Carlisle & District Rambling & Fellwalking Club
Walk & Event Reports
Sunday 26th June 2016
A Walk
Floutern Tarn
11miles Grade 1
Leader: Peter Flynn
B Walk
Brackenthwaite How - Rannerdale Knotts
8 Miles Grade 2/3
Leader: Roger Tringham
Reports & Photos By John McKay & Peter Flynn
A Walk
Of the seven who set off from the bus at Buttermere, we had one person who was on her first A walk, Susan. She asked a curious and very interesting question, several times. “Is this typical of an A walk?” Forget Brexit or Messrs Corbyn, Cameron and Johnson; this question had us all really thinking. Was it typical that when the leader stopped to use the rustic facilities, the group should follow their noses at a high rate of knots and head of on the broad, wide path in totally the wrong direction? Was it typical that Phil should clamber up quite a tricky, and very wet scramble to get a good view of Scale Force, as though he had been doing this all his life? (I subsequently found out that this was because a certain Mr Daltry of the group Who had had his photo taken there, but I had already disappeared with my camera and only found this out afterwards.) Was it typical that we had a pleasant extra morning tea stop when one of our number accidentally left his rucksack and had to go back for it? Was it perhaps the beautiful and lonely valley that took us on pretty well non-existent paths up to Flautern Tarn, nestling below the crags of Great Borne? Or the delightful lunch stop half way up the crags, where Ian told us about a scary moment on what is termed a “quivering bog”, in the area we were heading for? Perhaps it was the quite strenuous climb up to the Great Borne – Red Pike ridge, and the thick mist coming down which made climbing Starling Dodd (the location of the above quiverer), down past Little Dodd, and finding the quite tricky path in heavy rain and thick mist back down to Scales Beck and the waterfall. Or was it the great charge, once we had reached slightly easier ground, back to the bus, surviving the looks and comments of the other folk who had all had pleasant walks round the lake, followed by long periods in the local coffee shop, because we had the termerity to be 15 minutes late? In a sense the answer is that it was none of these individually but all of them collectively. The real answer, I feel, is that it was a small group of friends who for a few hours, shared a variety of experiences, had a good laugh and for whom, during that few hours, nothing else existed beyond the mountains, the valleys, the slippery rocks, the beautiful sights of the Lake District, and who felt a real sense of achievement at the end. A great walk, thanks to everyone coming and let’s hope we have many more “typical” A walks.
Peter
B Walk
Eight of us set off on the B walk on a lovely morning in Buttermere. Despite the easy pace, in no time at all we found ourselves at the summit of Brackenthwaite How enjoying some great views of this lovely area. We then had a leisurely stroll back down and made our way along the side of Crummock Water towards Rannerdale Knotts. We sat and had an early lunch in lovely sunny weather before tackling the ascent of Rannerdale Knotts. The group split at this point with the main party taking the more gentle route and Heather and I taking the tougher steeper route to the summit. We joined up again at the top and made our way down to Buttermere. Along the way we passed the sad sight of a newly born lamb which seemed to be in quite a bit of distress, we tried helping it on to its feet but it just fell down again. When we arrived in Buttermere we were greeted by the unusual sight of an AA van lying on its side in the middle of the road. Apparently while attending a breakdown the driver left the handbrake off and the van rolled off down the hill, how embarrassing for the driver. We had some lovely refreshments in Sykes Farm Coffee Shop before heading back to the bus for the journey back to Carlisle. A lovely day, thanks to all that came along and many thanks to Roger for leading.
John
