Walk Four - High Street & Beyond

Right, I should come clean at the very start of this post and admit that this wasn't actually walk four of our Lake District holiday. It was really walk five. However, walk four was a horrid experience, a day of grey, that was loathed by me from start to finish. We walked from Glenridding up to Raise and White Side but it was hideous. The cloud was so low there was nothing to see, the wind blew until I thought it would drive me mad  and I would have given anything to be transported from that fellside back to our lovely warm cottage. Anyway, it's not a walk I care to relive, here or anywhere. But I guess you'd got that already.

So, it was amazing in a way that on the Thursday of our trip, I was togged up and ready to go from the Brothers Water car park by 9am again. I've always been keen to walk High Street and today was the day.

We walked into Hartsop and began the climb to Hayeswater. This was a lovely stretch of walking and we made good progress. However, as we crossed the stream that flows downhill from Hayeswater, the cloud descended, the wind whipped up and the hail started. I have a very clear memory of standing, balancing on one leg, trying to get into my over-trousers whilst being smacked in the face by hail stones that were coming horizontally at me across the hillside. British holidaying at its very best!

Thankfully, the hail stopped as we made our way up to the ridge and turned to quickly nip up to the peak of The Knott. This was great - literally a 100m walk from the main path and boom, you've bagged another Wainwright. Excellent. And, for a little moment, High Street's flat back was visible in the distance.

From here, we walked across the wide High Street ridge and made our way to the trig point on the top. Hunkering down behind the wall, devouring a well earned bar of chocolate, my phone suddenly decided to get a 3G signal and our strides towards our next peak were accompanied by the pinging and ringing of endless messages arriving. It was, in an odd way, quite reassuring because by this point, the cloud was so low and so thick that it seemed like nothing lived beyond 5 metres ahead. At least my phone was proving there was civilisation out there. We just couldn't see it.

Thornthwaite Crag was our next stop and the beacon here is a very welcome sight as it appeared out of the pea-soup fog. From here, we dropped steeply off the fell and finally, there was light again and the beginnings of a view appeared again to us. We stopped for another snack and contemplated whether we should just head down and back (along the wonderfully named Pasture Bottom - which makes me snigger a little every time!) or head up what looked like quite a steep scramble toward Stony Cove Pike. The scramble won and up we went again. Storm was clearly channeling her inner mountain goat as she nimbly hopped upwards while I made my way up with all the grace and co-ordination of Anne Widdecombe on Strictly. At least I wasn't dressed in bright purple lycra so we should be grateful for small mercies.

From Stony Cove Pike, the adrenaline clearly kicked in and we positively skipped our way gently down along the ridge to Hartsop Dodd, our last peak of the day. And this was a wonderful spot. The cloud had lifted slightly, the sun was started to peak out and from the cairn here, we had absolutely stunning views over Ullswater. On this walk, we'd really felt all the Lakes have to offer.

Desending back to Hartsop, we returned to the car park and Storm was rewarded with a swim in the stream. She had already been gently bathed by the mist and fog that clung to her eyebrows and whiskers and gave her the look of a dog ten times her age but now she immersed herself in the clearest of Lake District water. And, with just one day of walking left, her Lake District baptism was almost complete.