BOOTboys

BB0940 : A Too Short Walk!

Thursday 17th December 2009

Avid readers of this blog may recall that one reason that Philip has not been seen out with us on the fells lately is that he was in training for a 10 kilometre charity run.

In fact, it was the Great Langdale Christmas Pudding race for which he had entered, a real road race with real runners that took place last Saturday.

Philip proved that he is no Christmas Pudding, posting a very creditable time of just under one hour.

Not at all bad for someone of his age.

Philip romps home

It pains me to say, but he did the 10K quicker than I could have done it twenty five years ago, never mind in my sixties!

His chosen charity is the Lancaster Royal Grammar School scholarship fund, which he is helping to establish in order to assist able and gifted boys at the School from families with restricted means, where they are successful in securing places at Exeter College, Oxford.

Perhaps he is still recovering from the effort as he wasn't with us again today!

Destination planning was quite a challenge. Short days mean no great distance can be travelled (especially as Pete is driving up from Cheshire first). The weather forecast was predicting easterly winds of 50 mph on the tops with a wind chill factor of -18^o C, plus snow and potentially blizzards on the eastern hills. I was therefore quietly congratulating myself that despite the constraints I had found an area only 12 miles away that neither Stan or Bryan had climbed before. I was also even more quietly congratulating myself that it would secure another objective, the 1,671 feet of ascent that I needed to top 100k BOOTboys feet of ascent for the year.

Our target was Bethecar Moor, the lowish hills that guard the southern end of the eastern flank of Coniston Water.

It was a lovely day as we drove to Oxen Park but we could see heavy clouds doing some serious business over the central Lake District.

We passed a charmingly different Christmas decoration near Bouth. Perhaps it was inspired by the floods? There was also a cycling flowerpot man!

Christmas decoration, Bouth style

The cycling flowerpot man

Oxen Park Post Box

Once on foot, we noticed something that Tony would have loved to have seen- a very different post box.

Our route lay across tracks and paths to Low Bethecar. We were having a little difficulty identifying the right path to Arnsbarrow Hill.

Pete was relieved that it had gone dark- he reckons Bryan can only navigate accurately in bad visibility- but the reason for the darkness was that it was starting to snow. Lightly at first and then it began to stick. That was not in the plan! The snow was supposed to be thirty miles to the west of us. Fortunately it didn't last long.

Looking back to to Morecambe Bay

Arnsborrow Hill

Arnsbarrow Hill and then Tarn successfully negotiated, we reached the high point of the day- Top o'Selside, a lofty 1,099 feet with excellent views over the Coniston Fells.

Top o'Selside from Arnsbarrow Hill, Coniston Water and Coniston Fells behind

Arnsbarrow Tarn

Comitibus: Top o'Selside

It was now bright sunshine so we found a rock behind which to shelter from the bitter wind and take lunch just after noon. However, another flurry set in and Stan was anxious to be off. It was too cold to linger. The Coniston Fells temporarily vanished in a white out. We headed north east to join the track that dropped into Grizedale Forest.

Looking north from Top o'Selside, Grizedale Forest to the right

Coniston Fells after their dusting

Navigation in forestly land is often a challenge as the wooded areas don't necessarily any longer correspond to what is shown on the map, nor do the forest trails. However we achieved the intended route south to emerge two miles later into increasingly brilliant sunshine near Force Forge.

Emerging from Grizedale Forest

Theodolite Man checks his wires aren't crossed

On Corker Lane we saw a man leaning over his theodolite for no apparent reason. It was, he told us, because the overhead electricity cable was thought to be dangerously near to the telephone wires and he had been sent to check it out.

Soon afterwards, we found the track that led us all the way back to Oxen Park.

Evening Sun over Bethecar Moor

This was an interesting, lowish walk with new scenery and excellent views; it more or less achieved the objective of keeping us away from the worst of the weather.

But I failed in my 100k objective.

I remain 142 feet short of the target.

I couldn't understand where the missing feet had gone. Then I checked the planned route against the actual recorded track and realised it was mostly due to the short cut that Bryan had advocated to by-pass High Bethecar.

Aaaaagggghhhhh! It was a too short walk! A miserly one hundred and forty two vertical feet too short! If the weather is bad next week, we might just have to go up and down our stairs a few times!

Meanwhile, John S, whose roots are in Donegal, would like you to see this video of the Duxford Dads and their The Ballad of Donegal. He suggests this is an example of how BOOTboys blog really ought to be done.

Strangely, for such a magnificent compilation, I couldn't find any other reference to the Duxford Dads on Google except for one bloke who mentioned he was a member of the Duxford Dads Extreme Sports Club. Guiness drinking, presumably.

Don, 17th December 2009

Afternote: Several years later trying to resolve some confusion, I discovered that whilst the OS 1:50 map talks of Bethecar, the 1:25k talks of Low Light Haw and High Light Haw. Don 26th June 2023

If you want to comment on this report, click on .

STATISTCS

BB09340	Thursday 17th December 2009
Distance:	9.8 miles
Height climbed:	1,532 feet
Wainwrights:
Other Features:	Arnsbarrow Hill, Top o'Selside
Comitibus:	Bryan, Don, Pete, Stan

If you have Memory Map on your computer, you can follow our route in detail by downloading BB0940.

Steve G advises: "For those who like to look at your meanderings but use Tracklogs or other software then your logs can be converted using the freeware utility GPS Babel."

For the latest totals of the mileages, heights and Lakeland Fells Books Wainwrights see: Wainwrights.

If anyone wants to claim other peaks, please let me know and I will submit them to the adjudication committee!

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BOOT boys

This page describes an adventure of BOOTboys, a loose group of friends of mature years who enjoy defying the aging process by getting out into the hills as often as possible!

As most live in South Lakeland, it is no surprise that our focus is on the Lakeland fells and the Yorkshire Dales.

As for the name, BOOTboys, it does not primarily derive from an item of footwear, and certainly not from any skin head associations or other
type of social group,
but is in memory of
Big Josie,
the erstwhile landlady
of the erstwhile Burnmoor Inn at Boot in Eskdale,
who enlivened Saint Patrick's Day 1973
and other odd evenings many years ago!

If you want to contact us, click on

If you want to join
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Fan Club
let us know and
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of new BOOTboys reports.

2009 Outings

BB0901 : A Gordon Day Out
Thursday 8th January
BB0902 : Thank You,
Aunty Ethel!
Wednesday 14th January
BB0903 : A Wicked Hike???
Wednesday 21st January
BB0904 : Take a Mug With You
Sunday 25th January
BB0905 : Down in the Forest
Thursday 29th January
BB0906 : Not How But Where?
Thursday 5th February
BB0907 : Binsey Can Wait
(but Uncle Monty Can Not)
Thursday 12th February
BB0908 : Badgers on the Line
Thursday 5th March
BB0909 : It's not a W!
Thursday 12th March
BB0910 : Up on the Roof
Thursday 26th March
BB0911 : Not the Blisco Dashers
Thursday 2nd April
BB0912 : John's Comeback
Monday 6th April
BB0913 : Two Churches, a Pulpit and a Cherry Picker
Thursday, 23rd April
BB0914 : Companions of the BOOT
Thursday 30th April
BB0915 : The Gale Force Choice
Thursday 7th May
BB0916 : The Comeback Continues
Thursday 21st May
BB0917 : BOOTboys Encore !
28th May - 2nd June
BB0918 : Hello Dollywagon
Thursday 11th June
BB0919 : Has Anyone Seen Lily?
Thursday 18th June
BB0920 : Ancient Feet on the Greenburn Horseshoe
Thursday 25th June
BB0921 : The Tebay Fell Race Walk
Thursday 2nd July
BB0922 : For England and St George
Thursday 9th July
BB0923 : The Coniston Outliers
Friday 31st July
BB0924 : Little To Be Said In Favour?
Thursday 6th August
BB0925 : The Third Night of the Rescue
Thursday 13th August
BB0926 : Long Wet Windy Monty Bothy Fun?
Thursday 20th August
BB0927 : Dear Mrs Scroggins
Friday 11th September
BB0928 : An Ard Day's Hike
Thursday 17th September
BB0929 : A Canter of Convalescents?
Thursday 24th September
BB0930 : BOOTboys International Autumnal Expedition
Wednesday 23rd to
Sunday 27th September
BB0931 : A Bit of an Adventure
Thursday 1st October
BB0932 : Paths of Glory?
Thursday 8th October
BB0933 : When Yorkshire Was Welsh
Wednesday 14th October
BB0934 : Unlocking the Whinlatters
Thursday 22nd October
BB0935 : A Tale of Crinkley Bottoms
Thursday 5th November
BB0936 : Aye Up What?
Thursday 12th November
BB0937 : Where Eagles Wade
Tuesday 17th November
BB0938 : After the Floods
Thursday 26th November
BB0939 : The Mystery of the Missing Glove
Thursday 10th December
BB0940 : A Too Short Walk
Thursday 17th December
BB0941 : One Hundred and Onesfell
Tuesday 29th December

BH0901 : Back to the Beginning
Thursday 13th August
BSKIB09 : BOOTskiboys in Saalbach
14th - 21st March
BB09XX : Los Chicos y las Chicas de la Bota
11th - 14th May
BB09Bav01 : Peaked Too Soon
1st September

Click on the photos for an enlargement or related large picture.

Wainwrights

To download a log of which Wainwrights have been done by which BOOTboy in the "modern" era, i.e. since the advent of BOOTboys click on Wainwrights.

If anyone wants to claim other peaks, please let me know and I will submit them to the adjudication committee!

BOOT boys