Day 12 - Patterdale to Shap Abbey

Distance Walked: 22.1km,  Time Taken: 8h, # Times Went Astray: 1(!), # Beers: 1 pint Loweswater Ale

I broke the weather.  The first 3 days of our hike we had clear sunny skies with very little wind.  I'd just packed wet and cold weather gear so when we got to Grasmere I bought some short sleeved tops.  I wore one yesterday.   Today, the sky was completely clouded over and there was a howling gale on the tops.  Below is the view from High Raise.  This was the highest point on our walk today.

This morning we had Tim, the friendly support van man, drive us back to Glenridding where we had breakfast at a hotel there, as ours here in Shap didn't start serving early enough.  The Glenridding hotel had a breakfast buffet, which we descended on like a swarm of locusts.  Tim then drove us to the start of the trail in Patterdale (Glenridding is a kilometre or two off the trail) and we began our long ascent.  We basically spent 3 1/2 hours climbing up and up and up.  The little jiggle in the elevation chart at about the 5km point is where Paul, our guide, picked the wrong path at a fork!

After reaching the top, we ate our packed lunch, huddled in the lee of the cairn on High Raise.  It didn't do much to protect us from the wind.  We then spent about an hour descending from all that height we had laborously gained.  I've discovered it is actually easier on your feet to jog down a slope.  By jogging you pick up your foot again before your toes have had a chance to bang up against the end of your boot.  I jogged a good part of the way down with this odd high-stepping mincing gait.  My feet appreciated it, even though I must have looked absurd.  It all went well today but I can just imagine the day when one of my feet slide out from under me and I come crashing down.

Our climb up out of one valley and down into the next today has taken us out of the Lake District and into the Dales.  You can tell this, in part, because the landscape has changed from stark high fells to gentle, rolling hills.  You can also tell because we are now seeing signposts like this one.  They have been very sparse in the Lake District.  In fact, sign posts or cairns or any form of waymarking is sparse on the fells.  There is feeling amongst hardcore fell walkers that you shouldn't be up on the fells if you don't know how to navigate with a map and compass.  They will even remove stones from cairns.  I guess it keeps the Mountain Rescue Service occupied.

We were supposed to walk all the way back to our hotel in Shap today but Tim, the kindly support van man, meet us at Shap Abbey about 2km away and ferried us back to the hotel so we wouldn't be late for dinner.  They still haven't fixed the heating in my wing of the hotel.  They did provide me with a large black spider on my bath towel.  I discovered this as I grabbed it to dry off after my shower.  I did beat it to death with a shoe, but I left our my usual "while screaming hysterically" part of the process as I was just too tired.

We've been promised an easy day tomorrow with light clouds and a gentle breeze.  Here's hoping.