Sunday 23rd May 2021
After a cold and wet night spent camped at the top of Caudale Moor I woke to find snow around my tent, although there was very little elsewhere. During a gap in the rain I had my breakfast and when the rain started up again I retreated to my tent to sit it out, until finally it stopped raining at a quarter to nine, when I broke camp and set off down to Threshwaite Mouth. My plan for this holiday had been to echo my 2018 holiday when I had set myself the challenge of visiting the top of all the high fells, those more than two and a half thousand feet high. For this holiday I was going to climb all the less high fells, those between two thousand and two and a half thousand feet high, but that plan was in ruins due to the weather. However, as I was descending to Threshwaite Mouth it wasn’t raining and there was hardly any wind (I was probably sheltered from the wind), so the thought occurred to me that I could continue with my plan even though that involved walking over High Street and High Raise to reach Wether Hill and Loadpot Hill. Fortunately this lunacy was prevented by the timely return of the rain just as I reached the bottom of the pass, so there I turned left to descend into Threshwaite Glen.
Wainwright recommended walking through Threshwaite Glen, but I had never been through this valley before and I liked what I saw as the weather slowly improved with the raining stopping and a little sunlight could be seen breaking through in the distance. A steep descent from Threshwaite Mouth brought me into Threshwaite Cove before another steep descent brought me into the Glen that is marked on Ordnance Survey maps as Pasture Bottom, until eventually I came into the village of Hartsop. While the bad weather held off, but with my plan in tatters, I decided to walk along Patterdale on a delightful path through woodland to Angletarn Beck before branching off towards Boredale Hause slowly climbing up to Angletarn Pikes. These are not less high fells so had not been on my plan for this holiday, but I had decided to climb them when I realised I had never climbed these fells before, from the valley, as all the previous times I had visited them had been on ridge routes, on my way down into Patterdale.
The relatively good weather that I had enjoyed in Threshwaite Glen and Patterdale was gone by the time I reached Boredale Hause as it started raining again and as I climbed towards Angletarn Pikes the wind picked up. Turning off the main path that crosses to the west of the Pikes I took to a groove in the grass that passes to the north of the Pikes, but I failed to break off from this path to reach the highest point and instead followed it to a grassy mound east of the Pikes. Frustrated that this was not the highest point I sought shelter from the wind behind the grassy mound and had my lunch before setting off through the strong winds to climb up to the highest point on the Angletarn Pikes where the winds were so ferociously strong I could barely stand. Quickly retreating back down the northern slopes I decided the fells were not a good place to be on this day and continued the descent down the northern, grassy slopes to reach Boredale Hause and continued the descent into Patterdale where the weather seemed benign. I now had a problem as it was only two o’clock and I had no idea what to do for the rest of the afternoon with the much better weather in the valley adding to my frustration.
Eventually I decided to head onto the path that follows the shore of Ullswater around the foot of Place Fell that Wainwright described as the most beautiful and rewarding walk in Lakeland, however, that is when doing it in the opposite direction. I took the higher and craggier of the two paths that go from Patterdale to Silver Bay where I had initially thought I would immediately return to Patterdale on the lower path, but when I got to the junction beside Silver Bay it seemed far too early for me to turn back, so I turned right and continued along the lakeside path thinking I could easily return through Boredale. Despite being a low level route, the lakeside path feels like a great mountain path, such as the Corridor Route on the Scafell Pikes, so I really enjoyed the undulating woodland path that I had last taken in 2016, going in the other, better direction. When I reached Sandwick I joined a narrow road just as the rain started to get heavy again while the wind that I had been sheltered from while on the lakeside path was now making its presence known as I slowly made my way along Boredale in the deteriorating weather.
I had never walked through Boredale before, but the weather was not helping and it seemed to take me forever to reach Boredale Head and beyond that I struggled up the track through the heavy rain and strong wind until eventually I reached Boredale Hause and descended once more into Patterdale. All afternoon I had had the fanciful idea of being able to camp at the Patterdale Youth Hostel and I had blissful visions of using their facilities so it would feel like old times when there were no restrictions. My daydream was shattered when I discovered what had always been inevitable that the youth hostel was closed, so I staggered down the road and into Deepdale until I was eventually out of sight of the last house in the valley, whereupon I put up my tent and never came out again. I wasn’t enjoying camping, especially in this weather, and I was really missing the many youth hostels that I usually stay at when I'm in the Lake District.
This day was completely ruined by the rain and all my plans were in the bin including the fells on the far eastern edge of the Lake District that I had planned to visit this day like Loadpot Hill, which I had previously visited just once before, in 2004, but this has such a broad grassy top it needs good weather, which I never had on this walk. Sitting in my tent that evening while the rain continued to fall, I decided that the less high fells challenge that I had set myself should be abandoned and instead I just wanted to do a good walk based on the weather, and when I thought about it I decided that I had just done a good walk. I enjoyed walking down Threshwaite Glen and along Patterdale, though the climb up to Angletarn Pikes was not enjoyable, but I did enjoy the walk beside Ullswater until it started raining and then the walk was ruined.
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