My main aim for 2022 is to focus on completing my Birketts but that's not to say I won't be lured by classic routes such as this one which ranks high in my all time favourite walks. Branstree, Selside Pike with a return via the old corpse road is one of those walks that which even in the worst of conditions kind'a walks itself.
On the last two occasions that I've walked this route I've even been lucky enough to spot Deer in almost the same location as the previous year, there's something dreamy about watching Deer from half a mile away even though they knew I was there they just went about their own business like I wasn't. Add all the dramatics of Lakeland on a wild January day well, it put everything I love about walking in Lakeland into perspective.
The forecast for my first walk of 2022 wasn't the best and I wouldn't have blamed anyone for sitting it out but I got tired of checking the forecast so I went back to basics and was rewarded with Lakeland at her bleakest. What more could I have asked for and how worse off would I have been had I sat this New Year belter out. |