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Patterdale Church - Side Farm - Boredale Hause - Angletarn Pikes - Angle Tarn - Satura Crag - Rest Dodd - The Nab - Satura Crag - Angle Tarn - Boredale Hause - Side Farm - Patterdale Church
Finally, a weekend that promises a bit of sunshine for the Lakes so I took a Friday morning off work and although Damson and I got up a bit later than we had planned, we were prepped and ready to go !
We set off at about 10:30 from home arriving in Patterdale just over an hour later due to holiday traffic throwing the car onto the grass banking opposite Patterdale Church.
The start of the walk took us down the road to the Old School before heading down the track road to Side Farm.
Pressing on through the farm we headed right and at the gates turned left through another gate to find the base of the Boredale Hause track.
Ordinarily this is fairly easy as it keeps a constant gradient all the way but the added heat factor from the sun made for slower progress and several people were finding it hard work.
Panorama view from Boredale Hause ascent
Panorama view from Boredale Hause (from Kirstone Pass to Sheffield Pike)
Crossing straight across the Hause and taking the right hand path led us around the front of the pikes to a point where we glimpsed our first sight of the tarn. Here we took a small grass path back on ourselves heading upwards to our left and a straight path up to the most northerly of the 2 pikes.
Fantastic views back to Place Fell & Ullswater were captured from here as we watched our fellow walkers plodding up the tracks behind us (including a young lad and his mum who were tacklng the C2C - good luck to you both)
Place Fell & Ullswater from Angletarn Pikes
A hop across to the southerly summit overlooked Angle Tarn and gave us sight of the rest of our route up to Rest Dodd and onto The Nab.
Angle Tarn from Angletarn Pikes
Damson on Angletarn Pikes summit
Brothers Water and surrounding fells from Angletarn Pikes
Dropping down from the Pikes, we headed for Angle Tarn and took a few minutes taking in its cooling air.
Angletarn Pikes from Angle Tarn
Pushing on we rounded Satura Crag and took the route towards Rest Dodd which actually heads to the left onto a small grass plateau before tackling the last steep section to the summit (looks more direct on map).
Rest Dodd is a very appropriate name as the heat was beginning to sap our energy reserves.
We dropped down to the north off a very steep section and down to the wall sectioning the deer sanctuary covering the ridge out to The Nab and surrounding valleys. Deer breeding season starts around September to February and this area can be restricted during those times. Today it wasn't a problem but the ridge is full of sunken bogs and large stretches on mud which made for slow progress. This mixed with a large volume of bugs made this a fell to be bagged and then escaped, coming back the way we came upto the boundary wall.
Rest Dodd round to Angletarn Pikes from The Nab
Damson on The Nab
Damson on The Nab with Rest Dodd in background
Rather than climbing back up to Rest Dodd, we followed the wall to our right heading back for Satura Crag.
The sun had traversed round the side of Rest Dodd at this time and was bouncing off the fells banks and the wall making this section comparable to walking in an oven. I was only managing 20 meters or so at a time before having to stop to draw breath and wipe the gallons of sweat pouring down my face.
After making it out of this cauldron, we made our way back to Angle Tarn where I went for a fifteen minute rest by the water side whilst Damson, who was also suffering with the heat at this point decided a nice paddle about in the water was the better use of time. Had there been no-one around I might well have joined her, but there were 2 tents already erected there now and leaving me wishing I'd brought mine. We came back the way we'd gone and finished off every drop of liquid we'd taken.
I now look like I've spent the last 2 weeks abroad as fell walking gives you a great tan (in the correct weather of course
).
A few beers and some pop soon helped us recover once home.
Not much happening today (Saturday) but potential for another day out tomorrow if the weather holds.