After a week of heavy rainfall across the Lake District and Frank enduring the wrath of the weather on Blencathra Thursday night, a couple of us (ie myself and Lea) decided to endure the weather for the Hika-Camp trip around the Thirlmere Valley.
The Thirlmere Valley is located within the northern side of the lake district, it is surrounded by the Helvellyn mountain range on the east and numerous fells on the west.
With Friday evening being a complete washout we decided to set off first thing Saturday morning and hit the trail at 8am sharp. We started our hike at Threkeld just off the A66, from here we climbed up past the old quarries onto the our first Wainwright of the trip, Clough Head. The weather was looking clear with a few passing showers heading over the valley.
(Lea happy with the first Wainwright of the trip.)
From here we continued to head south across the tops of the mountain range ticking off Calfhow Pike, Great Dodd, Watsons Dodd, Stybarrow Dodd, Raise and onto Helvellyn. Once we fought our way through the crowds of families, instagrammers and hill walkers we managed to get a photo at the highest point of our trip.
We continued heading south for Grasmere passing Nethermost Pike, High Crag and Dollywaggon Pike. All this talk of Wainwrights was thirsty work and with Grasmere insight, the pace stepped up to enjoy a jar of the golden ale itself.
After a good feed in the local pub and a pound of the worlds famous ginger bread in our bags we made our way up to Easedale Tarn. Hiking after a good pie and a few pints is surprisingly difficult but we managed to find our way before the sunset to establish camp and pitch our tents.
Thankfully the weather kept calm during the night for a somewhat achy nights sleep.
Come the morning we made our way up to High Raise, where the weather took a turn for the worse and we was battered by driving rain and low visibility making it difficult to navigate. We made for the quickest way of the exposed mountain tops and found ourselves in the boggiest valley I have come across in the Lakes, the Wyth Burn Valley. After 2 hours of arduous walking we found ourselves at the southern end of Thirlmere and opted for the lakeside path / road back to Threlkeld in the relentless weather, with our backpacks feeling double the weight with the being sodden.
We finally managed to get back to the car covering 55km of walking and climbing over 2200m in height over the two days.
Wow, looks wet, wild and awesome. You covered some good ground too!