Mosedale

Mosedale is a wonderful valley and was a joy to walk along. On our right the grass stretched upwards to meet Kirk Fell’s scree slopes. On our left, Yewbarrow presented an impregnable, sheer rocky face. From the end of Yebarrow’s northern ridge , a vertical gash ran down into the valley. This was Dorehead Screes. The loose rock had been badly eroded by walkers wanting a fast descent to Wasdale Inn. I’ve never seen anybody use it and it now looks too dangerous. Straight in front of us, Red Pike, Scoat Fell and the mighty Pillar formed a towering barrier at the end of the valley. 

It was a fine flat path along the Mosedale valley. It wasn’t until we neared the end that it swung to the right for the climb up to Black Sail Pass. The ascent was gradual though and didn’t seem to require too much effort. After a while we had to cross Gatherstone Beck. The view back along the beck to Yewbarrow was stunning. 

On the tramp up to the top of the pass, I played a game of What Time Is It Mr Wolf with the wolf ahead of me. When he stopped for a rest and looked back at me, I’d also stop, turn around and look down the valley. We played this game until I finally caught up with him at the top of the pass. 

Ennerdale

I half expected the wolf to shout 'Dinner Time!' when I approached him for a chat. He did have furry jowls, but only a human sized snout. I've seen American Werewolf In London though, and so I kept my distance. He had a northeast accent and said that he was from Chester-le-Street, although he was originally born in Barrow-in-Furness. His son was waiting for him about 200 yards away further up the path towards Pillar. The wolf said that he was ex-army. ‘If you were in the army, shouldn’t you be leading your son?’ I asked him. ‘The 20 year age difference might have something to do with that’ he told me. Clouds had descended and the top of Pillar couldn’t be seen. It seemed that he wouldn’t be getting a view today. I was glad I’d chosen a lower level walk. He plodded off towards his son and towards the mist.

The head of the Ennerdale valley was now before us and we headed down on a boggy path that was steep and slippery in places. Kirk Fell looked totally different on its Ennerdale side. Gone were the grass and scree slopes of the Wasdale valley, to be replaced by the vertical Kirkfell and Boat How Crags. The Black Sail Youth Hostel could be seen in the valley bottom. There was even a car parked outside it which seemed odd in such a remote place.  The weather was closing in now and I wondered if we might be in for some rain. 

It didn’t seem to take long to reach the River Lisa at the bottom of the valley. My OS map had promised me that there would be a footbridge crossing the river, but there was just empty space where its span should have been. The bridge abutments on either bank were still there. I guessed it must have been swept away at some point. We’d seen a group of walkers further downstream, that had originally been on our side of the river, but was now on the other. A wander downstream for a couple of hundred metres didn’t reveal any suitable place to cross. Maybe they’d just paddled across. We set off back upstream in the hope that there would be less water further up enabling a suitable traverse point. It wasn't long before we found a good point near to where Loft Beck joins the river. 

A series of grassy humps known as the Tongue gradually made their way up the hillside to the valley rim. They reminded me of the humps on the Loch Ness monster. We followed the track over Nessie’s humps towards the clouds.  At the top we stopped for lunch. The cloud ceiling now felt within touching distance. Our lunch spot should have had a spectacular view of the massive Gable Crag, but all we could see was greyness. Afterlunch we contoured around the head of the valley below Gable Crag. We heard a number of voices and then saw a large walking group descend out of the mist from Windy Gap.  The followed us up to Beck Head. At the top of the pass at Beck Head we were able to look down into the Wasdale valley again. There was a fantastic view of Wast Water stretched out below us. We headed down towards it. 

Descent To Wasdale

The path down into Wasdale was quite awkward. It was steeper than I remembered, but its most troublesome aspect was that it was being constantly fed by the rocks from Great Gable’s scree slopes. Walking on it was a bit like trying to walk downhill on marbles. It was definitely a path on which to use trekking poles. The woman in front of us didn’t have any and she made slow progress. Unfortunately she was reluctant to let us pass and so it was a slow descent. It didn’t bother us that much since it gave us the opportunity to admire that wonderful view down the Wasdale valley. Further down the path, a couple of fell runners descended down the screes from the crags above us. The OS map showed a footpath down from there, but there wasn’t much evidence of one in reality. It didn’t seem to hinder the fell runners though as they scree ran their way down the slope. I was disappointed to find that the couple looked about 10 years older than me as they intercepted our path. They continued their fast descent, making our efforts look quite pathetic. 

I’m not ashamed to say that I gave a sigh of relief when we reached the valley floor. That was a tough path. It would have been easier going up that path than coming down. In fact, I think this walk would probably have been better done in the anti-clockwise direction. We followed the Moses’ Trod path back towards Wasdale Head and called in at the small St Olaf’s church. Joss Naylor, the Lakeland fell runner superhero, died in June and this is where he was buried. There was a simple rock on his grave, rather than a gravestone, which I thought was a nice touch. 

There were plenty of cars parked on Wasdale Head's common ground when we returned. I couldn’t see any additional litter compared to this morning. It had been an enjoyable walk. We had made the most of what had been a grey, low-cloud level day. The only thing I’d have probably changed about the day was walking the route in reverse to make that Beck Head path a tad easier.