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I had signed up for the Scottish Hills Lake District meet, and then thinking that it would be embarrassing if my legs fell off in company decided to drive down on the Wednesday and have a couple of days walking before the meet itself.
March 24th 2022 The DoddsR and I had already climbed the path from Legburthwaite and turned south for the hills leading to Helvellyan, so it was easy enough to find the path again and this time turn north for the Dodds.
I only have one photo for the day that I saved as a Weather Watcher Editor's Pick.It is just past the first steep pull up, but there was still a bit of steepness to come. I had left my camera behind and as there was no signal to send off more WW picctures, I deleted them.
A large family went quickly past me, and then had a long sit-down: a pattern which repeated itself until we said goodbye at the Sticks Pass. here I had my sandwich and then turned to climb Stybarrow Dodd. Then Watson's Dod, and finally Great Dodd. There was no need to go on to Clough Head as R and I had already struggled up it at the tail end of 2019, the last Wainwright he had summited
http://www.scottishhills.com/html/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=24735&highlight=clough+headI came back the same way, and although my knees were feeling it, my legs hadn't fallen off.
March 25th 2022. Wainwrights near SkiddawI parked my car in the Dodd Wood car park north of Keswick and set off on a footpath north through the wood
Emerging the other end, I got a view of Bassenthwaite Lake
The climbing then started and it was a steep pull up to Ullock Pike
I met Alan Castle (of Relative Hiils) who was sitting down for a drink and who kindly took my photo. Circling round with hill small talk, I guess it was a score-draw. I had done more Marilyns, but he had done the Wainwrights. On the other hand he probably has more years of bagging in him.
Next came Long Side, and then Carl Side. Here I met a couple whose 30 year old daughter has had Long Covid since the start of the pandemic and seems in the same sort of state as Jaxter.
I found a path that eventually entered the wood again,but not before I had met mountain bikers carryimg their bikes up Skidaw for the SECOND time that day.
We had a meal in Wetherspoons that evening which was VERY noisy. Hils was so disappointed in the size of her portion that she ordered a pizza for pudding, but they had ruined it with some sort of sweet sauce and she felt so bad the next day that she drove off to look for a Covid test and got one of the few remaining free ones in Cockermouth, Keswick having been cleared out. (She didn't have it.)
March 26th 2022The next day most of the others lead by Adrian went looking for Eagles Crag and a whole portmanteau of hills along the ridge near there. Tessa (aka goth_angel) and I headed for Hartside, so I have some of her photos as well as mine. We parked at the end of the little road past Dockray where we were lucky to find a space. It was very, VERY boggy to start with.
Still wrestling with my new smart phone. [Today, I gave up and went pack to the shop where he showed me a better way of getting a photo regardless of the state of the screen or my fingers]
The bog has gone, so here are tussocks
Looking across to the Dodds of Day 1.
Either it was a warmer day than I thought, or I was having a harder time keeping up with Tessa than I thought
It was good having someone to walk with for a change.
March 27th 2022Today my plan had been to walk across the "front" of Whiteside, then climb up Hopegill head, across to Whiteside and then down.
That was foiled by the fact that I just couldn't pull myself up the side of the watwerfall, even with the help of a young couple who came after me
So I turned round and walked back up the path to the bridge at the bottom of Whiteside
The ascent of Whiteside got steeper and more scrambly. As usual, everyone overtook me.
I was puzzled by the cairn here, and by a couple telling me this was the Wainwright, but I managed to get reception enough to read that the Wainwright was lower than some of the rest of the ridge
I wasn't keen on going back the same way, so took a path that lead me almost to the back of the hill
It was a long walk back to the car park where mine was almost the last car
Glad to report that my legs are still attached to the rest of me. Sorry to report that I seem to have adopted the pace of an octogenarian. Well, I suppose that can't be helped,