BB1602 : The Mystery of the Black Cap

Wednesday 13th January 2016

Walking clothes and the like have a mind of their own.  Whilst you are not looking, off they go to Lord knows where and forget to come home for their next official outing. Or they play hide and seek, laughing at you from their hiding places.  Last week (BB1601) it was Terry's turn to be the victim and he ended up having to wear lady's mauve wellies.

Stan, who was there so he should know, subsequently insisted that Terry's boots were not mauve but lavender.  Then he burst into song about what he saw:

Or have I got that the wrong way round?  Whatever, there were more misbehaving clothes this morning.  Two very naughty hats and two wicked gloves were thinking it was fun to make me late to pick up Stan. I gave up and set off without them.

On the other hand, a walking pole, a single glove and a black mountain cap have all deserted their owners to have a long, impromptu holiday with me.  I know the pole belongs to Mike, the single glove to Tony and I was fairly sure that the cap was Stan’s.  Why?  Because I remember him beating me to the last Lowe Alpine cap at their reps' samples sale a few years ago.  And that was black.

We were to meet Martin at Staveley but found the bridge closed due to damage caused by the recent storms.

Fortunately Stan knew a sneaky back way through the village so we weren’t too late at the mill yard.

The forecasts had been changing frequently but we knew heavy rain was on its way, the only question was when.  We thought we should be ok until lunchtime so went on a fairly modest route up past Potter Tarn to Gurnal Dubbs.  

Looking back to Potter Tarn

We could see the storm in the distance but reckoned it should be possible to climb Potter Fell, so we did- bounding from heathery tussock to tussock on the way.

Snow topped Langdales

Once conquered, we thought the same about Brunt Knott and that too succumbed.  However, further heroics were out of the question.  The clouds were seriously gathering. We headed straight back to the Brewery in the Mill Yard.  The new boots had proved comfortable and warm as indeed had the black cap.

Whilst inside, supping ale and laughing at the downpour, a text message came through.  It was from Tony.  It read:

Black Mountain Cap. Anyone found one in their car?

Aha!  Time for a bit of fun.

On the way home I went round to see Tony.  I showed him the photos of our walk, he was particularly interested in those of the broken bridge.  

And then what did he see?  A photo of someone (i.e. me) wearing a black mountain cap identical to the one he had lost.  

How his little eyes lit up.  Mystery solved.

Now, who can solve the mystery of my missing hats?  And gloves?  Please?

Don, Wednesday 13th January 2016

Photo Competition:  

Can you identify the substances featured in these pictures taken whilst on our walk?  If you enlarge your screen you should see a good quality image.

A small prize awaits anyone sending in the correct answer.

Click on to e-mail your entry.

Need An Ice Refresh?

But while the tools are (hopefully) rust-free, have our skills with them survived the summer untarnished?

BOOTboys routes are put online in gpx format which should work with most mapping software. You can follow our route in detail by downloading bb1602 .

To discover which Wainwright top was visited on which BB outing - although it may not be that up to date - or for the totals of the mileages and heights (ditto) see the Excel file: BB Log.

You can navigate to the required report via the Home Page

Photos have been gleaned from many sources
although mostly from me and other BOOTboys. Likewise written comment.

I apologise if I have failed to acknowledge properly the source or infringed
copyright.  Please let me know and I will do my best to put things right.

Unless stated otherwise, please feel free to download the material if you wish.
A reference back to this website would be appreciated.

Wainwrights

To see which Wainwright top was visited on which BB outing see Which Wainwright When? This may or may not be up to date!

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

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BOOTboys 2016

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