Continuing with my time in Lakeland this week today we were forced to ditch a high level route over Striding Edge and Helvellyn due to low cloud and rain which which had been forecasted to arrive mid to late morning if the forecasters were correct, although I must stress the mountain forecast conflicted and if truth be told it was all up in the air so in the end experience won and sadly our high level walk was shelved for another day, the good news was however, I didn't have to wait too long until it was back on track again.

We now had the choice on where to walk if we were to avoid the low cloud which was predicted to be as low as 300m so after time spent staring at the computer I came up with this route and asked David what he thought? Aye sounds good to me.

This route had the best of everything with the Lake path along the shores of Ullswater to extended views over Patterdale and Kirkstone Pass and the beautiful greenery of the Deepdale and Dove Valleys before ending our walk back to Martindale New Church where we had started via the Boredale Valley, right about the same time it started to rain.

Despite today being a Friday morning the roads were busy on route to Martindale but soon freed up once the A66 was left first passing through a rather busy Pooley Bridge before driving through the narrow lanes alongside Ullswater through to Howtown and finally Martindale new Church after having negotiated the steep zigzags where the boy in me always rears. The car park opposite the new Church is relatively busy leaving room for around three cars before David and I leave that to just one.

The morning air is warm and muggy to start and the humidity doesn't seem to be touching that of yesterday, well for now anyway. We kit up making behind our cars wearing just shorts and short sleeve base layers before adding waterproof trousers and jackets to our packs just in case we get caught in the flash rain showers that haven't been away from the forecast this past twenty four hours.

With the cars locked we head out passing the new Church with walking poles extended all the while we are surprised to see quite a few of our surroundings summits completely free from cloud meaning we may have to chop and change our route as we go along, after all we've already changed one walk because of the low cloud and didn't really want to get caught out again.

It was just like a scene from the Mary Celeste when after deciding to summit Place Fell later we dropped into Sandwick and came across five fully ladened packs dumped on the ground, there was even a radio playing and water bottles had just been left strewn across the path like who's ever packs these where had just been abducted by aliens.

As it turns out the packs belonged to a group of Duke of Edinburgh kids who later caught up with us close to Silver Bay which was great to see the youth of today out on the fell side but to just dump your packs straight off your back in the middle of a path leaving a radio blaring, come on kids, any unsavoury character could of had your gear and packs and been long gone before you got back from wherever you had been.

St Sunday Crag, Birks and Thorneyhow End are almost all below cloud now. Although low cloud certainly isn't a strange occurrence in Lakeland watching the cloud drop so low late into the morning was something that I hadn't witnessed before, yes on the hill but never so low into the valleys.

The good news was we could have been crossing Striding Edge right about now, it was agreed we had made the right choice at having to cancel that walk even if it did sting a-bit for yours truly.

Although Place Fell was still cloud free back at Boredale Hause and by the time we reached Martindale New Church the cloud we had seen earlier was hovering above the summit by which time those drops of rain in the air had started to fall as a light shower but it didn't matter because with lunch just up the hill and with two comfy deck chairs to eat it from it drew a great mornings walk to an end.