1. Get some stunning shots of the early morning light which would display the autumn colours at their best.
2. To bag a couple of Wainwrights while we were there.
So as is usual we set off in what seems like the middle of the night and arrive at the car park before the day dawns. This morning it was a 7am arrival and it was just starting to get light but there was a carpet of mist everywhere with only glimpses of hills, trees, rivers and lakes through the murky dark and eerie mist. With any luck it wouldn't be long before the sun made an appearance and burned any lingering mist off to give us the views we'd hoped for today.
So off we went, in the direction of Rydal Water to set up and wait for what we hoped would be a glorious morning.
It wasnt long before the mist started to clear and light started to pour onto sections of the lake. Revealing, ever so slowly, the mountains in front and behind and as the strength in the light increased so did the vivid colours on the trees around us. Reds, oranges, greens, gold, bronze, copper.....every shimmering colour you could imagine and just stunning in the early morning. Its moments like this that I wish I had better equipment to work with as these scenes deserved more than my little bridge camera can offer. So I resigned myself to being photographers assistant and of course official photographer's photographer lol and if I get any that turn out then so be it. Perhaps Santa will bring me something bigger to play with !
We spent a couple of hours in several spots up and down the lake chasing the morning sun as it burst through the clouds in order to make the most of what light there was and after we'd exhausted every scene in front of us we headed towards the path that would take us to the first incline of the day accompanied by a very loud and angry sheep. On route we spotted a Heron nestling in the bank and looking poised and ready to catch a fish. Keeping ever so still we took the best images we could without disturbing the bird and moving ever closer in stealth mode we weren't entirely convinced it was real. It never moved, not a ruffle of feathers nor move of its head. The only indication was that it was real was it blinked a couple of times but as we moved closer it seems oblivious to our approach. Quietly tiptoeing towards it it soon became a challenge to see just how close we could get and that in fact proved to be just a few feet as finally when I was almost within touching distance it took of and flew majestically over the lake.
Back to the path we were on 1 of 3 possible paths that were heading in the direction we needed to go, however only 1 of these paths would take us upwards towards Loughrigg Fell. Compasses out, maps out and finally we knew that very soon we'd have to turn left. On finding the left hand path we were met with red and white tape across it. There were no other obvious routes upwards so we ducked under the tape and hoped that we werent going to be met with some unfortunate situation. The path climbed steadily and it was good to be heading upwards. The ferns around us were dark red in colour and all around signs of autumn were still with us. Looking back down we could clearly see the mass of trees in all their spendour and the sun was now gaining strength and warming the day nicely.
What do you do when you come to a Y in the path. Well you check the map, you check the compass and you choose the one that is going to take you to your destination using features on the landscape that match what is on your map. Take a compass bearing and head in the right direction. Or alternatively you can forget all your navigational skills training and choose a path that you think may be right without any concrete evidence that it is infact the right path........oops! So yes, thanks to my total disregard of any navigational training, I put us on the wrong path which meant we would be coming at Loughrigg from a completely different direction than we'd planned. Yes this meant wading through bog and unplanned routes to get us back to a path, not THE path, just A path that would lead us up the fell.
It was a pleasant route up once the bogs had been left behind and Windemere behind us offering beautiful and stunning views. Once we reached the top I spotted a cairn which I stupidly thought was the summit, forgetting that the summit had a trig.........so that'll be the summit over there then, the one with the trig on the top!!!.........good lord you'd think I'd never been up a hill before!!! The summit, onced reached was like Grand Central Station. People arriving from all directions and chattering about goodness knows what. I must say, I do like the mountain to ourselves but its the Lakes and I guess you have to share sometimes huh?
Lunch stop 1 done and dusted and it was time to venture down. A steep and stoney path which when wet was like ice. Slimey rocks meant every footstep was precarious and we both slipped a few times but nothing too disastrous, no broken bones or cameras, phew! It wasnt long before we could see the lakeside paths in front of us and we started to contemplate the next part of our walk.
First we walked along the south side of Grasmere water to the weir and then back along into the wooded area to meet with the road that would take us to the foot of Silver How, our next fell of the day. Loads of people. Some just out for a bimble, some just out for a stroll, families, older people, groups of young people, all enjoying their day, feeding the ducks, climbing fells or just having a Sunday stroll. We heard one of these people mention a cafe and suddenly the thought of a nice cup of tea and more importantly a toilet seemed like a good plan of action. So off we set along the road (10 mins the lady said) to find the cafe which turned out to be a shed on the lakeside serving their own blend of tea in lovely little china cups and in a tea pot that reminded me of the one my gran used to have. It was indeed a lovely moment, sitting at the waters edge, tea, chocolate cake, backpacks off and sun on our faces before tackling the next climb upwards.
Suitably refreshed we found the path that would take us up to Silver How. A rocky, muddy path which is what we expected to encounter after all the rain we'd had. Zig Zagging our way up the mountain side it was a pleasant climb with views of Grasmere behind us and the sun still beating down. Time for another layer to come off as between the effort needed to climb and the sun it was warm indeed. Onwards and upwards as my mother used to say in most situations and we just kept trudging on up the zig zag path until we were met with a cairn on our left hand side which meant we'd reached the summit.
Oh the views...........Northwards to the Crinkles and my beautiful Bowfell to the West was our previous walk route of The Old Man, Brim Fell, Wetherlam with Swirl Howe and Great Carrs nestling behind. All our beautiful mountains dappled in the afternoon sun. Happy Happy Happy me........
Time for lunchstop 2 and we had the summit to ourselves. Bliss, no incessant chatter, just the sounds of nothingness all around. (not 3 miles of nothingness but a good nothingness this time lol). It was a bit breezy on top so another layer added and then it was time to head back down but not before having a bit of Kendal Mint Cake. Why have I never tried this before? Its a bit like tablet but minty and white. I must make some tablet before our next walk as its an excellent energy booster even if it is all sugar. Everything in moderation!
Ready to tackle the route down it became quite apparent quite quickly that the map was sending us down on the same route we came up on however this is a circular walk with no detours (or should I say no unplanned detours!) and it was not possible that we would be descending on the route we came up on. According to the map we should have come onto the summit via the south path but we didnt we came on the North path which according to the GPS and map was no where near where we had walked up. I even doubted myself for a moment but was 100% sure this was the path we'd come up on. Did Kendal Mint Cake have hallucinogenic properties that I wasn't aware of?? Regardless of having been on it before or not this was the path down and it was only after a few mins or so and studying the map we realised that infact there was another path up and we'd missed the turning which would have brought us onto the summit on the South path and we'd skirted the summit and taken another path...........mystery solved, phew !
On the descent the sky was clearing of cloud and the late afternoon sun was pouring light down everywhere. Would we make it down before it disappeared. It was now a race against the sun whilst always taking care where we stepped through the rocky path to get back to the lake and hopefully some more spectacular scenes.
Back down into Grasmere and shops ! (LOL) with views of Helm Crag to the left and the lake to the right. Everywhere you looked from trees to wiggly walls the sun just hit them right to make them pop in the afternoon light. Once into Grasmere we followed the road round to the lake, dodging the blue rinse brigade wandering about the town. "The Scarborough of the Lakes".
Final lake pictures taken looking back to the hills climbed today and a little boat out on the water. We spotted a bird diving down into the water only to resurface some min's later quite far from where it ducked down. It was mesmerizing as it ducked down again but we never saw it resurface so either its still down there or it came back up out of sight.......who knows!
At the end of the lake we turned back into the forest onto the path that would lead us back to the car park. The light was incredible, through the golden trees it lit up the path and the red beech leaves carpeted the ground.
Once back at the car we offloaded back packs and took a quick walk back to Rydal Water where we hoped to get the last light of the day. Would the islands be illuminated as they were this morning. Sadly not as we got closer to them they were quite dull as the sun was just too low in the sky. It was worth a try and there were a couple of opportunities to get the last shot of the day and it was only a short walk back to the car. The the light is now fading fast it was the end of the day and the end of another fabulous walk.
Autumn is now very much with us and here's hoping we can have more dry bright days to come throughout Autumn and into winter when we'll welcome the snow and ice with much anticipated excitement. Every walk brings new adventures, memories to keep and very funny moments and all of them captured in pictures to be enjoyed for a long long time.
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