In amongst the crowds on the Pike.

[Guinessman]

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Saturday morning saw a trip over to Seathwaite in the Lakes. I had considered a Friday overnighter as well but the forecast put me off . Driving down towards Seathwaite around 9am I was surprised at how far back towards Seatoller the vehicles were parked as I thought with the school holidays gone and the move into autumn that the numbers would die down. Suited and booted it was nearly a mile walk down to the farm to start the track. As I was walking I saw several flags flying for a cancer charity walk so I assumed that may the reason for the extra traffic.Continued along the track to the bridge then up the start towards Styhead tarn. I was carrying 10kg and as always when carrying a heavier weight than normal the first 1/2 hr uphill always takes it out of me. After that I seem to settle down. Got to the tarn and took a break and had a little amusement at some walkers who were quite clearly using their phones only for navigation. I had seen them walking up towards Styhead and then after consulting the phone walk straight on in the direction of Wasdale only to reappear 10 minutes later doubling back and then take the track up to Sprinkling.. I walked on up to Sprinkling and then instead of going to Esk Hause took the track that short cuts to the Scafell track, then cutting over to Great end first.From there I could see the amounts of people on top of Scafell Pike with trails of people going up and down to the summit. I was going that way anyway so it was onwards towards it.On the way passed a lot of the charity hike, some spoke, most didn't and then it was onto Scafell Pike itself where i reckon there were around 150 people on the top at any one time. I didn't hang around long walking down towards Mickledore. On the way down I felt a pain on a knee injury that I,m desperate to sort as I,m in the Cairngorms at the end of the month so it was on with a thermal bandage for the rest of the day

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From Mickledore a path can be accessed that takes you to Lords rake but its poor, steep and initially on well worn shale before you get onto a decent path that takes you into the mouth of Lords rake. I hadn't been here for 7 years and had my westie with me at the time. The surface is loose and I find it best to put the walking pole away and where I can use either wall on the sides to aid progress. Got up to the fallen chock stone fairly easily and then down and up before the final slope and up onto Scafell. From there it was a descent to Slight Side looking for a descent path that drops down from Long Green area but failing to find it from above so it was onto Slight Side and then following a track that isn't on the maps down through the crags initially in a south direction and then SE before dropping down to moorland and over to the Great moss where to my annoyance I saw that a herd of cattle had the best spots for camping below Cam Spout waterfall so it was on a further mile upstream to camp overnight.

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It was a fairly pleasant morning on Sunday so I hung around until 9.30am to get everything dried out as the tent was full of condensation from the night before. From there it was the uphill path towards Esk Hause where at 10.45 there were only 6 people on the track compared to the procession the day before. From there it was the easy access up to Allen Crags and the walk across to Glaramara. From there I cut across NE to the top of Combe door and then across to Rosthwaite fell clambering up onto the large summit block before descending to Tarn at leaves and then a straight descent to The Combe seeing the newly laid hydro track as I descended. From there it was an easy track into Borrowdale and as the car was parked high up the lane I opted for the road walk to Seathwaite.
That,s 7 more wainwrights in the bag since I decided to do a second round.

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