We came to an overflowing stream that came down the fell side, Willygrass Gill. John and myself walked straight across while Sarah gingerly followed as she is not convinced that her boots are still waterproof. This was after we had just been talking about boots and waterproofs and other gear, spooky!
I asked Sarah for the map as I wanted to check on the way forwards but she did not have it. She thought I was joking and that I had it but I can remember putting her in charge of navigating and entrusting her with the map. No map and no AW book as I have misplaced that as well, oops! With no reference material at hand it was going to be one of those suck it and see walks, oh well!
By now we had been walking for about half an hour. Its hard work walking fast when there is so much news to catch up on, even a 2 hour car drive was not enough time so it was slow walking as we chatted away. I felt great being out and about again, Stonethwaite is situated in such a lovely position and the valley with Eagle Crag dominating the sky line was fantastic, even the rain could not put a dampener on how I was feeling!
Not long after this we crossed a footbridge over Greenup Gill and headed towards a small rather disused looking stile over a fence. There was a path that followed the Gill but it soon disappeared. Now we just followed the fence line until another stile over a fence and then we had the steep grassy sloes leading up to Eagle Crag in front of us. As there did not seem to be any sign of a path in this field we decided to head along the fence line towards a wall that led upwards, perhaps there was path on the other side, having no map was becoming a bind!
On the other side of the wall there was only faint signs of a path heading upwards so with nothing to loose up we went. The faint signs soon disappeared and we were walking up through young ferns. Another few weeks and this will be shoulder high and impenetrable. I found this hard work. In all I had to stop 3 times on the way up to the gap between Eagle Crag and Bleak How, the point we were aiming for. Since returning to work full time I have to admit to struggling with the exercise regime. When me and John walked around Gordale Scar and Malham Cove I felt fit and even walked past people struggling up Gordale Scar thinking “that was me a while ago”. Now with more pressure on time I was reverting to type and felt really slow and lethargic. I must get out more during the evenings now! Thankfully John and Sarah took pity on me and even pretended to be having a serious discussion as they stood there allowing me to walk past them and get to the top of the slope first, thanks for that!
The way forward from a rickety old stile was just fantastic. We were walking below some crags that looked like they could offer hours of fun on a dry day and John commented on how the area looked like a Japanese garden with all the rock formations and small trees growing out of them.
We had found a proper path again and made our way steeply upwards. The rain kept coming and still it could not put me off. This was a great little place. After a while we came across a small gully that led upwards. A small section of scrambling was just what we needed before we came out above the gully and onto a strange piece of landscape.
When I say strange I mean that it turned out to be weird walking up here. There was a series of terraces that led upwards. At first we just thought that it was like any other rocky fell side but soon we realized that this was different. Me and my thoughts were bringing up the rear (and I was having lots of them!) walking along a path when I saw John and Sarah's boots pass me at head height going in the other direction. I looked up and saw that they were walking along a terrace slightly higher than the one I was on. When this happened a second and then a third time I had to stop and laugh. It was like walking back and forth up a disabled entrance ramp! If the rain had not been keeping our heads down so much we would have just scrambled straight upwards and cut about half a mile of zigging and zagging out! We found it quite amusing!
John said that this was the sort of place that he would love to return to in sunny warm weather. As I write this account John has told me that he has since returned and climbed Eagle Crag in such weather conditions. He spent ages exploring the various nooks and cranny's that Eagle Crag has to offer, taking great delight in all the undulations and mounds on the ground. He said that it was one of the very best experiences he has ever had on the Fells, I know that I can be quite flowery about describing some of the walks and fells but listening to John it was as if he was describing a sexual experience, perhaps he should write up the next walk!
With Sergeants Crag visible through the rain and the fun terraces I really liked this place. Soon the summit area of Eagle Crag came into view and John decided that he would try out some scrambling. Me and Sarah just made our way up to the top. Ever since I was lying in my hospital bed back in January I had been thinking about this moment. As I reached the top of Eagle Crag I began to feel really emotional, in fact Sarah nearly saw a grown man cry! It did not matter that Eagle Crag was not very high, it did not matter that it was raining and we could not see as far as the next valley, the very fact that I was on top of something in the Lake District just made me feel fantastic. All the miles of walking on the flat, the hours in the gym, the changes in lifestyle all seemed to come together now. This was something that I love doing and something that at times I thought I would never do again. I had to walk away from Sarah and spend a few minutes getting myself into some semblance of normality. John came up to join us after giving up his scrambling in disgust, the rock was just too wet.
I could have just sat there in the rain for hours thinking deep thoughts about life the universe and everything. Eagle Crag was a fantastic view point even today in poor weather but I don't think that John or Sarah would agree to just sitting there in the rain watching me think! Trying to snap out of my feeling of self importance I took a photo of the 3 of us and then we headed off towards Sergeant's Crag.
The walk over to Sergeant's crag took half an hour, it was an easy stroll that just seemed to take care of its self as far as route finding goes. There was one awkward moment as we headed from Eagle Crag where a wall started at a small outcrop. Sarah seemed to find it awkward getting down. The rest of the walk over was accompanied with John talking about himself and things that have been happening to him lately. This was unusual as John is normally reserved when it comes to talking about himself, not today!
We were so engrossed in John's story that the ground just seemed to disappear beneath us as we walked. The weather helped in this as we were still accompanied by drizzle and low cloud and apart from an interesting glimpse of the head of Langstrath there was not much to see.
Sergeant's Crag summit appeared and while John and Sarah sat out of the wind I went for a bit of a wander around. The wind had picked up and I just stood overlooking Langstrath taking in the view down into the valley. This was another thing that I had been missing, the wind playing with you! It was great to be there, the wind making you stumble and struggle to keep your balance, I really need to get out more!
I rejoined the others and took the photos. Sarah was sat down in front of me and appears not to be there in the summit photo but she was there honest!
A few more photos and it was time to leave. A while ago I might have thought about walking a bit further but time was pressing and what was the point anyway, we had ticked off a few more summits and with the rain I think we just wanted to get to the pub now!
We retraced our steps back towards Eagle Crag, I knew that we were retracing our route because Sarah felt totally lost! She always feels like that when we reverse direction. Without a map and AW book I was not sure of any paths off Sergeant's Crag but I knew that there was a path on both sides of the river in Langstrath and a path on the other side of Greenup Gill. After a while and a short discussion we headed towards the Greenup side, this lasted all of 5 minutes as the ground looked quite boggy so we reverted to the back to Eagle Crag plan.
As we neared the start of the uphill section we thought that a direct way across the face of Eagle Crag would be a better idea than going all the way up again. We should be able to contour around and pick up the weird zig zag terraces again, wrong! A series of crags barred the way and we found ourselves being forced downwards. John went forwards to scout out the lay of the land and as he was heading downhill rapidly I think we all realized that once we started on this course we would not be retracing our steps again here! The only worry was that it was a convex slope and we could not really see what was ahead. John soon shouted back up that it looked like a fun way down, here we go again then!
The gentle grassy slopes soon gave way to a very steep grassy slope, not good when the grass is wet! This led us into the head of a gully and even steeper ground. John's eyes lit up and he went down hill faster than a rolling stone. Sarah and myself followed at a more sedate pace. The grass soon gave way to heather and even steeper ground. By now we were in the gully and we invented a new sport on the way down, “heather abseiling”! This involved walking backwards down the gully using heather instead of a rope. At times it was a case of holding on to a clump of heather with both hands and lowering yourself to your knees, then forcing your legs down behind you hoping that sometimes soon your feet would find someplace to rest safely. When this did not happen in was a case of hand over hand on the “rope” or in this case heather until your feet found solid ground, or a root! It was great fun even if it was a little hair raising! Eventually the heather ran out and the gully opened out onto the fells side above Langstrath.
For John this was the best part of the day. Unfortunately as the gully was high up on the fell side we still had a rather large distance to get down to the valley floor. After a while this really started to annoy me as I could see the path down there and I wanted to be there now! It really was hard going down the steep slope, grass interspersed with slippy rocks and boulders. I have noticed this before, my enjoyment of a part of a walk is inversely proportional to John's enjoyment of it. Sometimes we can all agree that we are having fun at others we are poles apart, The more I looked at the smile on his face the more annoyed I got! I think the main reason that I wanted to be down there on the path was so that I could stop, have a drink, and rearrange my clothing. As my nearly waterproof over trousers are worse than ever I had that lovely feeling of wet walking trousers steadily heading southwards. Result being walking trousers around my hips instead of my waist and being wet, causing each step to be like walking knee deep in mud! My builders bum would have been something to behold if it was not for my imitation waterproofs covering up my modesty! Sarah was the same apparently, I mean struggling to walk with wet trousers, not the builders bum! John, meanwhile was oblivious to all of this as he was bone dry under is Berghaus trousers!
As soon as we reached the path I managed to rearrange my clothing and have my drink. The soon to be prosecuted under the Trades Description Act waterproof trousers got hung from the back of my rucksack and my soaking wet walking trousers got pulled up, boy how comfy did I feel now! Even though it was still drizzling slightly my trousers started to dry out and I felt much better than a few minutes ago. We now made good time back along the path towards Stonethwaite. As my luck would have it the weather started to clear up and the last mile or so was a delight. The view up to Eagle Crag got better all the time, the water level in the river made that interesting and after crossing a footbridge the path alongside the river and through the campsite was a nice end to any walk.
So that was that, my first venture onto the Lakeland Fells since my heart attack. I felt great, my feet hurt but I expect that now and apart from the weather it had been about as good a return as I could have hoped for. There was only one thing left to do now and that was visit our favorite after walk pub the Cross Keys in Tebay. After much deliberation over the menu I had the steak pie and chips much to John's amusement, I had really struggled with the healthier option choice but you know what it's like when you have been thinking about something for ever and ever and ever, at least I ate all of my veg as well!
As a footnote to this walk I would like to write a few words about John. On occasions John thinks that I give him a hard time or describe him in a bad light when I write up these walks, there is never any intention to do that. I want to put it on record that John is a superstar. I always seem to struggle face to face so I want to thank him for all his support and help over the last 6 months. He visited me in hospital, came to see me during my recovery and joined me on recuperative walks and pub lunches (I still owe you for that!) He kept my spirits up when I was down and pulled me back down when I was getting too big for my boots. When things go wrong you find out who your mates are and John is without a doubt a mate. Sarah was the same and I would like to thank her as well.
There has been noticeable difference in John during the last few weeks and although I would love to share the reasons for it with everyone I am not going to. Suffice it to say that I have never known him so full of life, so happy and carefree. Both Sarah and myself have noticed this and both of us are really chuffed by recent events. Its about time that a good bloke got a bit of good luck, and I think he has. He deserves it.
Eagle Crag is going to hold fond memories for both of us for different reasons, but I just want to say thank you for everything and it is heart warming to see the difference in you, I hope it all works out.