I'd originally planned to walk Birketts Great Borne walk today but the forecast looked more favourable in the east of the park so I referred to my mapping software to see where I hadn't walked for a while when a cicuit of the Hayeswater fells jumped right out at me.

Besides Mardale Head the hamlet of Hartsop during my early days as a novice fell walker was the place to go offering a central base from which I could explore the east and far eastern fells, in fact, today whilst ascending High Street I was reminded of my first ascent after setting off from Hartsop with Steve, it had snowed heavily the previous day and we hit the snow line just above what was back then, Hayeswater Reservoir.

After trudging through knee deep snow High Street beckoned, the trouble was our energy reserves had been depleted and my memory from that day was how we egged each other on, now 33 summits later High Street feels more like a family member to me rather than foe. It's funny how some memories never fade and that's why these fells will always mean so much to me.

i had planned to arrive by 9am but after waking before my alarm clock I set of early arriving at a rather crowded Hartsop car park around 8:30am. I'd already passed through a few light rain showers whilst driving over the Kirkstone Pass, I wasn't expecting much in the way of views so you can imagine my surprise when I found Gray Crag and its surrounding summits cloud free which left me feeling like I'd just found a twenty pound note in an old jacket.

As with all of my walks this month I'm wearing a light pair of walking trousers instead of shorts which I'm not happy about but as David said the other day as we spoke about this week's forecast "it is Summer" therefore don't expect too much. Aside my long trousers it is mild and I set off with my Montane soft shell stuffed in my pack which I will call upon later into the walk.

There are two main descent routes from Gray Crag, both are rather steep descending easterly (right) from the summit and takes in a pathless descent back to Hayeswater, the second path being a narrow path first down the spine of the summit which then descends down the nose of the fell towards the right, this was my choice of descent today and had I not have chosen it I wouldn't have witnessed three farmers coraling around a hundred sheep on the south flank of Brock Crags, each farmer had a sheep dog who shouted orders at their dogs which in turn lead the sheep down onto the footpath besides Hayeswater Gill before continuing to direct the sheep towards the sheep pens on the outskirts of the hartsop.

My descent of Gray Crag would have only taken me the best part of twenty minutes which was made longer by watching the sheep dogs and farmers in action, it was a splendid end to what had turned out to be another great day on the fells.