|
BB0624
The Crookdale Horseshoe and then some.
"Be
gentle with us" Tony and I pleaded as we had had a bit
of a lay off and fitness levels were down so when it
was suggested we should start from 1,100 feet at Shap
Summit to do the Crookdale Round, it sounded a good
idea. Unfortunately none of us had really studied
the map and expected a shortish and fairly level walk.
Wrong!
It
had the makings of a beautiful day following the deluge
at the County Show. The upper Kent valley was
thick with temperature inversion cloud but it was obvious
it was going to lift quickly and when we reached Shap,
the weather was quite clear although the breeze was
cold.
We
got off to a bad start. Bryan was intent on describing
the 101 things you could do with his new "Buff" and
so we didn't realise that we had gone in totally the
wrong direction. Once he completed his demonstration
the truth dawned and we turned round, went back to the
car and started again.
This
time we found the very boggy track towards Crookdale.
We exercised our Right to Roam to find a crossing
place over the beck and then headed gently up the hill
on the south bank.
| 
A
giant leap for Bryankind
|
Team
picture at Grey Crag
|
Eventually
we reached a sort of summit and a discussion erupted
as to whether it was Lord's Seat or Robin Hood.
Bryan
was adamant it was the latter- he had been tracing the
route on the map and was totally confident. However
I looked around me and related the visible terrain to
the map and was equally confident that it was Lord's
Seat. Stan was vascillating and Tony tends not
to join in these discussions. Taking a compass
bearing or getting the GPS out is no way to settle these
matters- they have to be resolved by pure logic. Eventually
I realised that there was an extra clue- the sun was
casting strong shadows and by noting the time and converting
the shadow to a bearing this settled the matter conclusively.
I was quite wrong and I held my hand up. It
could not possibly be Lord's Seat.
An
hour later when we came across a wall that was not on
the map, Bryan also held his hand up. He too had
been wrong. It had been neither Lord's Seat nor
Robin Hood, just High House Bank. Honours (or
lack of them) even, except I had been the wronger!
I
did pull back some credibility shortly afterwards. There
was a glimpse of a distant mountain. Was it Hellvellyn?
Or Fairfield? Or what? Now one thing
the Shores are good at is identifying Coniston Old Man
when they see it and that is what I claimed it was.
Furthermore, again finding a bearing by the sun
I could show it was due east of us and could not be
any of the other suggestions that were being made. Yes!
Robin
Hood and Lord's Seat between Crookdale and Bannisdale
from Grey Crag
From
Lord's Seat we continued on to Grey Crag by which time
it was well after one
o'clock or in Tony time "lunch
plus 1.5 hours" only we hadn't lunched and he was getting
desperate. We found a lovely little ledge, sheltered
from the wind where we had our butties and regarded
the views down to the estuary. And to Heysham
Power Station. And to the Fylde and... was it?
Could it really be? Yes! Blackpool Tower! It
was just about that clear.
| 
Click
to see what Tony has spotted
|
High Street from Tarn Crag
|
From
Grey Crag we progressed to Tarn Crag (where we could
see down Longsleddale and across to Kidsty Pike and
High Street) and then regressed to Harrop Pike to begin
the long, long slog home following the wall via Lawyer's
Brow, Great Yarlside, Little Yarlside and Whatshaw Common
where Stan moaned that he was beginning to flag and
promptly broke into a gallop!
| 
The
way back
|
This
was not the prettiest walk we have ever done and it
was much further than we had anticipated and at times
the terrain was difficult- tufty with potentially leg
breaking hidden holes or otherwise very boggy but this
was definitely the day to have done it with very clear
views particularly to the South and East.
Don,
15th September 2006
STATISTICS
|
Distance:
11.25
miles
|
Height
climbed:
2,300 feet
|
Map reference:
See Map
|
|
Wainwrights:
The
Crookdale Horseshoe extended to add
Grey Crag, Tarn Crag
and the southern part of the (Westmorland)
Wasdale Horseshoe
|
|
Wildlife
count:
2 herons (or in Bryan
speak- bloody great seagulls), two frogs,
one deer, many sheep and two guys from Workington.
|
g
g g
g g
g g
g g
g
E-mail addresses on this web site are protected
by
Spam Trawlers will be further frustrated
by Spam Blocker:
help fight spam e-mail! |
