Despite enjoying an extended lunch taking nearly six hours to complete a three/four hour walk just about summed up the terrain we encountered today. It's fair to say the past couple of months have been somewhat dry and you'd think such conditions would reflect on even the soggiest of fells but not here in the apptly named Wet Sleddale.
We're here today walking on the fringe of Lakeland in an area not blessed with paths but blessed with beautiful, wild, isolated scenery. An area reserved as Birkett put it for the enthusiastic roamer, a place where ones efforts are rewarded with wildlife and rolling grassy ridges. Birkett so rightly named this walk Sleddale Pike and Wasdale Pike above Wet Sleddale but it's also known as the Wet Sleddale Horseshoe.
I can fully recommend this walk but its a walk for the prepared walker, the summits are linked by isolated grassy paths but gaining them from the valley is arduous underfoot and care has to be taken should the weather close in when knowing how to navigate would become a necessity. |