Ullswater

There is a great Ullswater photo opportunity almost as soon as you join the lakeside trail. A young man was sat on a bench at this beauty spot. He was watching something on his phone, while holding a can of Stella.  I thought he might ask me to join him for a drink since he had an unopened can on the floor beneath the bench. I didn't get the offer though and to be honest, 08:15 is a tad early to start drinking for me.

Further along we approached a couple sat on a bench who were deep in conversation. They had a push chair in front of them. As we walked past I looked into the pushchair to look at the baby and was surprised to find a Scottie dog looking back at me. Either that or a very hairy baby.

Just before we left the Ullswater trail to head up the Glencoyne valley, there was a right kerfuffle with some Geese on the Lake.  It was caused by one of the geese attacking a female goose with half a dozen goslings. She was having none of it though and shepherded her babies further up the lake.

Glencoyne

About ten minutes up the pretty Glencoyne valley at a location known as Seldom Seen, there is a row of ten terraced cottages. Once upon a time these cottages housed miners that worked in lead mines at Greenside, over in the Glenridding valley. The path gradually makes its way up the Glencoyne valley with woodland on the left side. I've often seen red squirrels in this woodland but they were all hiding today. When the woodland finished we took a sketchy path up to the col between Glenridding Dodd and Sheffield Pike.  There was a little bit of a descent from the col before we got to a stone wall which was the starting point for the final part of the climb up to Glenridding Dodd's summit.

Glenridding Dodd

I'd never climbed Glenridding Dodd before. In our rush to climb the higher fells, the lowly Glenridding Dodd felt off route and not worth the effort. How wrong I was; it is a gem of a fell. The delight of doing the Wainwrights is that it forces you to visit fells that would not normally be on your itinerary. There is a tremendous panoramic view from the summit of Glenridding Dodd, but the best view can be found by walking eastwards for 5 to 10 minutes on an obvious path. There is a little bit of descent involved that probably discourages a lot of walkers. Eventually the hillside drops away and there is a superb view down on to Ullswater and into Glenridding. The view is well worth that extra walking.

Sheffield Pike

We retraced our steps over the summit of Glenridding Dodd and then started climbing the craggy path up to Heron Pike. This was an interesting route with the occasional almost vertical view down into the Glenridding Valley. Eventually the steep path levelled out when we reached the boggy plateau of Sheffield Pike. There is a stone shelter next to the small crag holding the summit cairn. It wasn't needed today though; there was hardly any breeze at all.  As we descended to the col between Sheffield Pike and White Stones we could see the remnants of the lead mine workings down in the valley. I'd read Wainwright's displeased comments on these the evening before. I can imagine him huffing and puffing, filling his study with pipe smoke, as he penned his disgruntlement.

Hart Side

On the lung-busting ascent towards White Stones we past a couple that was also struggling. We didn't really have the breath for conversation and we left them to their own internal challenge. Rather than going to the top of White Stones we branched off on to a path that followed the rim of the  Glencoyne Valley, towards Hart Side. On our left we could see the huge, grassy flanks of Stybarrow Dodd And Great Dodd. From the summit of Hart Side we could see Little Mell Fell and Gowbarrow Fell, two Wainwrights we had recently climbed.

Returning back on our ascent path, we met the couple who suffered with us on the climb towards White Stones. We had more breath to converse this time. They were also doing the Wainwrights and had only 39 to go. They mentioned that some of their routes were based on the Stuart Marshall book, 'Walking The Wainwrights'. This describes 36 routes to climb the 214 Wainwrights. I'm guessing there must be some pretty long walks on those routes. We'd already summited  68 and I'd planned another 43 walks to complete them. Even some of my routes were big days.

Raise 

I discussed with Calse and Mo how we would celebrate our last Wainwright. We decided each of us who would wear a commemorative hat for our last walk. I'd design Mo's hat, Mo will design Calse's Hat, and Calse will design mine. 

The sun had disappeared now and the sky was grey. It was a reasonably flat route from Hart Side to the top of Sticks Pass. Raise loomed in front of us.  The north face catches the snow and there is a ski tow that operates at more favourable times of the year.  A few years back I remember even seeing a paraglider skier up here.

The summit of Raise was buzzing with people and we headed downhill for a while to get a quiet spot for lunch. 

White Side

It's an easy traverse from Raise to White Side's summit and it wasn't long before we were up there on our fifth and last Wainwright summit of the day. In the distance we could see dozens of people crossing Striding Edge and walking over the top of Helvellyn. A younger self would have continued from White Side up to Helvellyn and then down Striding Edge, but with age comes good sense, and so we headed back to Glenridding on the Keppel Cove track. Even this 'easy' descent track jarred the knees on the zig-zags down to Keppel Cove. We made the occasional stop to properly admire the amphitheatre of Catstye Cam, Helvellyn and White Side. At the Youth Hostel we picked up walkers from the other paths that congregate at this point, and it was a battalion of tired walkers that marched along Greenside Road.

When we reached the car park we looked up at the crags of Glenridding Dodd and reflected on those amazing views down on to Ullswater from a few hours before. It had been a hard day, but well worth it.