This walk was something straight out of the hat, something during the week that I spied a weather window with my name written all over it, it was debateable early on during the week that which day was going to be the best? Wednesday or Thursday? I finally decide on Thursday & I couldn’t of picked a more clearer day If I had tried. I knew my next walk was going to be Bessyboot, ask me how I know? I don’t, it just comes to me just like the next one will & at this rate I am fast running out of fells, after today I will have only ten new Wainwright’s then I start all over again… hold that thought, while writing this sentence I have just chosen my next walk…but I’m keeping it to myself.

1, Rosthwaite Fell (Bessyboot)

Beautiful Clear Sky’s, Little To No Wind, Highs Of 16° Lows Of 6°

Stonethwaite, (Next To Phone Box)

With no trouble whatsoever parking in the middle of Stonethwaite I shoulder pack & head through the sunlit narrow lanes & pick up the flow of the Langstrath Beck to my left. Here I had to have my wits about me as It was only a few weeks ago I took this path on an ascent Of Eagle Crag, that day, what I didn’t remember was walking past a sty or gate for Big Stranger Gill & the footpath that will lead me onto Rosthwaite Fell (Bessyboot).

No glamour shot I’m afraid, after a ten minute walk out of Stonthwaite this is just what I was looking for, right opposite the Campsite. This path isn’t on the 1:50 nor the 1:25 scale Ordinance Survey Maps so be sure to look out for this gate on making an ascent on Bessyboot

With Big Stranger Gill (I love that name) to my right I make my ascent through the woods until the path opens up a little to reveal the top of Bull Crag, the path here is steep, I knew this as I’d read about it before hand, no steeper I thought to myself as the identical path on the opposite side of the valley where I was ascending Great Crag just a few weeks ago, the geology here is almost identical & so it should be I thought, this valley was cut with the same ice-sheet.

I loved this path, I really did, there’s nothing better than to take the steepness out of a climb than a  carefully placed stone, which indeed, was just what this path is, except today & while on the lower slopes of the path these rocks had morning dew on them, I kid you not it was like walking over Ice, with no sun at the lower levels this was a moss & dew paradise, I lost count of the amount of times I slipped & slide while on the path, I deemed it safer to stick to the sides which is just what I did, why walk on the pavement when you can walk in the gutter came to mind!

To take my mind of the slippery ascent I play a guessing game, this I enjoyed immensely, still being boy like & coming from the motor industry I try to pick up the sound of motor I hear-it dominates my ascent, throughout the lower part of the walk this sounds like a moped, a moped? its definitely two stroke-or could it be one? I’m not to sure… anyway who in there right mind would ride a moped on those tracks down there? I keep guessing… I know! its a hedge trimmer- that’s what it is, all I can here is this rev-rev revving.

I stop like a hunter gatherer; sniff the air & say, it could well be a petrol chainsaw…

This is the cause of walking with ones self for to long…stimulating conversation to myself about two-stroke engines…jeez

From Rosthwaite’’s Fell (Bessyboot) here, looking towards the mass of Skiddaw, Carl Side, Dodd & Ullcock Pike, further to the right we have Latrigg, its small summit of which, I deem a personal best viewing platform of Lakeland.

This view changes my whole day, My plan for today was to claim Bessyboot & then make my way south west & take in the summit of Glaramara, a summit I have been many times before, but this was within my route, then a return over Combe Head & then back to Stonthwaite, all within my means & most certainly my right knee.

Mmm, what if I don’t head for Glaramara? what If Paul, you make your way down Bessyboot’s western flanks thus cutting short the walk & head for the Honister Pass?

This got the butterflies in my belly going & when this happens there’s very little I can do to stop them, I make with my plan &  head down the rock & grass strewn flanks of Bessyboot trying my best to pick out a path, any path, I take out my GPS from my pack & find that I am about 40yards of a supposed path so with this I make my way over & find nothing, this is a little frustrating, over the years I have been walking I find I am at least good at two things, One; Leaving my sunglasses on summits & two; Finding path’s.

The western flanks of Bessyboot aren’t steep at all so I make my own way down somewhere in between Rottenstone Gill & Dry Gill, it was here I pass another walker & the topic of first conversation was of: where’s the path? well I said, my GPS tells me we are exactly upon it but I see nothing except strewn boulders & grass, not to bother, he replies there’s only one way I’m heading & that’s up, he asked about Tarn At Leaves & how did it look, I replied if your lucky like me you’ll have it all to yourself, its still, calm & without a breath of wind with views all around, I say Farwell to my fellow walker as I am reminded of how Wainwright described Tarn At Leaves as it has ‘no appeal’ & thought to myself I actually liked it.

Talking of great viewing platforms, here’s two in one day.

After a short descent I now find myself at the lower flanks of Bessyboot which by now is nicely filling up with visitors, I head for the wall just off centre right & through the swamped fields of Chapel House Farm.

I did as  was told hurriedly & find the next souvenir shop, I daren’t interrupt the shop assistant again so while I wait second in queue I take a look at the displays & one in-particular a Honister Slate key ring stand with the alphabet letters stamped in to each key ring, I twirl the stand & find P, Christ-there heavy I say to myself, at this point my work mode ‘kicks in’ If I was to put this key ring on the car keys with that kind of weight, the weight pulling on the tumblers will eventually for want of word put it ‘****’ the ignition barrel.

I am such a geek at times.

I have many other reasons for that butterfly effect that graced my belly not an hour ago & they are the history, & more to the point the men & the mining that over the past millennia-that  have dug the many shafts with-in the honister area. I will not pretend to know the ins & outs of Honister but that doesn’t stop me being flawed by what went on here day in day out for 365 days a year, Fleetwith Pike for me does not feel like a mountain, it feels like a work place of which many a man perished to put food on his own table just so us ordinary folk could have the likes of bloody good roof over our heads way back in the nineteenth & twentieth century’s.

Just a few feet off the track lays this old Winding Drum, once used & I think if I’m correct fed by gravity to pull the slate trucks.

Now on the summit plateau with just a couple of hundred feet to go I somehow felt at this time that this was not how I imagined the summit to look like, either way I press on with the knee now feeling a little more sturdy given the fact that the swelling has not increased this gives me comfort for the descent.

I must admit; today I have been lucky with the views. again Fleetwith Pike is a wonderful platform.

Although you cant see it the summit is awash with walkers, dotted here, there & everywhere, I get talking to two walkers up from the Midlands that same day, Impressive I thought, we chat on how good the weather is & as are the views, then the mortal sentence came out of one of the walkers, of whom I had just taken a photo of him with a Buttermere backdrop ‘ Fleetwith Pike is my fourth Wainwright’ as proud as punch, he then went on to name all the fells pointing at Grasmoor & re-naming it Grisedale Pike, well, today mate, this fell I am on now is my 204th Wainwright, it felt bloody good I tell you.

Ten Hail Marys for the sarcasticness in my voice that day but I just couldn’t help it!

Quite a few fells to mention in this photo, centre (R) we have the huge mass of Robinson, Whiteless Pike, Wandope & Eal Crag (Crag Hill) to the far left is Rannerdale Knotts & the fell in the background is Grasmoor.

Leaving Fleetwith Pike’s summit in search of Lakelands Straightest Mile.

Wth remarkable views over towards Haystacks, High Crag & finally Pillar.

Used to carry the trucks containing the stone from Dubs Quarry to the sheds at Honister, the sleepers are long gone, it is now used as a popular path for the surrounding fells & Dubs Bottom.

The stone foundations are all that remains of an old Drum House, used to pull the laden trucks from Dubs Quarry to Honister.

Its difficult to imagine going to work as a pit mon on Fleetwith Pike & Yew Crags every day, my butterflies have long since faded to an incredible awe of how good life is now, how we moan about the mundane of everyday life, just thank your cotton socks & our HD Televisions we didn’t have to do this & risk life & limb everyday just to put clothes on our backs & food on the table.