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With it being my 30th birthday this weekend I was keen to cram in as much as possible. This involved football on the Friday night, the Man Utd lunchtime kick off on Saturday, a few pints Saturday night and then a days fishing on the Sunday. This left little time for a walk unless I got up early Saturday and hit something fairly close to home with a fairly short ascent.
After looking at the map the closest unclimbed Hewitt I could find was the bulky (it's not actually that high) Baugh Fell and the ascent from just past Sedbergh looked fairly quick and straightforward. I was fortunate enough to have my Dad (giving his pursuit of the Wainwrights a rest for the week) with me for this walk.
The only disadvantage of this plan meant that I was fairly certain that the early start would see us miss out on the forecast better weather across the area and indeed this proved true with most of the ascent done in misty, windy conditions.
After an hours drive to Sedbergh, we started the walk along farm land before joining the waterway of Ringing Keld Cutter which followed the line of the fence upwards along the ridge.
- On a farm track
- Following Ringing Keld Cutter
Following the waterway proved to be a pleasant enough way of gaining height with the fence always to your right to make sure that you don't lose your way. Baugh Fell is not somewhere you would want to get lost on in bad weather but the presence of the wall/fence is a sure fire way to the summit and makes navigation easy.
Once we left the waterway behind there was a short, steep pull onto the summit ridge itself which we made more difficult by following a direct pathless line as I didn't see the faint zig zagged track that would have made progress simpler.
From here it was an easy wander alongside the wall to the Trig Point on Knoutberry Haw - a top 2m short of the main summit of the fell but probably taken by most to be the top.
- Trig on Knoutberry Haw
I was aware that the true summit of the fell was a bit further along the ridge and as it was simply a case of following the wall I decided to carry on. I'd heard that Baugh Fell was quite a boggy walk and it was between the two summits that I began to encounter some wet ground although it was all manageable with a bit of care and not even close to being on the same level as my wander in the North Pennines a few weeks ago!
The top of Tarn Rigg Hill was quite unspectacular marked by a few stones and as the thick mist was still in, I didn't linger long and started heading back the way I came meeting my Dad back at the Trig who had wisely decided that the boggy ridge walk wasn't for him!
- Top of Tarn Rigg Hill
Once a bit of height was lost the better weather started to arrive and the mist gradually disappeared to leave hazy views back to the summit and to the nearby Howgills. We arrived back at the car at 11am giving us plenty of time to get home for the match!
- Mist clearing on Baugh Fell
- Hazy Howgills
