Author Topic: Lakes day 1 and 2 - Buckstones Jump/Helm Crag and Easdale Tarn  (Read 3197 times)

Ruthr

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First report of many, apologies if I saturate the Lakes forum for a while, I'll try not to post too many!

Firstly for those who travel on the M6 I would seriously remcomend travelling up to the lakes on a Sunday. Compared to our previous trip the traffic was bliss, at some points we couldn't even see any traffic in front of us :)

We arrived at our campsite - Rydal Hall - an hour or so early. Luckily they let us check in so we dumped our stuff and decided to head off to explore. We were staying in a camping pod (AKA garden shed!)




The plan was to walk up to Bucktones jump following the river upwards. Before heading off we had a look at Rydal Falls, it even has a little viewing point (called 'The Grot!') which you can sit and watch it in.



We started off on the assuault course which the campsite has - it was actually really hard and I managed to pull some muscles hanging off things! Fun had we headed off into the woods to follow the river upwards. When we walked round the river last year people were Gorge scrambling, not this time though, we had the place to ourselves. There are plenty of impressive falls on the way up - one of them is particularly impressive the way the water funnels down a black crevice.



After a little while the path peters out and you have to hop over a dry stone wall. Luckily we arrived at the point where someone had helpfully put a stone either side to help you down. Upwards we went with views of the Fairfield horseshoe all around.

We soon reached Buckstones jump, a pretty pool with a waterfall. The depth goes down quite fast and you can't stand up by the falls. Emma got into her costume and went straight in, she went straight out again and soon got dressed!



I actually thought the water temp was quite warm compared to when we had swum there last year. We enjoyed a longish swim until we could no longer feel our fingers or toes then retraced out steps back down through the woods and to the falls - taking a slightly different route due to missing our crossing point of the dry stone wall!





On arriving back the sheep had invaded our camping spot. If you ever stay at this site do not leave any rubbish or food out.. We ended our day by having another swim in Rydal water in the evening (with wetsuits on this time) Emma loved it, but I wasn't so keen on the thick mud and reeds which I kept putting my feet into!



Monday dawned and in true lakeland fashion it was foggy and drizzly. I was aching from the previous days activities (the assault course!) so wasn't up for a big long walk. We decided to head to Helm Crag - we'd seen it the previous year but opted to explore Siler How and Lang How instead. We parked in Grasmere and followed a quiet lane to the start of our path. The path was thankfully paved and was quite easy going. The fog cleared for a short while and we had some views at last.



Once on the top - a nice rock ridge with a wee bit of easy scrambling  - we stopped to take photos of the lion and the lamb. Up close it looked more like a snail, and looked esp eiree in the mist. I really liked the top of Helm Crag - despite the lack of views the interesting rock was enough to make up for that.






We then headed off to find a geocache (sucessfully found) and to check out the Howitzer. The howitzer looked very wet and slippy and nobody wanted to climb it.



The next objective of our day was to visit easdale tarn. Annoying to get to it we had to desend to the footbridge at the bottom of the valley then head back upwards again. Too much descent for my liking - groan! The path down was more like a sheep track - it was unreasonably steep and had lots of we scree.

Peekaboo!


It was a releif to reach the river and the bridge. We then followed the main path up to the Tarn. Parts of the area were really boggy but luckily paving stones had been placed in the worst of the boggy sections - jumping the stones was Emma's fave bit of the walk.



The tarn again like the crag looked a bit sinister in the fog - like something out of Twin Peaks. It was teeming with fish and minows. We decided to have another swim as the water felt warm (I could not beleive how warm it was considering how high we were). Swimming was blissful, not a soul around and the lake was as calm as a milpond. We didn't swim for too long though as Emma was getting bored laughing at us on the bank. I hopped around with my travel towel trying not to expose myself to the couple who had stopped to admire the view of the lake above us!





Mrs duck had some of our lunch crumbs, it was weird feeding a duck so high up in the hills!





We descended to Grassmere heading down past Sour Milk Gill wishing we had time for another swim in it's pools.





We treated ourselves to the most expensive tea and cake in the Grassmere bakery - seriously the best cake I have ever eaten and worth every penny (it was treacle tart if you are ever passing that way!)

Some good wet weather options and didn't miss the views (too much!)
Sponser Emma to walk Scafell Pike next month in aid of Brace and in memory of her Great Nan
http://www.justgiving.com/emmas-challenge

 

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