August 8: Climbing Skiddaw
It rained for much of the last two days. On Wednesday (August 6), Rachel and I ran wedding errands in Maryport and Cockermouth. The groomsmen are renting their morning suits (coats and tails AND hats!) from Tom Little, a husband and wife-run suit shop in Maryport. I swear the 50 minutes we spent in there sorting out the sizes for all the gents could have happened 100 years ago. Mr. Little had a measuring tape draped over his neck, and he kept leather-bound paper ledgers of all the events he has suited up. Rachel's sister Cassie was married in 2005 and Tom Little provided the gear. When it came to sizes for men who also attended Cassie's wedding, Mr. Little went upstairs, brought down his 2005 book, opened it to the appropriate day, and there it was, all the necessary numbers. Pshaw to computers! He also knew, of course, about half the wedding party personally. Ah, small towns.
Rachel ran off to London for a haircut on Thursday, and I stayed inside all day working. It poured and poured, and I drank about 8 cups of tea. But the weather today (Friday) was clear and dry. So, what do you do with such good weather? Go climb a fell of course!
My third "walk" would be Skiddaw, a 3053 foot climb overlooking Derwent Water and Bassenthwaite Lake just north of the Lakes town of Keswick. (I just love the names of things around there. I feel like I'm living in a Tolkien novel.) This time I wore the proper shoes!
Most of Skiddaw was a walk, not a scramble, but it was a steady, steep ascent the whole way up. My calves and rear end got a work out, I can tell you. Each time I thought we had reached the top, another hill crest appeared. The path became mostly slate and a bit slippery for the last 30 minutes. And the view! Absolutely breathtaking. First of all, Skiddaw itself is quite lovely. It is covered in lavender heather, which was all abloom, and spotted with sheep of course! As in the Buttermere walk, sheep graze freely here, living quite a nice life I think before the slaughterhouse. Second, green fields and two tremendous bodies of water spread out in the valley below. And finally, the great fells of the Lake District rise all around us. The whole trip took us four hours and thankfully the weather held up. Once again, my attempt to capture the jaw-dropping beauty with my camera:
Rachel figuring out which direction to lead us up Skiddaw.
Lavender heather abloom on the fellside.
A view of Derwent Water on the way up.
A view of Bassenthwaite Lake on the way up.
Keswick of the Lake District and fells beyond.
I'm standing on Skiddaw, nearing the peak.
For the way down, Rachel and I took Longside Edge,
a ridge path along the top of a slowly slopping fell.
You can see the path and part of the ridge to the left.