free to be able to rate and comment on reports (as well as access 1:25000 mapping).
I suppose the title of this report says it all
Having spent a lot of time in the Howgills over the last eighteen months or so, we'd managed to stand on a lot of the tops, lumps and bumps that make them up, on this trip the only plan was to do Blease Fell via an interesting looking little ridge that goes up from Carlin Gill, alongside Grains Gill and up to the saddle between Blease Fell and Archer Moss, once on top of Blease Fell we'd just set off and go as far as we could in 4.5 hours, we needed to be home by mid afternoon
An early start to take advantage of the weather and to make sure we managed to get a good spot for the car
We parked near Carlingill Bridge again, it was a lovely morning, warm, blue sky and no wind at all
It was surprisingly quiet for a Bank holiday weekend, I was expecting a few more cars to be parked, all there was was a camper van so we had no problem at all, we really like the Howgills, especially for this reason
Got the boots on and were off by 08:50.
The initial part of the walk to Carlin Gill is on a good path/ quad track, we had to descend slightly to cross Carlin Gill which was no big deal today, there was hardly any water in it, we crossed Weasel Gill and Grains Gill to get to the bottom of our little ridge, the closer it got the higher the ferns looked, there is a vague path but once in the ferns you can't see where it goes, hopefully not off the edge
We've been up Blease Fell before, last time we took more of a direct route, that was ok but I just didn't fancy it again so hence this little ridgey thing
.
Our "Ridge" is the green ferny thing centre of pic
00280002 by
Martin Hawer, on Flickr
It's quite steep to start with then we're in the ferns, instead of heather bashing it was fern bashing, our poles kept getting wrapped up in them, a bit frustrating but it added to the fun, it might be better in the winter months.
View back
00280003 by
Martin Hawer, on Flickr
To Linghaw and Fell Head
00280004 by
Martin Hawer, on Flickr
Higher up it becomes more of a hillside and the ferns are left behind, there are traces of a path/animal track, it was heading in the right direction and soon we were in the saddle, we soon picked up a quad track heading for Blease Fell, once we'd left the soggy saddle the walk to the top is pretty straight forward.
00280005 by
Martin Hawer, on Flickr
On the top the views are good enhanced today by the weather, we couldn't have asked for better.
00280010 by
Martin Hawer, on Flickr
00280012 by
Martin Hawer, on Flickr
00280013 by
Martin Hawer, on Flickr
00280014 by
Martin Hawer, on Flickr
00280016 by
Martin Hawer, on Flickr
00280017 by
Martin Hawer, on Flickr
Right, where do we go now? we set off for Powson Knott which is at the end of the broad ridge heading towards Tebay, the plan was to go there and then come back, after we'd walked about 10 minutes and got a view of where we were heading we decided there wasn't much to warrant an out and back so decided not to bother and head for Uldale Head instead.
From here there are other tops to visit on the way, Hare Shaw and Rispa Pike for example, we'd been on them before and we had a time limit so we went down to Archer Moss and headed for Uldale Head via the broad NW ridge coming from Archer Hill, the good thing about the Howgills is that where ever you are you soon find a quad track heading in your general direction of travel, after a bit of pathless ascent we came across one heading up to Uldale Heads summit.
We were on the top in no time at all and looking to what we could do next.
00280023 by
Martin Hawer, on Flickr
00280020 by
Martin Hawer, on Flickr
We could see the path that traverses the hillside above Carlin Gill and the Black Force waterfall
00280021 by
Martin Hawer, on Flickr
Howgills, Towards Fell Head by
Martin Hawer, on Flickr
So decided to head for that so we set off from the summit heading for Blakethwaite Bottom.
It's a steep descent, typical of the Howgills, it made the poor old knees suffer a bit
Once down we picked up the path that heads towards Force Brow and up towards Little Ulgill Beck
00280026 by
Martin Hawer, on Flickr
00280027 by
Martin Hawer, on Flickr
The path above Force Brow is pretty airey, steep sided, it gives some good views, if you had a slip here there's a lot of downhill to slide down
00280028 by
Martin Hawer, on Flickr
00280029 by
Martin Hawer, on Flickr
00280030 by
Martin Hawer, on Flickr
00280031 by
Martin Hawer, on Flickr
00280033 by
Martin Hawer, on Flickr
00280034 by
Martin Hawer, on Flickr
00280035 by
Martin Hawer, on Flickr
00280036 by
Martin Hawer, on Flickr
00280038 by
Martin Hawer, on Flickr
Once we'd crossed Little Ulgill Beck instead of following the path around the hillside we cut off and started to climb up
Blake Ridge to take in Fell Head before starting our return to the car.
Blake Ridge is a nice steady ascent to Fell Head and I'm glad we did it. We arrived at the first cairn in no time and then went to the second one a bit further on along the ridge.
00280039 by
Martin Hawer, on Flickr
We wanted lunch by now so we headed back to the first cairn and then down the path to Linghaw and stopped on the way to have something to eat.
By now we knew we had a bit of time to spare so we had a longer break than usual just to enjoy our surroundings. After half an hour or so we set off for the car via Linghaw and Knowles.
We met two ladies on the way down and had a chat, these were the only people we met all the time we were out, where else could you do that on a Bank Holiday
Great day out, really enjoyable