On the way out of Braithwaite, a car behind me was playing a game to see how close he could get to my bumper. Due to keeping one eye on this idiot, I managed to miss the turn off to the car park. I'd had enough of a glance though to see that there was only one space left. There was then a fraught 5 minutes while Lewis Hamilton followed me up Whinlatter until I found a safe place to turn around, and then a quick descent back down the road to the car park. For humanity's sake it was fortunate that the last car park space had not been taken by the time we got there.

A couple of year's ago we had reviewed a metal plaque along the roadside at Millbeck, at the foot of Skiddaw. It had an etching of the fells on our route today. As we admired the view Mo read out the names of the hills: '...Sail, High Crag, Grisedale Pike, 'kin' Hill'. Me and Calse looked at each other, 'What hill I asked?'. ''kin' Hill', he said. I told him that I knew from bitter experience that Grisedale Pike was a bit of a pig to climb, but I'd use better language than call it a ***kin* hill. 'No,' he said,''kin' Hill. Look'. I looked at the etching on the plaque and I noticed a Kinn Hill. It is the hill that forms the shoulder leading up to Grisedale Pike.

Well we started our walk up Kinn Hill today, and with the combination of excessive heat, my heavy rucksack and the steep ascent, I can accurately report that Kinn hill is also a ***kin* hill.

Crag Hill  (Eel Crag)

The final climb up to Grisedale Pike was steep and rocky. The effort was well rewarded though with great all round views from the top The cliffs below Hopegill Head were vertigo inducing. It was only 10:30 as we crossed Coledale Hause and 11:00 as we summited Crag Hill. The views back down the valley towards Skiddaw were stunning. We took a break at the edge of the summit plateau and watched two gyrocopters make their noisy way up the Newlands Valley and over the pass. They looked tiny from our lofty position. 

Sail, Scar Crags, Causey Pike

There was a steep and rocky descent down Crag Hill's east ridge. It seemed a long way down to the valley bottom and care was needed. We proceeded slowly and let a group of two men and a women go ahead of us. 

On Sail we had a short celebration. This was Calse and Mo's 100th Wainwright. I'd completed that particularly target a few walks back, and was now over the 50% threshold, but I celebrated their achievement with them anyway.

The walk along the ridge from Crag Hill to Causey Pike is a delight with great views down both flanks. Sometimes the ridge is broad and sometimes it gets reasonably narrow. Scar Crags didn't look much from the summit but was quite impressive when looking back along the ridge. We soon found ourselves on the top of Causey Pike with its great views over to Keswick and Derwent Water. We had caught up with the three people who overtook us earlier on the descent from Crag Hill. One of them was doing the Wainwrights and had completed his 100th on Wandope, near Crag Hill. Mo and Calse immediately jumped in and said that they had completed their 100th on Sail. I of course, have a modest disposition, and so didn't mention the fact that I'd Top Trumped them all, having reached halfway a few days ago and a 100 before that.

Outerside And Barrow

After a cold and windy lunch on Causey Pike, we retraced out steps back along the ridge and then branched off down a path into the valley. Our momentum took us up to Outerside. A couple had taken up residence near the summit cairn and so our summit photos had to include these walkers too. It started to rain heavily on our descent from Outerside and it wasn't long before we had our anoraks on. It was short lived though and by the time we started the climb to Barrow , the sun was out and we were back to our tee shirts again.

The summit of Barrow offers wonderful views over to Keswick, Derwent Water and Cat Bells. Wainwright says of it: 'On the right sort of day this is a grand place for settling down and getting the old pipe out for an hour's quiet meditation'. It is unknown how many heathland fire's Wainwright caused by knocking out the embers from his pipe on to nearby rocks, but I'm guessing it was quite a few.

Braithwaite

it was a long descent from Barrow summit back to Braithwaite. It was decently gradual though and very kind to the knees. There was always the view of Skiddaw directly in front of us to take our minds off any discomfort.

On entering Braithwaite we formed a human component to a traffic jam through its narrow streets. In Coledale Beck we spotted an impossibly stacked cairn on a large boulder. It looked so improbable I wondered if it had been stuck together somehow.

We reached the car park in good spirits. It had been a cracking walk with amazing views and with seven additional Wainwrights under our collective belt. As me and Calse waited in the car to drive back home, Mo decided to wash and Nikwax his boots, read a lengthy information sign about the Coledale mines, and distribute some seed for the birds. We were suffering Mo Time (MoT) again.