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A rather damp day to start with but I suppose you could call it a typical November day, showers, overcast and a bit blowy.
Our hills were the smaller ones around the Northern Lakes, ideal for me because I've not been out for a while and my knees feel like they've been welded at the joints
We parked at Brumston Bridge just a small distance from Wythop Mill. Sale Fell and Ling Fell were our targets to start with, hopefully they'd be kind on the knees
It was raining/snowing when we parked up so we waited for it to pass, it looked like it would soon as there was a break in the clouds and it looked like it was heading our way
We only had to wait ten minutes or so and when the pitterpat stopped we were out of the car sharpish, on with the boots and waterproofs and walking within 5 minutes, a record
Ready for the off.
Ling Fell was our first objective so headed up the lane from the bridge heading towards Burthwaite and the start of the Old Corpse Road around NY183291.
There's a gate by the road at the start of this old track, the option from here is to follow the corpse road or take the direct route, we opted for the latter to test the knees and found it to be ok, its quite steep but not sustained, we soon reached an easier gradient and from there the summit soon came into view. By now we'd reached the snow, just a sprinkling but it was our first "snowy" walk of the winter.
Snow! Sale Fell behind.
Binsey.
On the summit we were below the cloud base so could see Sale Fell, however, the higher fells around had varying amounts of clouds on them, further south and west people were getting no views at all.
On the summit
Greystones and Kirkfell right, Broom Fell left, Window Hause in the middle with the trees, Hopegill head and Grisedale Pike in the distance.
Looking over to the Uldale Fells
West
From the summit we took the direct descent heading for the gate we went through earlier, this was surprisingly steep for most of the way made more interesting by the snow
We walked down the lane back to the bridge then headed for Sale Fell. Over the bridge turning right along the lane towards Kelswick farm, through a gate and turning up a feint path about 100m further on, this in turn joins a much better defined path, go left here and it takes you to the summit with not much effort at all.
Sale Fell is another good view point, we could see the sun shining in the dale below highlighting the autumn colours. Skiddaw was beginning to shed its cloud, there looked to be a fair covering of snow.
Sale Fell views.
Near the summit
From the summit we had views.
Ullock Pike and Carl Side, snow and cloud.
Ling Fell.
Towards Lothwaite
Rather cold on the summit, Skiddaw behind Denise
Scotland away in the distance.
We were tempted to go onto Rivings and Lothwaite but decided to leave that for a summer afternoons walk, our next objective was Binsey so we had to get on.
We set off from the summit the way we'd come, reaching the wall we went down beside it and arrived at the gate.
From here it was a short walk to the car, boots off a nibble and then off to find somewhere to park to do Binsey.
I had read somewhere that parking around NY235351 was a bit restricted, well, looking at the space available, I reckon there's room for 7 or 8 carefully parked cars around the start of the walk so it could be an issue in the summer months, today however, no problem.
We sat in the car and had lunch then it was on with the boots, we left the sacs in the car so armed with a couple of poles each and a camera we set off on the very well defined path to the summit.
On the way up, looking towards Skiddaw
Its a steady 20 -30 minute walk to the top of Binsey, it was a bit hazy so we weren't blessed with fantastic views but up here you get the feeling of being on the very fringe of the Lake district, I bet on a good day the view is fantastic.
Summit shelter,
Views from the top:-
Scotland again
Uldale Fells again
Arty shot
At the trig point.
From the summit it was back to the car the way we'd come.
On the way down Skiddaw was clearing.
And so were the Uldale Fells
As it turned out this was a short day, it leaves Bakestall to finalise the Northern fells, I might leave this for my last Wainwright and combine it with Skiddaw, one of my first, which I climbed many years ago on a school trip, I'm not the quickest Wainwright bagger by any means but I'm getting there