Sunday 30th November 2008
This final walk of my short holiday in the Lake District involved a cracking climb up a spectacular valley to the high moorland top of Knott and then a traverse of the hills to the top of High Pike. The weather, as it had been the previous day, was fabulous: bitterly cold but with gorgeous bright sunshine, clear blue skies and stunning snow-covered scenery. I began my walk from the tiny village of Fell Side on the northern edge of the Lake District where I set off down a track into the valley of the Dale Beck. Crossing the stream by a footbridge I continued up the path deeper into the secluded valley where signs of former mining activity could be seen dotted around, particularly on the steep watercourse I was heading for. After passing by several ravines I made my way towards the most intimidating of them all, Roughton Gill, a dark, steep and rocky watercourse that is highly recommended by Wainwright himself. Climbing up to the foot of the ravine my path faded to leave me with a rough scramble up the stream, which was a situation made triply hard by the large amount of the water coming down the stream at this time of the year and the ice that was liberally sprinkled throughout the course of the stream.
Despite my best efforts to keep as close to the stream as possible, at one point I had to climb onto the hillside high above the stream in order to get past a particularly troublesome and spectacular looking obstacle of ice and rock. I had enormous fun trying to climb that ravine and enjoyed every moment, but I think it would have been more enjoyable in the summer when there was no ice and considerably less water in the stream. Then, I’m sure one could follow the stream-bed all the way up the ravine, which is an endeavour well worth undertaking, hopefully at some point in the not to distant future. Above the cascades in the rocky ravine, the stream meandered through a small valley and the path meandered with it constantly swapping sides as the stream zigzagged across the high terrain until eventually it split into many smaller streams and into the marshland on the hilltop. Here my fun ended as I made a tiresome trek through the snow and heather across the featureless and pathless terrain up to the top of my final Wainwright in the Northern Fells, Knott.
After celebrating my achievement by taking loads of pictures of my stunning surroundings I set off along a faint path across the top of the hill and down the hillside on the left to cross Grainsgill Beck. The paths in this area are usually very wet, but fortunately on this day they were all frozen so I had little problem traversing them, which is why I had deliberately come at this time of the year. My only previous visit to this area of the Lake District was in January of this year, when the paths were also frozen. After my tiring effort to get up to the top of Knott through pathless heather, these paths were an absolute breeze as I almost sailed along the clear paths in perfect weather. On the other side of the stream the clear paths led me the way all the way up to the top of High Pike where the clear weather afforded me with stunning views of the northern fells all around me and across the grassy slopes of High Pike that fall to the plains north of the Lake District.
After celebrating my achievement by taking loads of pictures of my stunning surroundings I set off along a faint path across the top of the hill and down the hillside on the left to cross Grainsgill Beck. The paths in this area are usually very wet, but fortunately on this day they were all frozen so I had little problem traversing them, which is why I had deliberately come at this time of the year. My only previous visit to this area of the Lake District was in January of this year, when the paths were also frozen. After my tiring effort to get up to the top of Knott through pathless heather, these paths were an absolute breeze as I almost sailed along the clear paths in perfect weather. On the other side of the stream the clear paths led me the way all the way up to the top of High Pike where the clear weather afforded me with stunning views of the northern fells all around me and across the grassy slopes of High Pike that fall to the plains north of the Lake District. 
After a rest at the summit on a seat that incongruously finds itself at this point I headed down off the fell across the wide expansive, grassy hillside following a path that was clear in the snow and led me all the way down to Fell Side, past the many evidences of the former Caldbeck mines on Fellside Brow. I was back at my car by lunchtime as I wanted to visit my brother on the way home, but this was still a really enjoyable walk with the weather helping me to make the most of a relatively quiet corner of the Lake District. A thin covering of snow, clear blue skies and mist in the valleys made for a beautiful and serene picture that was an utter joy to walk in. This was a lovely end to a wonderful couple of days in the Lake District when the weather was just perfect for walking.
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