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" Latrigg with Dee and John "

Date & start time:    Saturday 16th September 2017,  3.30 pm.

Location of Start :   Gale Road car park, Underscar, Cumbria, Uk. ( NY 280 753 )

Places visited :         Latrigg summit, down towards Brundholme and back.

Walk details :             2 miles, 325 feet of ascent, 1 hour 10 mins.

Highest point :          Latrigg, 1,203ft - 368m

Walked with :             Dee and John, Ann and our dogs, Harry and Dylan.

Weather :                    Overcast and showery.  A strong breeze.

© Crown copyright. All rights reserved. Licence number PU 100034184.

 

Dee and John, with a bit more time for themselves, are over in their flat in Keswick. 

We join forces for a walk up Latrigg despite a poor forecast and then head back for an evening at their home.

Let's hope it doesn't rain while we are out on the walk this afternoon.

Gale Road . . . they've improved the tarmac all the way to the top but left the gravel surface at the end.

Consequently they haven't marked any parking bays and the folk on the right have parked lengthwise.

That'll be a problem on a busy day.

We escape the road and head for the path to the summit.

Rather than the direct ascent we'll take the gravel path . . . rough though it is . . . which was developed for wheelchairs.

Looking back at the cars . . . our hopes of a dry walk have failed as a rain shower moves across the fells.

Waterproofs on but it's nothing too serious.

However it does give an interesting light as the shower is very localised . . . just over us it seems !

Well . . . it's over them as well.
Dylan reaches the chair first.

With such an exposed position the chair is open to the elements

but it makes interesting viewing as the rain showers pass around us.

Down below is the Underscar holiday complex . . . once a hotel, it is now up market time-share apartments.

In the green field below the development there's a vast collection of posts in the field which we'll check out on the way back down.

Also spotted down on the valley floor is a newly laid pipeline.

It will take spare Thirlmere water to the west coast of Cumbria.

From the chair we make our way up the slope towards the summit of Latrigg.

The rain seems to be easing back and we are out of the rain clouds at last.

Looking down on Keswick.

Those on the boats on Derwent Water will be suffering the rain for just a short while longer.

Down below us, new affordable housing in the Sheep Dog fields.
A short way to a summit full of people.

The view down as the rain moves away up the Borrowdale Valley . . .

. . . clearing out of the Thirlmere Valley too.

Twa Dogs . . . our two on the summit . . . and also the name of the pub down below us in the Windebrow area of Keswick.

We stroll out along the ridge of Latrigg . . . which gradually declines to the east.

- - - o o o - - -

 

Part way along there's a fence

and a gate with a rather bright notice upon it.

If you proceed on towards Brundleholme

hoping for a walk back along the old railway track

you'll be sadly disappointed as there are still sections closed

due to the 2015 floods.

 

- - - o o o - - -

There are other options but the authorities do not want you to be caught out by the missing bridges.

The pastel nature of the map made reading difficult without glasses . . . not much better at home

I think they've over emphasised the dotted lines . . . or under-emphasised the base map beneath them.

Still . . . we have our return route to the car nicely mapped out so we continue on a short distance.

The weather has cleared sufficiently to give us a complete view of the northern end of the Helvellyn Ridge,

from Clough Head all the way to Helvellyn summit in the distance.

Castlerigg Stone Circle is in the field on the bottom left behind the larger group of trees.

High Rigg is the undulating minor fell and the summit of Helvellyn is the darker area of fell behind Helvellyn Lower Man.

Patches of strong sunlight on distant Cross Fell give the appearance of forestry . . . but it is just a trick of the light.

If you look carefully you can make out the white dot of the radar station on the summit of the iconic Pennine fell.

The path continues on towards Brundleholme . . . but we'll take a left soon and follow the grey track back to the cars.

- - - o o o - - -

 

Time for a picture of a nice tree.

 

- - - o o o - - -

 

 

The track runs along the back of the fell

skirting a patch of part-felled forestry.

 

It is an easy walk back

to the car from here.

 

- - - o o o - - -

I think this is where we came in . . . as they used to say in the cinema.

Time to head back down after our hour or so walk

A quick photo stop on the way back down.

Yes . . . the field below Underscar has been set out and planted with a vineyard . . . English wines of the future.

 

- - - o o o - - -

As we were driving slowly down,

we stopped a second time to check out the site

of the new pipeline.

An information board

and an entrance site for the heavy equipment

needed to lay the double pipeline

around the back of Bassenthwaite Lake.

- - - o o o - - -

 

The store of pipes waiting to be laid in the next section of trenches.

- - - o o o - - -

During the week I travelled over to Keswick on my own this time . . . the car was in for an MOT test.

" We'll do it while you wait . . . provided you don't mind waiting a while."

To pass the time I took a stroll down to the Boat Landings . . . passing this willow sculpture opposite the Theatre.

Couldn't decide its purpose so I've framed Carlside in the open archway.

The weather's not much better today than last Saturday.

Derwent Isle . . seen over the boat jetties.

Looking back to the boathouse, with Dodd and Longside Edge in the background.

In Hope Park the flowers are trying to add colour to this rather drab day.

A white flower display on the lawn next to the road.

Colourful windows at Maysons.
Mmm . . .where shall I have a cup of coffee this morning ?

No contest . . . Abrahams here we come.

The only thing that slowed me down was chatting to all my ex-colleagues whom I met inside . . . cheers guys.

- - - o o o - - -

We also enjoyed some bright sunny days this week too.

Here's Harry down at Crummock Water . . . with the classic background of Grasmoor.

A picture of the Pump House . . . the take-off tower for the Crummock Water drinking water supply.

The building and the pipelines it controls will be redundant in a few years once that Thirlmere supply come on-line.

- - - o o o - - -

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Click here to see the full details and to order your copy.

 

Technical note: Pictures taken with either Ann's Panasonic Lumix TZ60, or my Panasonic Lumix Gx8 Camera.

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

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Previous walk - 12th September 2017 - Helen  and Garden Wildlife

A previous time up here - 29th March 2011 Lowe Alpine / Fishers Latrigg Walk

Next walk - 25th September 2017 - Cinderdale with Jill and Nigel