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Date & start time: Thursday 10th September 2009. midday start.

Location of Start : Chapel Bridge, Newlands Valley, Cumbria, Uk ( NY 143 211 )

Places visited : Little Town, Yewthwaite Comb, Bull Crag, Maiden Moor, High Spy, Dale Head Tarn, returning via the waterfalls along the Newlands Valley.

Walk details : 7 mls, 2150 ft, 5 hrs 30 mins including lunch.

Highest point : High Spy summit 2,143ft ( 653m)

Walked with : Ann, Jo and the dogs, Jodie, Amber, Harry and Bethan.

Weather : Suuny and very warm.

[Click the drop down menu bar for your choice of Google map or photo hybrid ]

 Maiden Moor and High Spy at EveryTrail

 

A beautiful day with blue skies and a new camera to try and cope with.

We walk the more unusual route up Maiden Moor then decide to extend the route south to High Spy, returning via the Newlands Valley waterfalls.

The start at Chapel Bridge car park, but it's midday and all the places are taken.

Fortunately we can park just a little further on, beyond the bridge.

Up the road a short distance and we pick up the valley track and then climb further up the slope onto the old Yewthwaite Comb mine road.

Looking back, there's the Little Town houses below and the distinctive shape of Causey Pike across the valley.

Ann, Jo and Jodie lead the way up into the comb.

To the left the spoil heaps and scars of years of mining are still evident.

Rather than take the direct path to Hause Gate we take our preferred route more directly up towards Maiden Moor.

In the Wainwright Guide as an alternative route up, this avoids the rough ground through the mines and climbs diagonally up through the heather.

A beautifully clear day with superb visibility.

Bassenthwaite Lake is just visible as we climb and Skiddaw stands cloud free opposite the end of the Newlands Valley.

Bright sun and dark shadows play havoc with the exposure on any camera,

but it seems to have taken a reasonable shot of Harry and Bethan here, as they wait for the rest of us to catch up.

" Come back Amber ! "

Leaving the valley, we reach more level ground.

The two green routes opposite lead left to Catbells summit and right to Hause Gate, the path we left in favour of our present one.

The crowds are out on Catbells today . . . and it's only a Thursday !

The heather is just turning brown in places

but this patch still retains it's late summer colours.

A quick diversion for the dogs to have a drink at the small tarn below.

On up the rather faint path but the old sheepfold makes an obvious way point to aim for.

From here up the path gets much steeper as we climb up through Bull Crags towards the summit.

Teenagers . . . living on the edge !

Bethan goes over to admire the view as it unfolds across Scope End, High Snab, Newlands Pass and all the way to Great Borne.

Looking the other way, we discover that we have a good view of Derwent Water, clear now above Hause Gate.

In the distance is Blencathra with Walla Crag, the wooded slope mid photo opposite Keswick.

Zooming in on Catbells, the telephoto creating it's own special, almost three dimensional effect.

Time to stop and enjoy the view as I, and two other gentlemen walkers reach the summit of Maiden Moor.

A late start means lunch earlier in the walk than usual and this seems a good place to stop.

We've reached the summit so finished our ascent for a while . . . we don't cope well with climbing on a full stomach !

Our lunchtime view . . . down to the old Goldscope Mines and to Low Snab Farm

Who needs a hand glider ?

Catbells looked a bit busy earlier so we decide on a change of route and head south along the Maiden Moor ridge towards Blea Crags.

The full length of Derwent water now reflects the beautiful blue sky.

It's steep down this side too as we look down to Grange in the Borrowdale Valley.

The double bridge can be seen reaching over the widened River Derwent as it passes the village.

Looking east, past Blea Crags to Helvellyn.

High Spy with my little eye . . . something beginning with 'R'.

[ I was actually replacing a few fallen stones that had fallen off the other side of the structure.]

Looking into the sun at the Scafells and Great Gable

as the girls set off from the highest point of our walk, taking the path down towards Dale Head Tarn.

Far Tongue Gill and the zig-zags we used a few weeks ago.
The impressive Miners Crags on the southern end of High Spy.

An un-named boggy patch alongside the path as we head for Dale Head tarn, hidden behind the middle craggy ground.

Close up the tarn reflects the blue skies and is bigger than it first appears.

The sheepfold at Dale Head Tarn.

Always a favourite place for walkers to stop because of the dry ground and the pleasant green grass on which to relax.

Someone else has the same idea as myself.

An artistic shot of the pond weed

The ripples in the middle were in fact caused by a small water beetle . . . but he was just too small to see.

The water now starts it's decent, first from the tarn . . .
. . . then over the edge, quickly towards the valley below.

However we take our time,

descending through the boulders and stones on the edge of the Miner's Crag scree.

The first of the waterfalls . . . more of an extended water shute.

The crags behind the falls are the Lake's second set of Great Gable Crags.

The middle falls, plunging sixty of seventy feet into the pool.
Down again past a bright Rowan tree to a third waterfall.

Time for a swim ?

Ok for Harry . . . but Jo and I pass on a swim today as the water is decidedly cold and the warming sunshine has gone from this part of the valley.

Making our way down to the valley bottom,

we leave the swim in the waterfalls for another day.

Continuing our way back down alongside the river, we regain the familiar outline of Causey Pike ahead.

Low Snab Farm, which we saw from above over lunchtime.

- - - o o o - - -

From here we returned to Chapel Bridge and the car but not before we met a car coming up the hill.

In it were two people that recognised our little group through the photos on Loweswatercam.

Welcome to the Lakes . . . Koen and Ans !

What better way to end a great walk than to enjoy new company over a beer (or coffee) at the Swinside Inn.

Ans and Koen are over on holiday from Belgium and are regular Loweswatercam viewers . . . thanks for introducing yourselves.

Now this picture has travelled far . . . taken by Koen, sent to their cousins Luc & Ria in Belgium the next day

and then sent to me . . . to reach the 'net even before the photographer has reached his home !

No doubt it will reach Koen and Ans site before too long . . . their web-link is www. photo-memories.be

- - - o o o - - -

 

Technical note: Pictures taken with either Ann's Canon 75 or my Canon G10 Digital camera.

Resized in Photoshop, and built up on a Dreamweaver web builder.

This site best viewed with . . . two recognisable retriever dogs in tow.

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Previous walk - Wed 9th Sept 2009 The Hopegill Head Ridge walk

A previous time up here - 6th January 2009 White Maiden Moor

Next walk - Sat 12th Sept 2009 Coniston Old Man via Grey Friar