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Quayfoot Quarry Car Park - Bowderstone - Grange Fell - Car Park
Todays weather forecast was poor but I was itching to get my half way point milestone under my belt.
The dog was even more ready for a good walk as a busy week at work for both myself and the wife have left Damson indoors without even a trip to the beach for a good run about.
I wanted a prominent fell for the Wainwright 50% mark and have been planning Scafell Pike for weeks, but yet again the weather had scuppered those plans. It was clear that a smaller fell was called for as nearly everything was shrouded in cloud and the rain was falling throughout the district.
Inspiration came when in the car and heading towards Castle Crag (at least if it was cloudy on Castle Crag it wouldn't have been a massive effort to do it again).
A couple of years back we lost a very dear friend, Dave Palmer to cancer and his ashes were scattered on Grange Fell (his favourite fell in the Lakes) and it felt like a fitting tribute to climb up there today.
We set off from the Car Park at Quayside Quarry and headed up the track to visit the Bowderstone first. 3 blokes were setting up camp under the stone as we climbed onto its top. They weren't there on the way down so must have had a bit of sense drummed into them.
- The Bowderstone
- High Steel Knott from the Bowderstone
- Castle Crag from the Bowderstone
After dropping back to the road, we headed up from the next stile on the left up quite a steep bank to the right of and round the back of Kings How. After finding the stile over the fence we followed a clear path up to the top of Grange Fell (Brunt Fell) fighting the wind and rain for practically the entire journey up. The view from the summit was good but the wind tried to blow us from the rock and after taking the one photo, I climbed back down to get some shelter.
- Grange Fell Summit
The route down headed left after dropping from Brunt Fell on a bearing straight to Flint Wood ?? and dropped down its northern edge to a bridleway. We followed this back to the road dodging the large group of mountain bikers before heading back past the Bowderstone and back to the car park.
The rain got heavier on our trek round and Damson looked like a drowned rat on her return. its a few hours later now and as I'm writing this blog she is still shivering by my side.