Wednesday 14 June 2023 - A Great British Ridge Walk – Number 11 – Dow Crag and Coniston Old Man

I've done this walk many times before and couldn't resist getting out in the ongoing fine weather, combining the walk with a visit to Jim and Cathy in Water Yeat.

Since my last visit, the end of the Walna Scar Road has been sanitised into a car park costing £5 for up to 4 hours, and £8.50 for up to a day. Apparently the popularity of the Lake District during the Covid era has been such that without proper control, parking has been a real problem. It's quite simple - if you disagree, park elsewhere, and I did see a few folk walking up and down the hill to Walna Scar.

I walked all the way up the Walna Scar Road to the ridge to Brown Pike.

Looking across to the southern end of Coniston Water

The gentle gradient of the Walna Scar Road stretches out ahead

Another view back to Coniston Water

Wild Thyme lined the path

The path at the Walna Scar col leads to the Duddon valley; I turned right to ascend Brown Pike

Harter Fell and the Scafell summits come into view here

From Brown Pike, the path continues upwards to Buck Pike, with the OMC now clear in the distance

From Buck Pike it's an easy stroll across to Dow Crag, 

albeit there's a short scramble to reach the summit (just right of centre)

En route, a steep gully that some brave folk use as a means of ascent!

There's a good view from the summit of Dow Crag, across to OMC and down to Goat's Water

The Scafells from Dow Crag

I then chose the easy gradient of the Brim Fell path, with good views back to Dow Crag

Nice views to Seathwaite Tarn and Harter Fell

Brim Fell and OMC

Dow Crag from OMC

OMC summit, looking back towards Brim Fell

Coniston Water, from my lunch spot on OMC

Before descending steeply to Low Water I pondered the alleged absence of upland birds in the Lake District, suggested in a book that Sue is currently reading - Wild Fell, by Lee Schofield. That wasn't my experience today. I saw lots of mainly small birds such as wheatears, meadow pipits and skylarks, with many seagulls of several types on the summit. I didn't spot any plovers, curlew, oyster catchers or grouse.

It's a steep, zigzagy path to Low Water. Having seen only nine people in the 3 hours or so that it took me to reach OMC's summit, I now met many folk (including the bikini and flipflop brigade) enduring the unpleasant ascent.

I had good views down to Coniston Water and village

The 'tourist path' up OMC is being upgraded; can you spot some of the many 

bags of rock on the path, awaiting installation?

If you click on this picture you should be able to make out the Wild Swimmer of Low Water. 

Had Sue been with me there would have been a long delay at this point

The next, and last, two pictures of this sequence show mining detritus beside the path leading down from Low Water, a reminder that hundreds of quarrymen and miners lived here not so long ago, before the age of Lake District tourism.

By the time I got back to the car at the Walna Scar Road car park, I'd covered 11km and ascended some 700 metres, taking a little over four and a half hours. Here's my route (click on the map for a better image).

Previous reports on this walk (or similar) can be found here and here, to name just two, but I have been up Coniston Old Man loads of times.

Before heading for a supermarket then home to cook dinner before a SWOG evening walk, I had the pleasure of calling in to see Jim and Cathy, who were already students in the TDHHC (UMIST) hiking club when I went to UMIST in 1967. So we've been friends for over 55 years. Frightening! Their house is in a nice spot, with ready access to the lake. The view below is what they enjoy from their chairs in the garden.

It was good to see you, albeit briefly, and I hope to come again soon.

Friday 2 June 2023 - Y Garn and the Glyders

 
This is one of my favourite walks, and a surprise that I haven't followed the route since 10 October 2018.

Today's weather matched that in 2018, and Sue and I enjoyed he 12km circuit at a leisurely pace, taking over 7 hours compared with the usual 5 hours taken for this walk. I am slowing down.

It was busy by Llyn Ogwen, but we found a space to park about a 15 minute walk from Ogwen Cottage. At least that enabled us to relish the flat start, with good views along Llyn Ogwen.

After an 8 o'clock start from home, a walk, and a leisurely coffee and cake at the Visitor Centre, it was 11 o'clock by the time we set off up the hill.

They have installed some posts with holes that you can look through to see the hill that is named on the post.

The path to Llyn Idwal is very well surfaced and accommodates hundreds of walkers every day.

Tormentil

We left the crowds after reaching Llyn Idwal, and slowly rose up the slopes of Y Garn, meeting just three people before encountering a guided group of 10 or so on the summit. This picture taken near Llyn Idwal shows the majority of our day's route - click on the image for a better version.

The sky was a clear blue colour, but thankfully it wasn't too hot.

The summit of Y Garn reveals good views of the Snowdon massif and beyond - towards the Llŷn Peninsula.

In the other direction, the Carnedds and Tryfan.

Down at Llyn y Cwm, we found a fine spot for lunch, under the beady eyes of a watchful herring gull.

A further short but slow slog got us up to the 1001 metre summit of Glyder Fawr.

There's a good view back to the eroded path up Y Garn.

Ahead, the gnarly summit of Glyder Fach.

There were the usual good views across to Snowdon.

I'm sure we took some pictures at the summit of Glyder Fach, reached with some rock climbing children - Sue must have them.

She then ventured onto the Cantilever rock for a bit of yoga.

Then it was down to the Tryfan col path junction for another break and to finish off our second flask.

The path down from here is strewn with bags of rocks that will be eased into position by way of reparation of the eroded route.

The stile at Tryfan col marks the start of the final, sometimes rocky, descent to Ogwen Cottage.

The water in Llyn Bochlwyd looked pretty cold, but that wasn't putting off some hardy 'wild swimmers'.

Here's the 12km (or so) route, which involves over 1000 metres ascent. It's a classic. Today it took us nearly 7.5 hours, but in the past it has taken just 5 hours.

Fish (three fishes actually) and chips in a park in Ruthin rounded off a great day out.