This post is about a Windemere to Penrith traverse, crossing over high-street and bagging 16 fells along the way.
The trip started with an outragously early start of 5am, before catching a train from Euston all the way up to Windemere train station. The excitement was palpable – this was my first time back in the fells for almost a year and I was desperate to get moving. After an hours wait, I met a friend, who had travelled up from Wales, and after distrubuting the group kit, and having a quick lunch, we set off into the fells.
The start of the route consisted of 5km or so of low farmland, before joining the Garburn road (not actually a road, but a wide track). This took us up onto the ridge, where we’d stay for the next two days. I have to admit, this was one of the less enjoyable parts of the walk, the weather was really closing in and the visibility was non-existant, somewhat deducting from the enjoyment of the walking.
Upon reaching the ridge, we quickly diverted up Swallows, before continuing along the ridge to Yoke. Here, we dropped down to Rainsborrow Crag to pitch up.
The weather was evidently not ideal, so we got into the tent and got a few hours kip: neither of us had had more than three hours of sleep the night before, so it was fair to say we were absolutely exhausted.
“Wake up”, I whispered my friend at around 6:30pm. I unzipped the tent and looked outside to see a stunning vista. We had pitched above a large crag, so we knew the views would be good, but we were both amazed at quite how stunning it truly was.
The views drew us up to the top of III Bell, where we enjoyed a stunning sunset.
Once we arrived back at the tent, we settled down and enjoyed a good nights rest.
We started early the next morning. The day was a big one, about 30km with 1500m of climbing (an awful lot with heavy expedition bags). We left camp at around 8:30 and set off walking.
The route took us up towards Thornthwaite Beacon, then down towards Harter Fell.
From Harter Fell, we headed up and over High Street.
From High Street, we headed across to Rest Dodd, then down to Angle Tarn.
From Angle Tarn, we traversed back up to High Raise, then dropped down to Red Crag tarn to spend the night.
Here, we spend an enjoyable night, and enjoyed a glorious sunset.
The next morning, we woke up knowing that it would be our last day on the hill. It always makes the heart sting knowing that by this evening, we’d be back in the big smoke. Especially when you wake up to views like this.
At first we walked up to Loadpot Hill, before traversing down to Stockbridge and across to Penrith. This was not a particularly nice route, especially after we got down from Loadpot hill and left the Lake District behind.
We arrived at Penrith exhausted. We’d covered 60km with about 3000m of climbing (with 1500m of that on day 2!). Fish and chips managed to pick us up a little, before we caught the train home.
Closing Thoughts
This was one of the most enjoyable backpacking routes I’ve done. We managed to avoid the crowds during a busy week in the Lake District, and avoid roads and civillisation for two days. I have now doubt I will repeat this route, and I would recommend it to anyone looking to do a backpacking route in the Lake District.
Oscar Outdoors 