that was keeping us all going.

We stopped for a quick lunch at Thornthwaite Crag beacon where it was so cold you would have thought we were walking in November not June!

From here we headed off to the trig point on High Street which we nearly missed due to the poor visibility!  We then crossed the Knott before dropping down to Angle Tarn where we bumped into a group walking the coast to coast on their way to Shap who had decided to turn back because of the bad weather conditions. We met them later in Patterdale to be told that they were getting a taxi to Shap as they had accommodation booked there that night. That story sums up the day for everyone walking in the Lakes that day. The one positive we can draw is that things must get better.

Ian

Photo's can be seen by clicking 'here'To see more photos click 'here' .

 

 

Walk 2 Patterdale to Grasmere 6th July

This was a much better day- it had to be! However, as we set off from Patterdale we could tell it was going to be a very warm and humid day and it certainly was, even though there was low cloud preventing full sunshine.

The day started well with a steep climb up to the summit of Birks where we stopped for our deserved elevenses. It was then on to St Sunday Crag. It was only when looking back that we realised how much we had dropped down off Birks before the climb up to the summit of St Sunday Crag: it was quite surprising.

From the summit we dropped down to Deepdale Hause then followed the path down to Grisdale Tarn where we stopped for a relaxing lunch. The cloud was now starting to clear so at last we did have some rewarding views.

After lunch we climbed up to Hause Gap from where it was all downhill back to Grasmere. This was a much more enjoyable day.

To see photos please click 'here' . To see what it looked like 2 days after when Shirley and Stan followed in the Group's slipstream click 'here'. 

Ian

 

 

 

Walk 3 Grasmere to Rosthwaite 13th July

With a good weather forecast in prospect 14 of us left Grasmere heading to Allan Bank and on to our first climb of the day, Silver How, although only 395m the views were quite impressive. Fortunately, the clouds were high as we continued on the sometimes indistinct path leading us to our second summit which was Blea Rigg at 530m. Continuing along the rdige for a few more hundred yards, Pavey Ark soon came into view rising above Stickle Tarn.

After finding our way down to the tarn we were faced with the rather daunting climb up North Rake and on to the top of Pavey Ark itself. Described in the Wainwright book as a grassy but steep way up, it is in fact a very steep rocky route which, for the shorter ones amongst us, entailed work with the hands as well as the feet. Eventually we made it to the top where we had our lunch break, not a long one as we had a bus to catch and a long way still to go.

Coming off Pavey Ark we made our way to Harrison Stickle with our final climb to Pike O' Stickle in view. The descent from Harrison Stickle was quite tricky as was the ascent of Pike O' Stickle from where we made our way over Martcrag Moor to the top of the Stake Pass which we reached about 30 mins later than expected. The final 5 miles were along The Cumbria Way, not the fastest of routes, so after 3 miles the faster ones in the group went ahead to ask the Mountain Goat bus driver if he would wait a few extra minutes for us. The rest of us got to Rosthwaite about 4.36 pm not too long after our scheduled time and when we checked our GPS's found we had done 13.8 miles with 3800' of ascent. To see the photos please press here.

Doreen

 

 

 

Walk 4: Rosthwaite to Buttermere 19th July

We couldn’t have wished for a better final day considering the weather forecast of thundery showers. It turned out to be a dry and comfortably warm day to our relief.

We set off from Rosthwaite on a pleasant path passing the youth hostel and we were soon walking through Seatoller.  It was from here where the climbing really began as we left the road and followed a rather steep path up to Honister House. Just before reaching the brow we stopped for a short refreshment break.

From Honister House we followed the Dismantled Tramway path to Dubs Quarry.   From here we then climbed up a well-defined path passing Blackbeck Tarn before reaching Innominate Tarn where Wainwright’s ashes a scattered.

We stopped here for lunch and a glass of wine! Glyn and Richard had carried up two bottles of wine (From Glyn’s vineyard) so we were able to toast both our success and Wainwright at this very fitting location. Once Hay Stacks was conquered we dropped down to Scarth Gap and followed the Scarth Gap Pass down to Gatesgarth. It was here where John kindly bought us all a coffee/tea before moving on to our destination, Buttermere.

So that’s Wainwright’s Way done. Blackburn to Buttermere walked in 9 days with each being very different and I hope everyone has enjoyed, as much as I have, this 126 mile journey.

Ian

To see the photos please press 'here'