Walkies

A Frozed Up Angle Tarn

So yesterday evening I says to Hyperdog Moss “Where do you fancy going for walkies tomorrow?” and he just looks at me and wags his tail a bit, so I says “Come on help me out here, we have the whole of the Lake District or the North Pennines to choose from", but he just wags his tail a bit more and walks off and brings back Bill. Bill is one of his toys. It’s a sort of knobbly green rubber thing. Actually, there is no ‘sort of’ about it, it is a knobbly green rubber thing. I then had to throw Bill for him to catch for the next three hours and that was the end of that conversation.

So I had to choose. The day being claggy and generally yucky we decided not to drive too far and to stay relatively low, so we walked from Patterdale to Angle Tarn via Boredale Hause, as you do, it being the obvious way to go.

There was a lot more snow than this but that was until Hyperdog ate most of it

 

You can never have too many photos of Angle Tarn I say

The sun looked like it was coming out as we headed through Side Farm, but that was a trick it was playing on us, because the clag soon came back, along with intermittent snow showers.  Most of the snow had gone below the Hause, but there was some left above that, and a few icy stretches on the path, but nothing difficult that couldn’t be avoided so the spikes stayed in the pack. This lack of snow didn’t stop Hyperdog suddenly and inexplicably flying sideways off a grassy bank into a big drift, and not yet being an expert with snow he decided the best way to get out of the drift was to eat the snow which wasn’t very effective but he seemed to enjoy it.  When we got to the Tarn he also decided to test out the ice but I shrieked at him and he came back sheepish like and sheep dog like ie slinking like he was about to round me up. I explained the dangers to him but he just looked bored. Teenagers never take it in when you tell them of the dangers of whatever it is that you are telling them is dangerous but they usually learn eventually.

And then we went back down again.  As it was brightening up a bit, and we hadn’t gone too far when we were almost back in the valley, we took the higher path above Side Cottage and Side Farm that runs parallel to Ullswater and went over and down to Silver Bay and watched a group of youngsters having fun in a large rowing boat from the Outward Bound School on the other shore.  And that was it really, apart from my cunning trick of enticing Hyperdog in to the lake down in Glenridding by throwing a stick in for him to chase.  He thinks this is a game but it is really to get the mud off him and what he doesn’t know can’t hurt him as I always say.

Outward Bound - but not to Henley Royal Regatta any time soon

Ullswater, Glenridding, Sheffield Pike, Birkhouse Moor etc

Stream of Consciousness

Looking across Side Farm to Helvellyn

After the wettest winter on record I reckon we deserved today’s fabulous weather and I took full advantage with another training walk for the TGO Challenge which is exactly 2 months away. 

My Skod driven thought processes were active again as I packed my day sack ready for my walk.  I plundered the grocery cupboard and stuck loads of canned food in the bottom of my pack. Not to eat of course, just to add weight to give myself a better workout.  Nothing too odd about that.  But here’s the weird bit.  I spent some time deliberating over which cans to take.  I rejected baked beans in favour of kidney beans; tomato soup was put in and then taken out and replaced with chopped tomatoes. What was that all about then?  But in the end I was satisfied, and with 3 litres of water added and the bits of kit and food I would actually need for my walk, my pack weighed in at 11.7 kg which is a good old weight to start to get the shoulders ready for the backpacking gear I will be carrying across Scotland in May.

Perfect weather.  I parked in Patterdale and set off along the track to Side Farm and, ultimately, Howtown. Ullswater was still and calm when I began my walk, and the Helvellyn range, and later Gowbarrow were reflected perfectly in the lake. This is a curious path. One moment it runs at little more than a metre or so above the lake; then it will be 50 or 100 metres higher up, yet the ups and downs are barely noticeable as you walk. Perhaps it is the distracting beauty of the scenery that makes it pass so easily. This beauty was certainly the reason for the little incident that saw the humiliation of hyperdog.

Thed Helvellyn range and Sheffield Crag reflected in Ullswater

I had drunk several large mugs of tea before setting out today and it was not long before the consequences of this were apparent on my middle aged bladder. With no one about I was able to do the necessary, and I went about this business whilst staring distractedly across the lake from my hillside.  And then I looked down. Hyperdog was looking up at me with a puzzled face whilst a stream of almost neat Typhoo bounced off his back. He didn’t seem to have the gumption to move.  As we set off again little did I know that this dog can carry a grudge a long distance.

Hyperdog got his revenge as I sat on this bench looking down to Howtown

We reached Howtown. The Howtown Hotel, where I had planned to have a pit stop, was closed until the end of March so we set off  back to Patterdale with a diversion up lovely little Hallin Fell now in mind. On the way, just above Howtown, we found an old wrought iron seat on the fellside overlooking the lake on which I sat to eat my sandwich.  As I did this my back suddenly felt warm and wet. I turned to see Hyperdog behind the bench, leg cocked. I could have sworn he had a grin on his face. One all.

Hallin Fell

Hallin Fell is short and sweet. The cairn at the top is magnificent; the views more so. Then it was down to Sandwick and back on to the same path as the morning and an hour or so in the afternoon sunshine to Patterdale.

From Hallin Fell

Hyperdog on Hallin fell above Ullswater

21.1km, 798 metres climbed. 5 hours 50 minutes in total. A good workout.