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BB2032
: Squiggly Brown Lines
Thursday
10th September 2020
Squiggly
Brown Lines. Too many of them. That
was the reason excuse given
by one of our members for not joining us
today. Shame; he missed a good one.
There
was an omen right at the start. As
I was going to pay in the car park, a squizzer
(not a squiggler) ran across my path. A
red one. Hurrah! Red squirrels
are alive and well in Grasmere!
Paying
was a different matter. It was an
early start so John, Mike and Terry decided
that there should be enough space to park
for free on the by-pass. They were
right. Stan decided he would rather
park in Grasmere but the venue he chose
had a broken machine. It didn’t want
him to pay. I chose a different car
park and the machine was working. So
that was an usurious £8 I had to tap
for. Still, I suppose it’s good value
to see a red.
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Our
plan was to do a circuit of
Grasmere but not the low level
one of the Coffin Route and
Loughrigg Terrace.
Or
the even lower one marked on
my triple purpose buff given
to me by daughter Emma.
You
can use it as a map of Grasmere,
wear it as a neckwarmer or even
as a coronavirus mask.
Very
useful for these troubled times.
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Our
circuit was to be via Silver How on the
western side, down to cross between the
two lakes then north-east to Alcock Tarn.
Perhaps I should explain that Alcock
Tarn is not at lake level but at an altitude
only two squigglies lower than Silver How.
We
met outside the Heaton Cooper Studio and
set off west, past the National Trust’s
closed Allan Bank and on to the fellside.
The climb was steady rather than steep;
the squigglies are reasonably well spaced.
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I
persuaded the boys first to visit my favourite
mini-peak- Lang How. At 41 squiggles,
this is actually higher than Sliver How
but Wainwright failed to give it the credit
it deserves. From its base, it is
an easy four squiggle scramble to the top
and the views are worth the effort.
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Once
back at path level, I always like to go
round the far side of the unnamed tarn to
the south of its crags as it is from there
that you can see the Matterhorn similarity.
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It
is a gentle if slightly boggy stroll to
Silver How- another fine view point, especially
over Grasmere and beyond.
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IMHO
the best descent is down the gully. This
drops about 16 squiggly brown lines in under
a quarter of a mile. It used to be
quite scree-like but now it has been gentrified
by stone steps. Still steep though.
Thereafter
is a somewhat boggy trek across the fell
to drop down to Loughrigg Terrace which
was busy with people of all shapes and sizes.
Social distancing was a bit of a problem
and the question occurred to me- can ladies’
sweet perfume carry the virus? Or
aftershave for that matter although I didn’t
smell any.
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We
had to pass through the White Moss Car Park
to find the way up to Alcock Tarn, starting
with a short but impressive waterfall. This
path has also has been quite gentrified
. There were several couples even
older than us who were making their way
up the 30 narrowly spaced squiggles. Or
down the even steeper squiggles back to
Grasmere.
It’s
worth the effort. I like Alcock Tarn-
it almost qualifies as an infinity pool,
though infinity was a lot closer today.
Just where is uncertain. Gummer's
How perhaps? What do you think?
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It
is sobering to think that, with a grand
total of 809 squiggly brown lines climbed,
this was by far my biggest outing since
November last year. Must try harder.
Squigglies-
watch out, here I come!
Don,
Thursday 11 September 2020
PS
In case you are perplexed about Squigglies-
they refer to the contour lines on the Ordnance
Survey map. Each gap represents 10 metres
of height.
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