Loughrigg Fell (1101') Sat 28 Sep 2019

You can find an index to my other walks here

Andrew picked me up at eight. Any neighbours seeing us going off with our rucksacks must have thought us idiots as the rain was sheeting down with a buffeting wind. But we had done our homework and checked that there was a window of sun and blue sky with a calm breeze around Grasmere and the Central Lakes. 

    We had decided to climb Loughrigg, and had chosen an anti-circular walk to contrast with the previous ascent of this fell on 22 January 2012. We paid our parking dues in the honesty box by Rydal church and then set off along the coffin route. I had decided to take mostly short video clips instead of stills to see if they could be combined into a short sequence that could be edited later to join with others. However, I have several photos to illustrate this post.

    As we moved along the path we had glimpses of Loughrigg across Rydal Water and it looked inviting. There had been plenty of rain over the past week so it was not surprising to see the waterfall of Dunney Beck in spate on the way down to White Moss. 

We crossed over the road into the wood and then up on to the terrace path. The sun was fully awake by now and the views over Grasmere up to Dunmail Raise were beautiful. 

As I turned up the path leading to the summit of the fell I realised it is such a steep one, but certainly glad I had thought of this anti-clockwise route because coming down over the cobbles now set in like a staircase would have been a real trial for my ability to balance. Seven years ago it was of little consequence, because I was still a nimble trotter at that time.

We didn't see anyone with a plastic shopping bag on this occasion, but there was a small crowd at the summit cairn. The views from Loughrigg are much more panoramic than one would expect from a fell of such a relatively low height (1101') and most people who climb it spend some time up there with their cameras working overtime.

       When it was time to leave we headed east, which took us on a wet trek to the amphitheatre where we turned north. This involved us in fighting our way through high bracken on a very narrow path towards the old quarries and Rydal Cave.

    Andrew wanted to revisit the cave and so I waited for him and then we returned to the car via the woodland path at the east end of the lake.
  

The day had been a remarkable one for beautifully summery warm weather in central Lakeland when elsewhere there was heavy rain. As we journeyed south on the motorway we ran into a horrendous rainstorm much like the one we had encountered on the way up, but it enhanced our satisfaction at having completed another lovely walk in Lakeland.

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