Heading back down the road we walked until we reached the gate by the main road. Through the gate and into the woods and a really nice way to start a walk. The path wound its way between trees and over small streams, coming out into areas of no trees and then back into the woods again, I thought it was very nice!

I led the way along here surprised that John and Sarah seemed to be taking their time; I would have thought that they would have been eager to get to the start of the Gill but they did not seem to be in any rush. Fair enough so I slowed down and then let them past me. It turned out that they were in deep conversation. It was already turning out to be one of those days that we spent chatting a way whilst we walk. John told us a fascinating story about the Williamson Tunnels in Liverpool ; this story went on all the way until we reached the end of the path and joined a track that led towards the end of the woods and the start of Birkside Gill.

Even though it was not exactly warm John decided that he was too warm and started to strip off his jacket leaving him with just a tee shirt. Sarah and me looked up at Birkside Gill while he did this trying to thing of an interesting way up the first series of waterfalls from the footbridge. For the most part it looked like it was going to be a case of walking on the grassy bits between the rocks at first as there was a fair amount of water coming down the gill. We headed upwards leaving John to catch up. I decided that this walking on grass thing was a bit too timid for me so I edged into the gill and tried to follow it as near as possible to the water. I knew that I found this hard work and Sarah seemed to struggle as well, but it was fun!

Very soon after we started to climb up a slab that was very slippy, and had water on two sides. This slowed me down as I concentrated on trying to find a safe way up. By safe I mean a way up that would not end up in me slipping and falling into the water and getting my new camera wet. I did not mind the slip and the water bit but getting my new camera wet was out of the question! This section seemed to take ages and we eventually had to retreat down and to the left slightly instead of carrying on straight up, but we did try! After this little episode a new pattern developed with the three of us going slightly different ways up the gill. Sarah was having problems with her boots and did not feel that they had enough grip, so she tended to keep away from any dodgy looking rocks. John was once again in his element always trying, and mainly succeeding, in finding the hardest way possible whilst I tended to be somewhere between the two, oh the joys of walking up gills!

This pattern of walking our own way continued on for a while. As we made our way up it felt really good to be here, I kept looking back down the gill and ever so slowly I got that feeling of height again. We seemed to be making slow progress today, but what was the rush anyway! We soon came across a large waterfall that would have been great fun to climb up if only the amount of water coming down was less. This got me to thinking two things. 1) Why do we always seem to try and go up gills after it has been raining for weeks on end and 2) What would it be like if we had a wet suits or something, how much fun would that be! These thought did nothing to help us up past the waterfall so it was a case of using the grass and bracken to claw our way up and past them, still fun though!

By now I was ready for something to eat and drink. We had not seemed to get far but what we had climbed up was steep and after the large waterfall the gill eased in gradient, what better place to stop for a break. I was the only one who actually ate anything. I also took the opportunity to play about with the camera a bit, zooming in on an opening on the side of Steel Fell, it looked like an old mine opening or something but was too small and too far away for a good photo. I was therefore surprised to see an old mine working just further up the gill once we set off walking again.

The temptation was strong to go and have a bit of an exploration but I have mislaid my head torch somewhere in the building site that I call home. Besides we had hills to climb! Not far past this old mine we came across an area that was covered over by some steel meshing, there appeared to be an opening below, I guess it must be AW's “old copper mine” shown on Dollywaggon Pike 6. It might have stopped sheep from dropping into it but I don't think that a sheep could have escaped from the steel mesh without a broken leg, ouch! With the gradient of the gill much easier now it was easy to make our way upwards. I found it to be really easy, stopping every now and again to check on the next few minutes of clambering over the rocks and boulders. John and Sarah did not seem to be as impressed as me but to coin a phrase I was “Lovin it!” Crossing from one side to the other we seemed to make much quicker progress upwards. The weather was changing all the time now, one minute we would feel the sun break out from the cloud and the next it would disappear and the wind would pick up making it feel cold, John was still in his tee shirt feeling too hot in spite of the wind.

For some reason I still felt as if I was in “solitary fell walking” mode, I was leading the way still “Lovin it” but John and Sarah seemed to be taking much more time than they would normally. It all came down to Sarah's boots. They did not feel like they offered much grip and they seemed to have grown causing Sarah's feet to move about causing pain in her heel. This was the main reason why she preferred to walk out of the gill on the grass, but this was causing problems for her as well.

Eventually we came across a gill that came down on the right. Whilst I had been leading the way upwards John and Sarah had been discussing alternatives to continuing up the gill. Sarah was suffering with her feet and wanted to escape from the gill and start to head upwards in a straight line so as to prevent the problems with her ankles and heels. I have to admit that I wanted to continue on up the gill while John was agreeing with Sarah. We checked out the map and I explained about the steep grassy stuff that we would have to walk on if we left the gill. As a result we carried on a bit until we came across another gill that led up to the right.

This time it was a case of a group decision. Sarah felt that it would help her feet if we left the gill and it would give us a chance to walk side by side and talk instead of being in single file up the gill. I wanted to carry on, I felt that it would be hard work out of the gill and whilst in the gill we would be sheltered from the wind which had now picked up. John looked at the map and thought that leaving the gill would be better. We had reached an impasse. I restated my reasons for staying in the gill and John explained his reasons for following the new gill and heading up away from Birkside Gill. With the score at 1-1 I left the decision up to Sarah, isn't democracy a wonderful thing! Sarah opted for the option of leaving the gill, and so we turned our backs on Birkside Gill and headed up the much smaller gill to our right, I was thinking that this would not last for long before we reached the open fell side and the hard work on the grass.

Within a few minutes I was confused! I thought the idea was to all walk together up the steep grassy stuff and not in a gill. Sarah was walking up the side of the new gill whilst John was making his way straight up the gill. I was behind them both and sort of torn between who to follow. John looked at me and noticed my indecision; he said something about being a chicken as he went straight up a long steep section. John had taken a few minutes to find his way up this section and for some reason I took his words as a bit of a challenge and decided to follow him instead of Sarah. I have to admit that I took much longer than John's few minutes and eventually made my way up a different way to John. This was the best bit so far but I did feel right at my limit as far as scrambling goes. The handholds were loose and I managed to pull a few bits of rock down into the gill before I managed to join John at the top, scary stuff!

Once past the scary bit the gill narrowed and turned into a really fun bit. I gave John my old camera and after a few bits of “operator error” he managed to get a photo of me. This bit was fun; the gill had managed to erode itself about six feet below the surface level but only about three feet wide. This meant that we could walk upwards by grabbing onto various bits of vegetation whilst our feet struggled for some grip below the water of the gill. Difficult at first but once we got the hang of it great fun! The only down side to all of this fun was the sight of Sarah sat above us looking really fed up! Eventually the gill came to an end and whilst I decided to escape and make my way up the steep grassy stuff John stayed in it until the bitter end. This meant that we all ended up in different places after the gill, it took a while for us to all get back together and then it was time for John's lunch break.

Now that we were out of the gill the wind that I had predicted made its presence felt. Looking upwards we were confronted with a slope that led upwards into the clouds. Away to our left John spotted some walkers on a path heading down. This was the path down to Wythburn that I planned for the return. I did feel tempted to head over that way and use the path but that would have meant going back into and out of Birkside Gill, no thanks. Whilst John had his hot soup, just the right weather for some hot soup, I checked out the map. I was not exactly sure where about's on the side of Dollywaggon Pike we were but any way upwards would leads us to the main path that runs from Grisedale Tarn to Helvellyn, we could not miss that path! Me and Sarah decided to start upwards while John finished off his lunch. I thought that this would be a good idea as it would give me and Sarah a chance to gain some height before John caught us up and raced past us, John did not seem too pleased though! It was hard going up here, no paths and that awful uneven ankle breaking tussocks of grass. When John caught us up he started to tell us a story about an ex work colleague that he had bumped into recently. I will never think of a Jacuzzi in the same way again, nice one Mike! This really helped us get up this part of the walk; it took our mind off the monotony of it all. Sarah had to stop and apply some plasters to her heels now, her boots had really hurt her feet, I had the same problem last week when I wore my boots for the first time in ages. When I mentioned that the path down would be steep in places she felt happy, something to do with the boots only hurting on the way up, if only my boots acted in the same way! I was not looking forwards to getting back down.

Eventually the gradient started to ease and we started to come across large amounts of rocks. These seemed much easier to walk up and with the decrease in gradient I started to look around and enjoy myself more. Not that there was a lot to see as we were now in the cloud and the wind was picking up! We came across the big path that I was waiting for; it came as a bit of a relief after all the walking up the grass moorland of Willie Wife Moor, what sort of a name is that anyway! Reaching this path seemed like reaching civilization again after a long time away from it, a very strange feeling I thought, but at least I knew that the walking would be easier from now on. Carrying on straight past the path we continued upwards and soon a cairn became visible through the mist.

As we reached the cairn the wind really increased, it was blowing a gale! Just past the cairn was a very steep drop and we guessed that we had reached the top of Dollywaggon Pike. John decided it was time to put on some extra layers of clothing now and I can't blame him, the wind was making it feel very cold. As he did this I took a few photos and decided that I needed my fleece on under my jacket. Due to the very poor visibility I took out my GPS and tried to figure out if where we thought we were was actually where we were! GPS in one hand and map in the other with the wind trying to blow everything over into Grisedale this was hard work. I have to admit that I was not 100% sure, I was 100% sure that I needed to put on my gloves and hat now though! Looking around us it did seem to be down in every direction, a sure sign that you are at a summit, so we decided that we were at Dollywaggon Pike summit after all and started to head away to the left and the next target of Nethermost Pike. It was only once that I had plugged the GPS into my PC at home that I realized that we could have actually missed out on the proper summit after all! There was me thinking that John must have known something that I did not, it turned out that we had followed AW's route on page 6 without really knowing it. I knew it was too good to be true.

Heading away from Dollywaggon Pike summit I felt really warm and content. Hat, gloves, fleece and jacket all made me feel that the elements could not spoil my walk. We followed a faint track along the edge of the ridge and eventually came across the much bigger path that we had crossed before. This passed by one of the steep gully's that led down into nothingness below, if only the cloud was not here I know we would have had some fantastic views! After only a few minutes on the main path we started to follow a smaller path that led upwards. Initially this was quite steep and with the weather conditions it was a case of head down and get on with it. The gradient decreased and we found ourselves on a wide plateau that led ever so slightly upwards. Due to the wind conversation was impossible; I had my hat on and also the hood of my jacket over it and firmly fastened so if anyone had been talking I would not have been able to hear them anyway! Because of this I kept having to stop and look around to check that John and Sarah were still with me, a strange thing when you can not hear people walking even if they are right behind you!

John managed to see something appear out of the mist, he shouted to us something about seeing “a cairn over there!” our spirits rose slightly thinking that this was the summit of Nethermost Pike. Sitting down behind the large cairn trying to stay out of the wind, I again checked the map and GPS and was pretty sure that this was not Nethermost Pike but the “cairn” above High Crag that was marked on the OS map. I guess John was right again! I thought that this was quite funny now, not only had John and Sarah navigated us via an AW route that I did not realize was happening at the time but John had also now correctly identified “a cairn”, I suppose it must have been the altitude making me laugh!

Having decided that we were not where we wanted to be, we set off again. Visibility was terrible but the walking was easy. I have to admit to really enjoying this section, it was really nice to walk along something nearly level, the wind and poor visibility did try and put a downer on things but we all had the right clothing on and I was still feeling really warm. I was thinking things about being prepared, having the right equipment, and being ready for bad weather was a good way of still enjoying a high level walk even if the weather was trying its best to ruin our walk. Then it started to rain, oh well! I still had my normal trousers on that were still damp from the Gill but until now they did not seem to be a problem. Just about the time when I realized it was time to put on my waterproof trousers we reached the cairn at Nethermost Pike summit. I then had a fun filled few minutes as I tried to get my waterproof trousers on, it was really hard work! That coupled with trying to take a few photos and the rain increasing finally began to put a dampener on things for me.

Because my new camera has a big lens it seemed to attract rain drops on it so I reverted to my old camera again. Once this had taken a timed photo I tried to find somewhere on my body that I could place both cameras so as to stop them getting wet. The ideal place would have been inside the waterproof inner of my rucksack, but that would have been too easy. I ended up with my new camera hung around my neck but under a fleece and waterproof jacket and my old camera in my map pocket of the jacket, where it usually stays. I somehow knew that this would cause problems later. The rain was coming in sideways now and we had a decision to make, carry on to Helvellyn or find the Wythburn path and head back down. With the weather the way it was and John and Sarah wondering why I would want to carry on to Helvellyn as we have already “bagged” it, the decision was easy and we started to look for the path down. I am going to have to have words with John and Sarah and try and explain that just because we have already done a summit once……….

We followed a faint path that led in the general direction of where we wanted and soon came across the main path. Walking along this the wind dropped and I told John and Sarah to be on the lookout for a path that joined this, sort of running parallel to it. We soon found this path and with a glance towards where I thought Helvellyn must be I said goodbye to it for today, maybe next time! We now seemed to be walking directly into the wind and rain and as the path we were walking on actually seemed to gain height I was getting a bit concerned that we might be following the main path back to Grisedale Tarn. I stopped and consulted the map, very difficult in these conditions but I have learned the lessons of getting lost in poor visibility before and I wanted to be 100% sure before we carried on any longer! I was not 100% sure and decided that we would carry on for a few minutes before checking again, it made sense to me! Sure enough after a few minutes the path changed direction and started to head downhill. This was a relief but a short lived one as the moment I had been dreading happened again. Sarah had trouble with her boots on the walk up and sure enough now it was my turn on the way down!

Even thought this path down to Wythburn was one of those professionally remade ones that somehow resembles an old roman road in the way it is constructed and as such easy to walk on my toes started killing me once again! This resulted in me being left way behind. Sarah eventually noticed that I was missing and waited for me, she is so kind! As we got lower we eventually got below the cloud level and I decided that I needed to stop for a while to ease my feet problems. At least we had a view over Thirlemere now, well perhaps half a view as the rain and cloud kept competing to see which could annoy us the most! One thing that I will remember about this path is the sense of height above Thirlemere, we still had a long way to descend, my feet could not wait!

As we came across a large cairn that marked what could have been a lovely view somewhere near Comb Crag the path turned into one of those horrible remade stony step paths. Now we had to watch every step of the way, always worried about slipping, I HATE these paths! John had stopped and was asking me to check out my camera zoom on something he had spotted. He thought it was a Kestral, to me it looked like a lump of rock but sure enough when I looked at the image back home it was indeed a bird of some sort! Back to the path then. We all took turns in having a go about the path now, it alternated between the horrible slippy law suite stones and the nice remade path. I found it really hard work and could not manage to think about anything else but how I would love to spend some time explaining the difference between a “good” path and a “bad” path to the people responsible, 5 minutes is all I need, somewhere dark and quiet and preferably without any witnesses is all I ask! I see the need to repair paths, how some people might see them as scars on the landscape and the need to prevent further erosion, I really do! But to just carefully place these stones in a way guaranteed to injure people is criminal and they (whoever they is!) should not be allowed to get away with it!

Rant and Path Rage over with!

I am calm now, well I was until I tried to take a photo only to find both cameras suffering from condensation! It was a shame really because this part of the walk was nice, apart from the rain and the path but you can't have everything can you! The path made its way down by the side of some woods and then down into the woods. It was still raining but we could sense the end of the walk approaching, not soon enough for me the way my feet were feeling! John seemed to like the being in the woods thing, something about the smell, Sarah was just waiting for that glimpse of the car and I just wanted it to be over! So when we arrived back at the car everyone was happy, and all for different reasons, good planning again I think! We arrived just in time to see the last car leave the car park after the church service which made me feel a bit guilty, but not for too long. I was soaked, every thing was wet and as soon as we got dried and changed into dry clothes my feet returned to normal, how frustrating is that! It must be my boots because after a summer of pain free feet the first two walk I do back in my boots means pain, bring back summer all is forgiven!

It was too early to think about stopping at a pub for some food and Sarah wanted to try and get back early so we just got in the car and drove. As soon as we reached the bottom of Dunmail Raise we hit the traffic. From here all the way to Kendal was a case of being stuck in a line of traffic crawling along, argh! This was one of the reasons that we started doing walks on a Saturday, or was it that we were just driving through Grasmere , Ambleside and Windermere and joining the crowds of people that thought it was fun to sit in traffic all day and look at the clouds covering the fell tops! By the time we reached Staveley I had enough and fell asleep.

Sarah thought it would be fun to take a photo of me snoring but as the camera was still suffering from condensation it did not do me justice, never mind that camera never lies stuff!

The traffic was horrendous and John decided to take all his frustration out on any driver who approached us with their front fog lamps on by flashing them. It was amazing how often he did this. Why do people insist on having their fog lamps on when it rains slightly! This kept John busy for quite a while. By the time we reached the M6 he was so obsessed with flashing people that he nearly drove into the back of a wagon, I was glad that I was half asleep! Traffic was just as bad on the M6 and I decided that getting off at Lancaster and using the A6 was in order, this was just as bad and I should have known better! Getting back to Preston I headed home to cook something out of the freezer while John and Sarah stopped off at a Kentucky, we all had chicken but their's must have been quicker!

This walk made us realize a few things that I have to list

1. Walking in cloud is pointless, you don't see anything and might end up missing your objective.
2. Walking on a Sunday means Sunday drivers and Sunday traffic jams.
3. My boots hurt my feet.
4. John has got great eyesight.
5. I hate remade paths that comprise of steps
6. I really hate remade paths that comprise of steps
7. I really, really, hate remade paths that comprise of steps
8. I really, really, really hate remade paths that comprise of steps
9. I really, really, really, really, hate remade paths that comprise of steps
10. I really, really, really, really, really hate remade paths that comprise of steps