Arriving at the car park near Blea Tarn and having to pay £3.50 for the privilege we got ready for the walk. On previous trips along this road I had noticed signs of a gill that came down to near Bleatarn House. I thought that it might offer a sporting way up so we headed back along the road to see if this was true or not. As we walked along the road we were treated to the sight of the Langdale Pikes behind Side Pike. Unfortunately for most of the time the tops were covered in cloud, it was one of those days, overcast with lower areas of clouds and slightly cool, what did we expect the weather to be in January?
We left the road and headed up the stream, Sam was let of his lead and led the way excitedly upwards and then back down to us and back upwards again with the exuberance that only a young dog can have!
He was loving it, unfortunately he was the only one as the stream had no rock or anything worth scrambling up, we soon took the decision to head out of the gill and find the proper path that ran alongside it.
I was disappointed in this as I had hoped that our first walk of the year would give us a bit of fun, but then again we had to try it out to see if it was any good. We seemed to take an age to make the decision as some of our most memorable scrambles had been in gills like this that did not seem so great at the start.
As it happened we came out of the gill just above a wall and only a few yards away the proper path led upwards. For me this was a time for head down and get on with it as the path was quite steep. Sam spent his time tooing and frowing upwards, in my opinion he is getting better at this as he never did go too far away and always stopped at certain distance to ensure we were following the right way, Sam’s way! I still think that John has a different opinion, but then again John is used to Jack Russels, whose legs are not long enough for them to get too far away!.
The path was quite eroded in places and the large black bags of stones for the path repairers lay smack bang in the middle of some of the more eroded areas causing us to detour around them and so increase erosion until the path fairy’s get to work here, how does that work then? Not long after this section the gradient eased and we halted for a refreshment break. We all found a convenient place to park our bums and with the thought of our last lunch stop on a walk when Sarah introduced Sam to Quavers I was pleased to find Sam sat down next to me and not begging food of the others, mind you John had positioned himself quite a distance away and Sarah who was not eating anything was a bit nearer! Over the last few months I have developed a liking for hot soup when walking, today’s was Curried Parsnip and it was with a bit of trepidation that I tried it out, I did have some ham and tomato sandwiches as a backup but one taste of the soup and I was hooked! Sam had the sandwiches (hope there was not too much mustard on them for Sam’s liking) and I just could not leave the soup alone! The flask had kept it warm but once inside me I was feeling very hot and spicy, moorish is the word!
Once suitably refreshed we headed upwards once more. Looking back down over Blea Tarn it was surprising how high up it felt, we did not seem to have gained much height but it looked as if we had, my sort of hill this ! Now I cannot remember what we had been talking about up to here but now I brought up the subject of smelly feet. My new computer room seems to have been infected with a strange sweaty feet sort of smell and I cant work out whether it is from me or my daughter, this conversation did not last too long as Sarah does not “do” feet! Right then change of subject required as we reached a few trees and lost some height as we walked into a hollow that must have been the upper reaches of the gully that we had first walked up.
We had to cross a fence and as we could see sheep on the other side Sam went back onto his lead. The path followed a wall that led straight up towards the summit. In places it was quite eroded. Sarah took Sam’s lead and I thought that with him pulling away it would make life a bit easier for Sarah as she was pulled up the path, I don’t think she saw it like that though! One more fence to cross that Sam was able to crawl under and we were at the summit of Lingmoor Fell.
Lingmoor Fell seemed like one of the easiest Wainwright summits that we have so far visited, it seemed to take a surprisingly short time to get here, but the views around us seemed better than we expected, apart from the clouds that hid most of the others fells that is! To the south the Coniston Fells were hidden in cloud but to the north the Langdale Pikes drifted in and out of the cloud. I had two goes at taking a group photo, either it is lack of practise at taking these timed shots or the fact that John would not “pose” until after I had pressed the button ! The results mean a bad photo but at least we got one as I had forgotten to charge up batteries for the cameras before I left home, another feeling of lack of preparation due to lack of practise! This resulted in swapping cameras all the time as irritating messages about “change the battery pack” sort of alternated between each camera, they must belong to the same union!
Although both myself and Sarah needed to back home early time was still on our side so we had the chance to do my little excursion down to Side Pike and hopefully find something interesting there before walking back around Blea Tarn and back to the car.
We then enjoyed a leisurely descent of Lingmoor Fells north western ridge down to Side Pike. For me this was the highlight of the walk, this ridge was fantastic walking as we followed the path along side the wall. Every where there where signs of new growth in the plant life, something that I commented on to the others only to be told that they had just been discussing this for the last five minutes, oh well ! I have found myself doing this more and more lately, subconsciously listening to a conversation without really taking part in it and then starting the whole thing off again as if it never happened , perhaps this is the first sign of senility, and it probably is in my case!
The ridge was a series of rocky outcrops that the path either went over or around. As Sam was once again back on his lead I had to backtrack a couple of times and find an easier way around rocky bits as John and Sarah took a direct line, with Sam on his lead, even though he has a harness that is supposed to prevent him from pulling, any steep descent can cause difficulties for whoever has the other end of the lead as Sam is very eager in places like this and can quite easily pull you in a direction that you might not be ready for i.e. straight down a steep bit! Like I have said this walk along the ridge was very enjoyable, for some reason it reminded me of certain paths in the north western fells, the last big drop involved a zig zag path that made easy a very steep descent. Once past that it was a flat easy walk along grass to the foot of Side Pike.
We could see a few people on the top of Side Pike and hopefully before too long we would be joining them up there. Stood below the vertical crag that reared above us John seemed impressed. At least 50 or 60 feet (that’s at least 15000 of those metric things for the younger people reading!) of vertical fun. If we had the time, if the rock was dry, then perhaps we could have spent some time trying it out, maybe next time! It would have been interesting but my idea today was to walk around via the Squeeze. I can find no reference to it in AW’s books but there are plenty of web sites with photos of it, by chance Januarys Trail magazine
As I was unsure what lay on the other side I kept calling Sam back, luckily he did stop on the other side and stood looking at my efforts at negotiating it. I had to take my rucksack off and hand it to Sarah before managing to squeeze through. As I was halfway through I was able to see that Sam was waiting on a small patch of ground with a rather large drop beside it. As he kept turning round and wanting to be off I was having kittens at the thought of him tripping or falling, before Sam came along I used to worry about John and Sarah, sorry guys you can look after yourselves now, Sam is daft enough to make me worry about him now! Needless to say once I managed to get through Sarah and then John quickly joined me. Looking back I think I was the only one that needed to remove a rucksack to get through, I can’t make my mind up if that is because my rucksack is so big with food and rations for man and dog plus emergency equipment for us all or that my waist line still needs attention, oh well!
Once past the squeeze a little path led around the rather large drop and suddenly we had a full length view of Mickleden and the Langdale Pikes. In a few short steps the drop by our side disappeared and we were on a gently sloping fell side again. We stopped to admire the view and John commented on the fact that the squeeze was interesting but it hadn’t lasted long had it, very true!
Unfortunately our brief stop to admire the view had given Sam the opportunity to see something he was interested in, a sheep! Off he went out of view and despite loud shouts for him to come back he didn’t. Sarah took it upon herself to chase after him. Luckily she caught up with him perched on an outcrop of rock looking down at the rapidly disappearing sheep. No one was impressed and Sam was back on his lead. This sort of put a dampener on things and the short walk up to the top of Side Pike was decided against, we decided just to head back to the car, thanks a lot Sam!
The steep descent back down to the road was hard work due to Sam pulling on his lead. Normally it would have been interesting but being attached to a dog that wanted to run down hill, it was no fun at all, in fact I felt in danger most of the time as I wanted to watch where I placed my feet instead of being pulled downwards by a four legged beast that was much more sure footed than me! This descent was one of those that gets you thinking "there are much more downs than ups on this walk!" The descent seemed to go on for ever when compared to the time it took us to climb up.
Once safely down and across the road we all agreed that there was no sign of any sheep so it was safe to let Sam off the lead again, that was until a lady fell runner accompanied by a Border Collie came running up to us. Sam as usual was his own friendly self and lay on the ground with his tail wagging away when he met the Collie. The introductions and ritual backside smelling over with the Collie took exception to Sam and went for him. With a slight amount of blood appearing above his Sam’s eye the Collie and its owner ran off, Mmmmm! With Sam on the lead he now did an impression of the worlds strongest man pulling a double decker bus as he furiously pulled me along intent on saying hello again to the collie, or was it revenge he wanted! This was again hard work for me and I soon called a halt at some nice looking (for sitting on) boulders for a coffee break and the chance for Sam to forget about chasing Collies!
After a few minutes break and some coffee we headed off again on the path around Blea Tarn. Sam was off the lead and all was well once again until we came across a sheep carcass. Sam was just stood there looking at it, I was thankful that he did not help himself to some dinner! The path led through a wood as it reached Blea Tarn and Sam went swimming! A lovely path then lead us around Blea Tarn and back to the car, Sam re introduced himself to a couple who we had seen in the car park at the start of the walk who had been enjoying a nice picnic until the arrival of Sam, oh dear! The last leg of the walk back to the car gave perhaps the best photo opportunity of the day, the sun at last broke through the cloud and lit up the Langdale Pikes in all their glory.
We had an uneventful journey back south. Sarah was in time for her trip to the hospital to visit her uncle and I was in time for a nice bath before the night out for the friends birthday bash.
Lingmoor Fell was a nice introduction walk to 2006. It was easy and the ridge walk down to Side Pike is a little gem. The only thing that worry’s me is Sam and how John and Sarah regard walking with him. To me he has fast become a best mate, he gets me out walking every day and keeps me fit, it’s only fair that he gets to enjoy the walks that all that “training” does for me, I know that sometimes he is a handful and causes worry’s and concerns but I am working on it, honest! Perhaps the next walk I will plan something with a bit of scrambling in it so I have no choice but to leave Sam at home. I will miss him but I don’t want to upset John and Sarah, well no more than normal!
And a final word about the night out. One year on and I was looking forward to a night out instead of a stay in hospital! A meal had been arranged in a local pub that does live music. Listening to the groups warm up and I thought it was going to be one of those nights. After the meal and a few beers things got better. Half way into the evening and they played “knocking on heavens door” and I began to think about how surreal all this was, after all I do think too much! One year ago I was indeed “knocking on heavens door” After that song it was as if they had read my mind and dredged all of my favourite songs out of it. “I fought the law” by the Clash, “Teenage Kicks” by the Undertones, Greenday, Oasis, U2, Thin Lizzy, it just went on and on. I soon got the pints of Guinness into double figures and was in my own personal heaven! Every one in our party looked at me in amusement as I rocked away, little did they know all of the weird and wonderful thoughts that I was having about events exactly one year ago!
Needless to say I awoke the next morning feeling terrible, but at least it was a step up from waking up next to an 80 year old bloke in the bed next to you saying “ Bye ‘eck. You’re a bit young to be in here aren’t you !”
Indeed I was, but Mr 80 year old........... look what I am back doing now!