Eagle Crag, Sergeant Crag, High Raise & Ullscarth
We're now going back to the spring of this year for the first of what have become my 3 annual long weekends in the Lake district. Two of these trips are with current and former work friends, with eight of us sharing a house for between 3 and 5 days walking, eating and drinking single malt whisky! On the first day, 4 of us travel up early and do a relatively challenging walk before meeting the others in the evening.
I had bought a new toy for this trip, a Suunto Ambit Peak 3 watch, that can both record, and help me navigate, a walk like this. Coupled with my Viewranger App on my Galaxy Note 4, I planned to add the actual route I had walked, shown on an OS Map, to this blog - well that was the plan anyway.
On this first walk, I spent a lot of time trying to work out exactly what my watch was doing, and in switching between recording and navigating, managed to turn the recording off completely!! Never mind - at least I was recoding it on my phone?
That was true, until half way round I had an experience that I had never had before in the Lakes. Walking along a seemingly normal grassy path, I suddenly disappeared down to my waist in muddy water!! It wasn't even an obvious boggy patch (there are plenty of those in the Lakes), nor an obvious quaking bog like the one that nearly claimed me completely onced in Connemara National Park in Ireland. No this was just a path.
But unfortunately, my phone was in my thigh pocket - and didn't survive the experience. So I have no record of the route - not even my planned route is accurate because we diverted off this towards the end - but watch this space - next time I hope to be able to show the route as well!!
Anyway, this walk was a the head of Borrowdale, starting at Stonethwaite village - a walk along the valley, then a steep climb up to Eagle Crag (525m), Sergeant Man (571m) and High Raise (762m) and then round to Ullscarth (726m) and back down to Stonethwaite village - a total of 9.5 miles of very enjoyable walking. Here are a few photos from the walk.
These first images show the developing view back down Borrowdale as we climbed steeply up Eagle Crag.
Borrowdale View, climbing Eagle CragLake District, Cumbria UK
Borrowdale View, climbing Eagle CragLake District, Cumbria UK
Borrowdale View, climbing Eagle CragLake District, Cumbria UK
As we climbed up Eagle Crag the light came streaming sown the Langstrath Valley to our right (the valley in the bottom left corner above).
Langstrath ViewLake District, Cumbria, UK
We reached the summit of Eagle Crag
Eagle Crag summitLake District, Cumbria, UK
and shortly afterwards Sergeant Crag a little further on.
Sergeant's Crag view 5Lake District, Cumbria, UK
From there we headed to the high point on our route, High Raise. Looking back the light played nicely across the fells behind us. Bassenthwaite Lake can be seen in the background with the slopes of the Skiddaw range standing proudly to the right.
From slopes of High RaiseLake District, Cumbria, UK
A stone pillar marks the summit of High Raise.
High Raise SummitLake District, Cumbria, UK
High Raise SummitLake District, Cumbria, UK
The sun and cloud played lovely patterns on the surrounding fells.
Lakeland LightBetween High Raise & Ullscarth
Lake District, Cumbria, UK
Lakeland LightBetween High Raise & Ullscarth
Lake District, Cumbria, UK
And as we descended from the rather unremarkable summit of Ullscarth, the view really opened up, with Watendlath Tarn, Derwent Water and Bassenthwaite Lake lining up in front of us.
Watendlath Tarn, Derwent Water & Bassenthwaite Lake on descent from UllscarthLake District, Cumbria, UK
Watendlath Tarn, Derwent Water & Bassenthwaite Lake on descent from UllscarthLake District, Cumbria, UK
Watendlath Tarn, Derwent Water & Bassenthwaite Lake on descent from UllscarthLake District, Cumbria, UK
For more images from this walk please go to the gallery here.
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