2 Wainwrights achieved- Green Crag and Harter Fell

We decided that as today was another beautiful weekend day and the fells were likely to be busy, we would walk directly from the house again and avoid driving round trying to find somewhere to park. I’m enjoying this very much as it means we can be out of the house and walking by nine which is impossible for me normally. I am most definitely not a morning lark.

The hike started off along a track by a stream and the grass verges were full of daffodils. We wandered up a steep incline and marvelled at the views. There were a few clouds in the sky but they soon skittered away.

I was navigating today and it was a proper lesson in how much harder it is to lead a walk when the route consists of tracks rather than defined paths. We pottered along chatting for at least 10 minutes until S realised I was on the wrong track. We had to retrace our steps and then I struggled to find a defined path for our ascent on Green Crag. Luckily we found a nice spot beside a brook to have lunch to refuel.

Getting to Harter Fell was hard work. I’ve used the walk plotting app Outdooractive a lot and found it pretty good but today I couldn’t find the tracks it wanted us to follow. Away from the main peaks of the Lake District, many of the paths are little used and a sheep track looks the same as a narrow path.

Harter Fell is at the top of a very steep hill and we were both feeling it by then, but still had at least another 3 or 4 miles to go. It was at this point S decided to announce that he wanted to do another really long walk tomorrow as it would be good to know we can do 3 hard walks on the trot. I smothered the desire to tell him exactly what I thought of that idea and instead negotiated a day off on Tuesday when I intend to spend most of the day lying in bed.

The descent off Harter Fell was horrible. Gravel and slippy rocks, not what you need when your legs are tired. Shortly after, we wasted time wandering around a lumpy field trying to find a permissive path that no longer existed. Eventually S decided that we would blunder around no more and just walk along the goddamned road until we got back to Seathwaite. This proved an excellent idea as, spurred on by the thought of getting to the pub in time for beer, we sped walk the last couple of miles.

As Steve said, “beer makes everything better”. Indeed it does. As Wainwright said: “no man ever came down from the hills without feeling in some way refreshed, and the better for his experience.” I think S and W would have got on well.