My eldest son asked if I would like to go for a hike the day before my birthday, thinking nothing of this I agreed, he arranged the route and duly collected me from my home mid morning for a 30 minute drive to Loweswater.
The area he choose for the hike was new to me, to be honest I never paid much attention to this area for hiking, how wrong was I !!.
Our route began on the shores of Loweswater, then tracked along the bottom of Darling Fell, from there we turned right due east to pick up a path that followed Crabtree Beck, from there we turned right again to summit Bield Fell.
The ascent took us a leisurely hour or so, stopping a couple of times to get some photos using my compact camera, having decided not to bring my DSLR kit this time.
Upon reaching the summit I was amazed of the view this provided looking due east along Crummock Water, with Buttermere in the far distance along with Fleetwith Pike, Haystacks etc. The low cloud added some considerable atmosphere to the view.
I made a mental note that this would be a ideal location to capture a sunrise which would include Crummock, Buttermere lakes along with Mellbreak, Rannerdale and possibly Grasmoor fells.
A location to revisit.
From the summit of Bield Fell we tracked north along Raven Crag, before turning left toward Fellbarrow, from the summit of Fellbarrow we descended onto Mosser fell to pick up the old pack road that was our route back to the car.
In total a route of about 5.5 miles which took us about 2.5 hours, with this including the stops along the way. This was a comfortable walk for me, some steep inclines, but these were manageable, and the descents were not too punishing on the old knees.
Did I miss taking the DSLR, possibly, but as a scouting hike this hit the nail on the head. Plans to be made to return with the DSLR for a hopeful sunrise shot.
The day was finished off with a cool pint in the Wheatshief Inn at Lorton on our way home, this capped off a great days hike.
