Last year I put up a post about how a friend and I had decided we would start to try and tick off some of the Wainwright fells in the Lake District (you can read that here). Last week we went back for more!
Why Go To The Lake District?
Super easy question! If you like being outdoors you can’t go wrong! The Lake District is one of those places that is picture perfect around almost every turn.
It is, however, somewhere with unpredictable weather and often referred to as one of the spots in the UK with the most rain so need to be ready to adapt your plans and keep checking the forecast! The plus side of it being somewhere with a lot of rain means it is very green and lush and when there is a lot of water the waterfalls are in full force and lakes full.
You can also spot a red squirrel although we were not so lucky.
If hiking the fells is not for you there are many outdoor activity centres with different things on offer and of course many lakes to walk around that do not include the climbing and are most suitable for prams and wheelchairs when using the paths.
Accommodation
Last time we stayed in a yurt but as we were staying for longer this time we thought it might be good to have a proper bed, bathroom and facilities to wash kit so we opted for a cottage in Keswick. We stayed in Crag Cottage with Sally’s Cottages and it was very central so we could walk to everywhere in town. There is no onsite parking so you do need to leave your car in the nearby car park but the cost of this, for one car, is included in the booking cost.
Keswick has a number of outdoor stores so if you need any additional kit there is plenty of choice and many a nice pub too to refuel post hike!
How Dog Friendly Is It?
I didn’t take our dog as she is 13.5 years old now and the walks would be too long and too tough for her but my friend took her two cockers and they loved it!
I would also note that almost all shops and pubs we went were dog friendly, which is nice, some had towels for muddy paws, dog menus and all had fresh water and treats too.
You will see other dogs on the walks and if you are unsure check the route out online and see as there are some ridges where people do not advise taking dogs – it is more commons sense. If you do walk with the dogs just be conscious of your surroundings and signs for farm animals – it was lambing season when we were there so there were a lot of signs asking for dogs to be kept on leads.
Planning A Route
I mentioned in my previous post that we had found the website from The Walking Englishman, which includes routs to tick off multiple summits across a number of walks as well as the GPX file. We did have a Garmin GPSMAP 66ST to load the routes on to but also our phones and both had the Ordnance Survey app we could load the route to as well.
I will fully admit that my friend Lee was master navigator and was amazing as we found with the some of the routes that they were not sticking to paths and we did not want to trespass across farmer land so needed to adapt and also quite a few times we found there was no path, which was interesting!
Kit
In my last post I listed my kit and it was pretty much the same, however, I think for next time I will look to downsize my backpack. I have an Osprey Radial, which is 26 to 34 litres as it can expand and I love this bag – really comfortable and great for hiking, cycle commuting and everyday use. However, I found that I didn’t need this much space for my kit and so when I was scrambling there was a bit of movement. As someone who is not the most confident when scrambling, movement in the bag did not help so I think next time I may look to invest in one slightly smaller but ensure I can still fit the essentials.
What Progress Did We Make?
This time round we completed 16 more, including the following:
- Allen Crags
- Barf
- Broom Fell
- Dodd
- Fellbarrow
- Glaramara
- Graystones
- Kirk Fell
- Latrigg (sunrise hike)
- Ling Fell
- Lords Seat
- Low Fell
- Rannerdale Knotts (sunset hike)
- Sale Fell
- Seathewaite Fell
- Walla Crag
We covered over 53 miles and over 15,000ft of climbing. This takes our total now to 27/214 so still a very long way to go!
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