The Bob - Easter Recce

Good Friday Leg 3
Easter proved to be a challenging 3 day unsupported round, carrying camping kit and food.
I started from Dunmail Raise on Friday morning in fell shoes and a 12kg pack. The weather was cold and misty which was no problem to start with but by Bow Fell I was moving into unknown territory following advice on the best route up. I got slightly lost and cooled down rapidly as well as slipping constantly in shoes too light for the load I was carrying and not good enough for the wet rock. It stayed grim for the next 3 hours across the Central Fells but I was caught by Rick and Julie from Dark Peak who were also out reccing and were randomly starting the same time as me for their attempt. We chatted till Broad Stand which livened me up. I'd read how to do it and ditched my pack before climbing round the first step. I then pulled my pack up an set to work getting up the second - of course I now know not to attempt Broad Stand in the wet but with much slipping a dubious use of the 10 year old rope I got up. I decided it was too dangerous to haul up my pack though so had to descend Foxes Tarn and retrieve it from the first step before heading down to Wasdale for the night (27km 9:36 hours).

Saturday
Next day was better weather as I heading up Yarrowbarrow. Rick and Julie caught me up on Kirk Fell and said they'd had problems finding their way out of Lord's Rake so had been late off as well and also explained why I hadn't seen them on the summit of Scafell. They soon left me to a continue my trek to Braithwaite Campsite. It was now hot and I got to the campsite about 8pm this would have been fine if the showers weren't the best I've ever seen in a campsite and the cafe had shut when I came out! It was a long walk into Keswick to find some food so I succombed to a taxi to get me back (31km 11 hours).

Easter Sunday
I decided to leave the tent pitched and do the last day fast and light, this was good in theory but meant I didn't have the option of camping again and doing it over 4 days. For various reasons such as walking back into Keswick I didn't start till 10:30am so it was 3pm before I got to Threlkeld. I stopped for a pint and lunch as it was hot, I'd made a bad choice of socks, so my feet hurt and Clough Head wasn't appealing. Thankfully it was a still night and by 8:30pm I was heading towards Helvellyn where some hardy campers were surprised to see me. Fairfield at night was lonely although there were campers at Grisedale Tarn so I knew I wasn't totally out of range of other humans. I staggered back to the car around midnight and drove back to the chippy which was closing and gave me everything they had left in the display cabinet - grease overload :-)

Monday
I headed South and finally picked up my new bike (a Whyte 19) from Wheelbase and cycled about 17km in 2:20 which was plenty, my legs were heavy to say the least!