Sasquatch!

'What the hell is that?' I gasped. We'd be climbing up the footpath from the carpark at Beck Wythop when a large beast loped on to the track about a hundred yards ahead of us. It was a brown-reddish colour and looked to have a white chest. 'Is it a fox?' said the Cabin Boy. 'Too small' I replied. 'It's a red squirrel' said the Kapitan. Both me and the Cabin Boy looked at each other and rolled our eyes. We also had a good chortle. 'Have you seen the size of it?' I snapped at the Kapitan, '...and that grotesque carnivorous face? It's a bloody Sasquatch, man!' I said, as I manoeuvred my camera to get a shot of it. Unfortunately, I'd started shaking from the encounter and consequently my photo was blurred, as the beast loped off into the undergrowth dragging its knuckles. Well, that was a good start to the walk; you don't see many Sasquatches about and it was the first one I'd ever seen in Wythop Woods.

Ladies Table

The first Explorer hill on the list was Ladies Table. Unfortunately the Tree Troublers had nuked the area around it and it wasn't obvious how we could reach its summit. Whatever roads were shown on the OS map were now rerouted or covered with debris. We made our way around to the northwest of the summit and managed to get into the area of woodland labelled as Hogg Park on the OS map. This was very pleasant woodland and I wasn't sure if this was still part of the forestry group's property. Just over the ridge line we found a large brown bear. Well, a wooden one. This was turning into a very unusual walk. Further up the hillside we spotted another one pawing at a tree trunk. The Kapitan wandered over to this one and couldn't resist hugging it from behind. It didn't leave much to the imagination. 'Well, nobody else was going to do it?' when me and the Cabin Boy gave him disgusted looks. 'Too right there' I replied. We then carried out a survey of this whole woodland area and found lots of other wooden creatures including deer, turkey, goat, fox, ram, racoon and ginger cat. The Kapitan was particularly fascinated by a crocodile with a human head in its mouth. All of these were labelled with numbers and were apparently targets on an air-rifle shooting course. I personally would've preferred to have  seen the wildlife targets replaced by manakins dressed as aristocrats. Eventually we came across a makeshift sign pinned to a tree, saying that shooters should ensure that no walkers were about before they fired. We followed a trail that went close to Wythop Hall and then some field hopping took us back to our entry point into the wood.

Sale, Rivings And Lothwaite

We field hopped to Sale Fell and then headed westwards along a track that ran along its base. It was a very pleasant trail with good views southwards to Lord's Seat and Broom Fell. We eventually came to the ruins of Wythop Church. We knew this because a large stone was placed in its ruins with 'Site Of Wythop Old Church' inscribed on to it. It only had a small floor area and so there must have only been a few people in the congregation or there may have been a lot of worshipers that were very thin. We continued along the track and found a very comfortable bench outside the buildings at Kelswick, where we sat down to drink coffee and study Ling Fell on the opposite side of the valley. I also wondered whether the owner of Kelswick had wanted to buy a home in Keswick and misspelt the location to their Estate Agent.

We continued along the track until we got to the west side of the fell and then we climbed steeply upwards to Dodd Crag. It offered a wonderful view over to Ling Fell. The summit to Sale Fell was now just a short hike away along a pleasant, grassy path. We found it occupied by a man, two women and three dogs. They seemed obsessed with taking selfies with their dogs and so we never actually got to stand on the summit. On the way to Lothwaite I had a 'senior moment' when I had to work out how to get through an improvised gate in a stone wall. The gate consisted of 3 metal grills and various ties with hairy string. As I studied it to work out which ties were supposed to be hinges and which were latches, I wondered whether it was designed as a sliding gate with the middle grill. I tried this, but found it wouldn't slide because of one of the ties. As I now gave the left side of the complex my attention, the Kapitan went to the right side and opened it straight away. A couple had been approaching the gate from the opposite direction and were guffawing. 'It's a bit like the Krypton Factor' said the bloke. I felt like saying that I was too young to know about the Krypton Factor but he looked old enough... but I didn't.

There was a stunning view over to Bassenthwaite Lake and Skiddaw from Lothwaite. We sat down on a nearby bench to have our lunch and admire the view. As I chomped on my cheese sarnie I heard, 'STOP, STOP, GEDEEEAR...NOW!' I turned around to see a dog that looked as though he was preparing to cock his leg up against my rucksack, which was propped up at the back of the bench. I grabbed my rucksack and put it next to me on the bench. 'He's just looking for crumbs' said the bloke as a way of explanation for his dog cocking his leg. It was the same group that had commandeered the summit of Sale Fell. They now set up camp 15 yards from us and started taking dozens of selfies of themselves and their dogs. I couldn't really settle after this encounter and I was glad when we set off to complete our last Explorer hill of the day, Rivings. This particular hill had rather a flat summit although it did support a large cairn. Well, that was all the summits ticked for the day and we started heading down.

Return

I remembered the gorse bushes on the descent from Sales Fell from our previous visit. Some of them were chest height and encroached on to the track. I was glad when we got to the bottom of the fell and away from their needles. We field hopped our way back to Wythop Woods and we started descending on the same footpath that we'd used this morning. We kept a canny eye out for the Sasquatch but it must have a shy character since he didn't make a reappearance. 

Despite the Cabin Boy's tardy start, it had been an excellent walk. It's not every walk that one encounters a Sasquatch and then stumble across a crocodile with a human head in its mouth. I'm hoping for an early start tomorrow in order to do the Loweswater walk that I wanted to do today. It all depends on the vagaries of the Cabin Boy's sleeping pattern though.