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BB2531
: Re-Wiggling Re-Visited
Thursday
14th August 2025
Poor Stan. Today was supposed to be his BIG DAY. His celebratory ascent of Scafell Pike. The
forecast had been good for ages. A bit
of mist in the early morning, clearing to a nice day; partially cloudy to keep
the temperature down and a gentle wind.
But then the weather gods intervened.
With two days to go they changed the predicted mist to fog. With one day to go they prolonged the fog
into the afternoon. And on the morning,
by which time the abort decision had already been made, the promised fog was
being preceded by rain.
A quick change of plan was needed
for those of us in need of further training.
A disappointed Stan opted out. The
western side of the Lake District had by far the better forecast, indeed “Sun”! So TVMike determined we should climb
Branstree and Selside Pike. We parked at
Swindale Foot and headed up the valley, Mike and Mick having fun on the stepping
stones. Robert, Bryan and I took the
sensible route over the bridge.
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I complained recently about how the rewilding of the valley and the rewiggling
of the river had had an unfortunate consequence, namely the relocating of the
footpath away from the wiggles to behind a wall in the trees on the south
side. The consensus today was that it was
nowhere near a bad as I had reported in BB2519 and was actually a quite pleasant
walk with a good view of the wiggling.
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Perhaps, they suggested, that I had been a bit tired (they didn’t add “and
emotional”) as it had been the end of the day and I must have been weary. That is possible I suppose but I have to say
that I now think the reason is that today we were heading up the valley so had
the changing views of the mountains in front of us, rather than the empty
skyline downstream.
At the end of the valley bottom
we turned left, climbing up steeply alongside the attractive Force Falls, where
a family were ghyll scrambling......
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..... and on to possibly the most featureless part of
Westmorland, namely Mosedale.
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The one
redeeming feature was the prospect of a coffee stop at Mosedale Cottage- the
bothy near the head of the valley.
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Eventually we reached the bothy and found it in pretty good order-
clearly it is being looked after. Some
had their lunch here; it was after Tony time but I don’t like eating before
topping out so I restricted myself to half a butty and a banana for extra
power.
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A bit further on is a gateway
where the sensible thing to do is to avoid the worst of the bog and head
straight up alongside the wall to Branstree summit. Beyond is Artle Crag Pike with its cairns and
a fine view over Haweswater and the High Street Fells.
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We could see that in the distance, the Scafell
area was still covered in cloud, fortunately reinforcing our decision. High
Steer was clear, however.
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After
passing the Reservoir Survey post our next objective was to cross between and crossing a narrow path between two small
tarns.....
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.....
to climb an mound just slightly off
route which is actually a bit higher than Selside Pike (673 plays 655) but is
seemingly unnamed.
The map says we crossed over Captain Whelter’s Bog but I don’t
recall it being boggy, unlike some of the terrain we had travelled earlier.
I have previously wondered who
Captain Whelter was. This
time, out of curiosity and
without any expectation, I asked Uncle Google’s AI. Back came the response that he was probably a
Kendal archer who ambushed a group of Scots and buried them near Castle Crag. Well you live and learn. Unless you are a Scot ambushed by the Captain
of course.
Dropping down to meet the Old
Corpse Road, we had a decision to make.
Should we take this easy route to the valley or should we press on over
the moors.
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It was a no brainer- Soft
peaty ground versus long, hard tarmac so on we pressed, passing but not
climbing Hare Shaw and Powleys Hill before taking a somewhat creative
route down to the valley back to the car and our inevitable destination, the Factory
Tap in Kendal, planning which days might now be good for Stan on his mission.
A message came through from
Tony “Sorry boys, I can’t join you, I’m still in Ilkely, where are you?” Quick as a flash Mike B, who
had joined us for a beer, responded:
Where
are you? Ilkley?
Baht 'at?
Where are we? Kendal. Bar Tap!
Don, Thursday 14th August
2025
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