Lank Rigg, Crag Fell and Grike

[nigheandonn]

The closing of Cockermouth hostel has disarranged all my plans for the west - all this year the standard plan was supposed to be train to Penrith, bus to Cockermouth for the night, and early morning bus to Whitehaven. Still, Carlisle didn't make too bad an alternative from a practical point of view, with the 7:35 Whitehaven train leaving me only half an hour behind where I would have been.

The other problem was that I still really wasn't fit for walking - I'd spent three weeks of March floored by a neverending bug, barely fit to creep to the bus stop, and although I'd woken up a week before suddenly better, and had made it out for a bit of a walk the previous weekend, I knew I wasn't at anything like full strength. At least the hills were quite small.

I'd left it slightly too late to get breakfast in Carlisle, so my quarter of an hour in Whitehaven was spent finding Greggs to get a bacon roll and a cup of tea. I quite liked what I saw of the place - it's a bit run down, as so many seaside places are (and especially at this time of year), but it seems to be hanging on to its own character. I especially liked the mosaics in the pedestrian street.

Whitehaven mosaics

From Whitehaven the bus took me on a confusing winding route uphill, and then through more obviously industrial places to the far end of Cleator Moor - it didn't look much like the Lake District, but just round the corner the first hills were showing ahead.

At Wath Bridge the Ehen seemed to be well over its banks - it hadn't rained very much in Edinburgh, but I remembered seeing that it was forecast to rain heavily all through Thursday down here, and it looked like it had.

Wath bridge

I was starting my journey in the Outlying Fells, and turned to the right from the bridge to find the forest track running from Black How up to Dent. It was a grey damp morning, and although I'd talked about going to the Lakes in daffodil time they didn't look as cheerful as they might have done.

Bedraggled daffodils

None of the Dent path is marked as a right of way, but it was well signposted, first up the forest road and then along a very wet path until I suddenly came to a 'path closed' sign. It was obvious, though, that everyone else had just turned directly uphill from the sign to bypass the closed place, so I did the same, up through a long straight gap between the trees to come out at a collection of fences and old gateposts, and head up onto the hillside.

Out of the forest

The first summit of Dent is well marked, with a big old cairn and a big new cairn, a memorial to a young man from Cleator Moor.

Dent Wainwright summit

The real highest point, though, is over the other side of the hill, and not very obvious - flat with very tufty grass, so that it's hard to be sure if anywhere really is higher. The cairn by the path probably wasn't the highest of the spots I tried, but it'll do.

Dent Marilyn summit

From here the path leads down through cleared woodland with tiny new trees growing and out again, before suddenly dropping sharply to the tiny valley leading to Nannycatch Gate, and a stream spreading over its banks and almost drowning the tiny bridges. This was a dramatic landscape even though on a very small scale, and it was odd to see that I had smooth farmland in front of me again at a higher level, before the land rose to the bigger hills.

Tiny valley, Nannycatch Gate

From Nannycatch Gate, with its Coast to Coast sign pointing away from the main path, I climbed steeply up the corner of Flat Fell on a very slippery path - or more often beside it, where I could get a better grip. The top of the hill lived up to its name better.

Flat fell summit

I had intended to go down by the northeastern corner, but discovered that although I didn't mind walking past one horse, I wasn't nearly brave enough to walk through maybe a dozen horses roaming free! So I backtracked to come down onto the track further back - it didn't actually take me along beside the fence, I discovered, but it did take me well below the horses. A short climb then brought me out onto the Coldfell Road, which again had looked quite improbable when seen from the hills.

I backtracked slightly to find Kinniside stone circle - whether it's real or not. I had imagined something slightly more imposing, though.

Kinniside stone circle

The turnoff for Lank rigg was a mile or so up the road, and started off as a good broad track, although very wet in places - later on there was a choice of at least two rival tracks, although it was never very obvious which one was best. The tops of the hills were still in and out of the clouds, but the lower hills at least never seemed to stay there for very long, and the weather was looking slightly more hopeful.

Approaching Lank Rigg

The first stream crossing was just an upstream detour and a bit of a jump, the second, of the Calder itself, was a bit more of a challenge, with the usual stepping stones partly under water, and the narrower places higher up holding a very disconcerting rush of water. I decided not to risk slipping and went for a barefoot crossing, which seemed to amuse a group coming down from Whoap, but as one of them slipped and went in to the ankle despite having poles and helpers on either side, I think I was right. Anyway, my socks were already so wet from boggy places that wringing them out and putting them back onto wet feet actually made me drier!

I decided to stick to the valley rather than going up over Whoap, which I would have to cross on the way back anyway - the first part was scattered with stones, but further in it was just rough grass and boggy places.

Long valley

A little line of wet path climbed out of the valley at the end - I was starting to feel that it had been quite a long day already, and this climb was hard work, although I knew that it was partly because I hadn't had any lunch yet. Where the path turned up towards Lank Rigg I did stop for a late lunch, and then toiled on towards the summit - unexciting, but with nice empty views.

Lank Rigg summit

A second summit was almost certainly lower, but someone had cared enough to give it a noticeable cairn, so I thought I better make sure.

From the other cairn

it was a good thing I did, anyway, because it was only on the way back that I remembered Lank Rigg was where I had to look for treasure trove. It's good to see tradition is being kept up!

Treasure trove

The one big question of the day was whether I'd have time to turn up to the Hewitt of Iron Crag, and so save myself a detour on a longer trip around Caw Fell - in theory I easily should have done, but between earlier detours and general worn out slowness I was well behind, and turned my attention to finding a way to Crag Fell.

The trees I'd been expecting to see had all been cut down, giving the hill an interesting stripy appearance, but I'm not sure that that made it any easier to find the way - at least in a wood it's usually obvious what is a path and what isn't!

Crag Fell

I came down to the wall running down from Iron Crag, detouring a bit to find a gate, and followed it down to a fence junction - the track leading up from there and the forest road it joined were clear enough, but I never did find a path leading upwards, and I just had to wait until I'd come up above the tree debris and turn up to find the fence - which was now deep in cloud, so I only had a very hazy idea of where I was going. Still, I met the fence, and followed it up to the corner, and set off roughly in the direction which the corner pointed, which finally brought me to the path that was supposed to have been there further down. It had cleared slightly, but not enough to give me a view.

Crag Fell summit

The way to Grike was basically the same - following another path down to the fence, and following the fence up past a transmitter to the summit.

The way to Grike

This summit had a good cairn and windshelter, but still no view - a shame, because it should have been quite good.

Grike summit

Heading down brought me below the worst of the cloud and at least gave me a bit of a view. It was a slow slow descent, though, over slippery wet grass with no path - I was quite pleased to fnd that I'd headed straight for the fold shown on the Wainwright diagram, and less pleased to find that it was in a very steep little valley which it was quite a struggle to climb into and out of.

Descending to the fold

At the fence I met the path which slants down across Ben Gill (a nice dual purpose name), but it was still often slow and steep and slippery. I didn't find the short cut down, but nothing below the path looked crossable in the wet anyway.

Coming out on the road I was very much behind even my revised schedule - I was supposed to be at Ennerdale hostel by 7, and it was now just on 6 - I'd hoped to be down by 5.30, even when I left the summit of Grike. But there was nothing I could do except head along the lakeside path as quickly as possible in very mixed weather - patches of sunshine mixed with the first real rain of the day, and plenty of rainbows - and hope that the lake hadn't risen to cover it.

Rainbow over Ennerdale

As it turned out the problems were more the reverse - places where it climbed much further and much more precariously above the water than I excepted, but I got plenty wet enough anyway between the rain and not having time to stop and pick a careful way round puddles and overflowing streams!

Despite my best efforts, and the kind pair who gave me a lift up the last bit of road it was nearly 7.30 when I got to the hostel - and I was very grateful to the hostel man who handed me my plate of dinner, covered with tinfoil, and told me to eat it before I did anything else!

our_route.gpx Open full screen  NB: Walkhighlands is not responsible for the accuracy of gpx files in users posts

[johnkaysleftleg]

The weather might not have played ball but that looked like a nice walk through some of the loneliest corners of Lakeland.

[trailmasher]

To say that you were feeling under the weather you did mighty fine there Nigheandonn A nice part of the LD and some big climbs to boot a good report and pics, well done and hope that you're feeling better

[nigheandonn]

I don't think there was all that much climbing, but it was definitely further than I realised - I had kind of dismissed it as just litle hills! A nice walk, though - I like the lonely places.

[nigheandonn]

It was an ingenious route to start from a bus stop, after that Dent was just in the way

[nigheandonn]

There are things to be said on both sides, I think - apart from having always been fascinated by timetables, I've never been keen on what I always think of as 'Grand Old Duke of York walks' (marching up to the top of the hill and marching down again), so I enjoy having the freedom to set off from one place, sleep in another, and finish in a completely different place - and then just collapse onto the train home!

Hostel bookings are the main restriction I feel aware of, actually - there's usually some other way of getting there, and I don't very often walk exactly to plan over the hills I first thought of, but I do have to get there somehow - I suppose with a car you can just drive from where you ended up to where you thought you were going to be, or stay in the centre and dot about