Lake District National Park

Yet again, take a look at the pics that go with this post at: http://picasaweb.google.com/bbergey/TheLakeDistrict

Last weekend I decided to set off on my newest adventure up north to The Lake District National Park. The weather had been complete rubbish in London all week and I almost decided not to go, plus I didn't have a train ticket or anything planned out, but decided I'd better go anyway. I left work a little early on Friday, rushed home to grab my prepared backpack and got to the train station to buy my ticket. I was then on a 4 hour train ride to the small town of Windermere. I have to admit that it's pretty embarrassing walking and taking the tube through London during rush hour in hiking clothes with a huge backpack...tent, trekking poles and all! It's also real hard not having the luxury of a car when hiking to have a place to put "normal" clothes and conveniences you want to take with you but don't want to carry while hiking (like jeans).

Windermere is about 220 miles northwest of London near the coast. On the first leg of my journey, I sat next to a very nice old man who talked to me quite a bit, mostly about his favorite places in the UK - primarily Scotland. I also used the time to look at the mess of bus schedules and trail options I printed. After about 3.5 hours I had to switch trains to get to my destination. On this smaller train, I looked across and saw a girl wearing a Michigan State cross country jacket. I asked her if she went there and she said she did and ran cross country. We then discovered that she knows and ran with Liz! Sarah is now living with her grandpa in Windermere until she finds a job where she would like to move in Sheffield. We exchanged numbers and there is more to come about her a bit later in the post.

Windermere is just up the banks of the largest lake in England, Lake Windermere. I believe it is approx. 10.5 miles long and sits at the foot of the mountains of the national park. Since it was after 10pm, I got a taxi up the road about 2 miles to the Hostel for the night. I met a guy and his wife staying in the hostel who had a Leadville, CO shirt on and came to find out that he travels quite a bit for work and runs a lot of ultra mountain races. He ran one in Leadville (but not the famous 100) and also hiked Mt. Elbert. He gave me a book that he was reading about a poet who spent his life hiking in the Lake District. I need to post it back to him.

In the morning, I quickly filled up on the hostel provided breakfast and caught the bus another 10 miles up the road through Ambleside to the trailhead I chose where an old farm and the Old Dungeon Gyll Hotel sits. I met a very nice, yet flustered, old lady on the bus whose husband died 4 years ago. She was going to hike to the place where his ashes were spread. From here I started my hike for the day which included 3 summits and probably around 10 miles.

The peaks of the Lake District are pretty impressive. Once you are in them, they are very rugged and scenic and it amazed me how similar the landscape looked to the Rockies. The peaks are all about 3000 feet high, but when you take into consideration that the trailhead is basically at sea level, that's a decent ascent. These are the highest peaks in England, and Scotland only has one peak higher. The peaks I summited on Saturday, in order, were Crinkle Crags, Bow Fell and Esk Pike. It was incredibly green and there was endless amounts of water rushing down the mountains creating deep gorges and waterfalls along the way. The weather was decent - it didn't rain which is all that can really be asked. Saturday was partly sunny which made for some neat pics but it was real cold and windy on the ridges and summits. Sunday was calmer but pretty cloudy up top, in fact I was in the clouds at some points. Unfortunately the cold temp drained my camera batteries, so I was squeezing every last ounce of energy I could from the 6 batteries I brought.

After hiking all day on Saturday, and being quite cold, I was looking forward to a nice hot meal at camp. I found an amazing lake (tarn) called Sprinkling Tarn and set up camp there. I finally got the stove out to prepare dinner and it wouldn't start. Now obviously I should have tested this out before I left since it hadn't been used since last fall, but I didn't. I hadn't even thought that the fuel I purchased at an outdoor shop earlier in the week wasn't usable by my stove. I believe this fuel was alcohol based and it needs to use white gas, which I don't think they really have in the US. This week I'll be researching where I can find this type of fuel (if I can) or if I just need to buy a whole new stove. Unfortunately I was stuck eating cold oatmeal with dried fruit and almonds and energy bars vs. my rice and hot cocoa. Same in the morning. It wasn't bad, but wasn't what I was hoping. It was quite cold that night and although it didn't hit freezing, I'm sure it was close.

On Sunday I got up and summited the tallest mountain in England before I hiked out. Scaffel Pike is 3209 feet high and I was sitting in fog/clouds almost the entire time I was up top. It was also quite strenuous hiking up and it reminded me of the Boulderfield and even parts of the Trough of Colorado's Longs Peak. I met a man on top who took a ski trip to Colorado a few years ago and loved it!

I was able to hike back to the trailhead using a different route, which made the whole trip one big loop that I'm guessing probably covered about 17-20 miles. That's a pretty big guesstimate though, pretty much just based on the time it took. I changed clothes and got a sandwich at the old hotel's hiker bar and waited for the next bus to come to take me back to Ambleside.

Ambleside reminded me a little bit of Estes Park in that it is one of the main gateway towns into the national park. However, it was incredibly beautiful and quaint (although busy) and had tons of outdoor shops that I wish I could have explored more. I had to catch the bus back to Windermere which got me back a couple hours before my train left, so I gave Sarah a call and she showed me around town and a short hike up Orrest Head with amazing views of the lake and the countryside. She also showed me her grandpa's 100 year old house that sits on acres of an amazing garden he somehow keeps up. I'm still shocked how much work it must take to do what he does, the garden was huge and was as nice as a garden you'd pay admission to see! She also fed me a bunch of her grandpa's food. Having just moved to the UK, she is also looking for people to hike and travel with so hopefully we'll get a chance to do some stuff together soon!

Overall, it was the best trip I've taken so far and I'm so glad I decided to go. After my birthday this week, I'm taking of to the Alps of Switzerland for 5 days. Don't worry, I got my a 4GB memory card for my camera so there will be no shortage of pics.