As far as walks go I certainly needed this one, a walk that in actual fact should have seen us take in a route that David and I put together back on our Dodds walk some weeks ago which actualy seems like months ago now what with my house move and of course the shorter daylight hours.

About a week ago we set this day for our planned walk but of course the weather soon put a stop to that with two bright sunny days either side of Saturday; one of which I will certainly make use of but for now it looked like we'd be walking in not just rain, but strong winds too.

Our plan was to leave Patterdale for Boredale Hause and assess the wind situation from there, should the winds be to strong we would continue into the Boredale valley and make a circular walk around Place Fell but as it happens on reaching Boredale Hause the wind wasn't causing too many problems but that wasn't to say that beyond the summits those clouds were sure moving at some pace.

It's not very often I, or we would leave the house to walk in such conditions that we had today but once on the fell when the wind is blowing you sideways you're suddenly gripped and reminded at why we do what we do.

Gloom was the order of the morning having completely missed out on the sunrise I drove over the top of Kirkstone Pass in cloud which only cleared halfway down the pass as Brothers Water and Place Fell came into view. The forecast was for low cloud for the duration of the day with rain arriving mid morning, the good news was that for now I could see the summit of Place Fell but as for the Deepdale and Dovedale valleys to my left flank, they were breached by low cloud.

We had arranged to meet alongside the farm track for Side Farm at 08:30am, I would have arrived first had I not missed the turn soon passing Rod coming in the opposite direction who beat me to the parking spaces. Just as we arrived it started to rain first lightly then heavily as we waited for David who unbeknown to us was already parked up outside Patterdale Primary School just around the corner. The heavy rain continued and wisely Rod opted to kit up on the passenger seat of his car while I ducked under my boot lid which kept me relatively dry while lacing up. The Farmer arrived with a huge bale of grass on the front of his tractor which he unloaded onto a waiting trailer close by, my car was obstructing his reversing manoeuver so I moved and parked my car behind David's while sighing across the car roofs "look at this rain"

By the time we dropped below the cloud and out of the worst of the summit winds we returned to conversation again and it was assumed that we would either head over High Dodd or use the path on its right flank before dropping into the Boredale valley, that was until David mentioned that rather than to drop into Boredale, why not descend (left) via Scalehow Force, Rod and I looked at one another and agreed this was a great idea, mainly because neither of us had descended this way in the past.

Up ahead, a solo walker heads towards us.

On the back of yesterdays heavy rainfall care had to be taken during our descent alongside Scalehow Force due to how slippery it was underfoot, it was quite amusing to see the recovery efforts of previous walkers who had slipped leaving long skid marks in the mud.

From the lower slopes of Scalehow Force we reached the footbridge below and decided to stop for an early lunch, it was right about here did we start to see more walkers on the Ullswater shore path, most of whom were taking advantage of the sheltered bays which avoided the wind and rain. With no real place to sit we each took out our foam mats and ate lunch on a wet grassy bank alongside Scalehow Beck while doing a bit of people watching.

The shore path continued to be busy with walkers and their dogs, children and fell runners most of whom where heading from the direction of Patterdale, the rain held off and the predicted rain never came with the exception of the heavy shower we encountered this morning before setting off, I guess if you look at the forecast on paper it would be enough to put the best of us off but as we saw today sometimes the forecasters get it wrong and a great walk can still be enjoyed which usually leaves you feeling more alive after those first Autumnal winds and rain give you a taster of what lies ahead.