Wainwrights Branstree and Selside Pike

[Julia Cater]

Swindale - Selside Pike - Branstree - Mosedale - Swindale. Fantastic day in the Lakes today; got sunburnt even with suntan cream on. Originally intended to go up Haweswater to some of the higher peaks in the Far Eastern range but the road to Haweswater was closed (and is until 1 April 2012) and I was on a timescale to get to school to pick the girls up. So got the map out and changed to these two peaks. Wainwright is a bit scathing about them, but there were fantastic views most of the time up the very pretty and quiet Swindale, from the tops to Haweswater and then from Branstree across. I got wet feet on the final ascent to Selside because I couldn't find the path from the Old Corpse Road up to Selside. It is not near the post as in the end I could see it quite a bit further on from the post. It was a bit boggy on the descent down from Branstree to the Mardale Head we well.

Overall, a manageable and pleasant short day despite having to run the last 2 miles back to the car which you cannot park t Swindale head. Would have been easy enough to tag on Tarn Cragg and Grey Crag as well if I had time.

[ChrisW]

Run.....run the last 2 miles I'm all on to limp the last 2 miles of any hike I do Glad you had a good day in the hills....are you going to get some photos for us on the next one

[icemandan]

We did this on Saturday for similar reasons - High Street abandoned due to road closure. I cycled over to Burnbanks from Kendal (Fiona isn't as mental as me so she took the car). Swindale seemed like a good alternative. It's a beautiful little valley and true Lake District scenery as well. It was suffocatingly hot in the Dale and we were glad to get to the open moors. We didn't fall into the trap of taking the bee line. Had a leisurely lunch on top of Selside and headed back down.

Top tip - stop for home made ice cream at Kennedy's chocolate factory in Orton - A lemon meringue and ginger combo went down very well,

[DaveB1]

Glad you had a great day, we got rain (so whats new??) I've added a photo from Selside Pike towards Branstree. As you can see we met off road motorbikes!

Motor bikes! Noisy b*****ds!!

[Jane Yates]

Looks like you had a good day out....sorry I couldn't join you! I did those when the ground was frozen but I can imagine they get boggy!