Journal Entries

Well, there's Patterdale, where I'll be staying tonight, but I'm now headed uphill and away from it. The clouds are still thick. I hope that changes sometime soon.

Part of why today is going to be long is because I'm heading down most of the way to Patterdale, then going back toward Grasmere over St Sunday Crag, then back to Patterdale via Hellvellyn. That's a lot of climbing. I was going to do the mountains first, but they're so thick with fog that I'm going to do the low route first, in hopes that it will clear eventually.

One of my plans was to camp up here last night, at Grisedale Tarn, but it rained a lot in the night and it's not much drier now. I think I made a decent choice. A few school groups were camped up here, and they didn't look too happy when I passed them on the way up. Then again, when are school groups ever happy about getting rained on?

Today is going to be a long day. I got a nice, early start out of Grasmere, and climbed out of town into the clouds. There was a bit of rain, but the fog is really the amazing part of the morning. They say that on a walk across England you'll get swallowed by thick fog at some point. I think today will be the day.

This is the Youth Hostel in Grasmere. It's in a 200-year-old stone mansion. Well this is not quite like the hostels I'm used to. And, as I'll find out in the days to come, Youth Hostels are pretty swanky!

Today is a relatively short day, going into the large town of Grasmere. William Wordsworth made this town famous, and I'm kind of excited to get some good touristy food down there. The hills are crawling with people today, though. Apparently Grasmere is a real big tourist draw.

It's hard to describe just how extensive the network of old stone walls in this area is. They go straight up over mountains, crawling through valleys, and nothing can stand in their way. This shot, from Helm Crag, really just scratches the surface. The guidebook mentions something like 125,000 miles of dry-stone walls throughout Britain. I'm surprised it's that little.

After Greenup Edge pass, with the clouds clearing so thoroughly, there's the option of taking the ridge walk route over Far Easedale Gill, or down in the dale. When there are mountains and views involved, though, it's not really a choice.

The steepest part of the climb goes to Lining Crag. It seems a lot taller than it is, which seems to be a pattern here. And the clouds that blew in overnight are starting to clear very nicely.

Greenup Gill has several lovely waterfalls along its length. I can never get a picture that does them justice, although this is the best I got. The sun has been in my eyes all morning so far.