It was David who suggested we plan a walk on the hills overlooking the Bretherdale valley, which is tucked away between the M6 and A6 west of Tebay. Anyone travelling north along the M6 between junction 38 and Tebay Services will notice the trigged summit of North Side, situated a mile and a half away from the motorway services.

The initial plan was to head to Crag Hill via Clovenstone Hill and continue south easterly along the ridge as far as North Side but the route was re-jigged to include Packhorse Hill and Dryside which both overlook the A6 and Shap Pink Quarry.

It's fair to say we're all fond of the isolation that the Far Eastern fells around Shap and Wetsleddale provide, but Bretherdale was another level. A valley similar to that of Swindale without the footfall, if you're looking for tranquility and solitude, look no further than the Bretherdale valley.

Despite today being the first day of the Bank Holiday weekend, we were the first to arrive at the layby at Shap Road Summit, with only the odd car or motorbike passing as we kitted up. The frustrations of the previous forecast extended into this morning as we struggled through the haze to point out today's walk with only a rough outline of the route we would be following.

If those pockets of hazy blue skies between the clouds were anything to go by, we might be in for some brightness throughout the morning. We'd all done our own research, mostly using Google Earth, where we found narrow trods linking summits, which actually turned out to be more significant than what we had seen through our computer screens, which was great news for navigational purposes. We had all opted to wear long walking trousers given the nature of the grassy, potentially wet paths, which turned out to be nowhere near as wet or boggy as we imagined.

We made a pathless descent from Dryside and joined the track, which rose gently along the flanks of Clovenstone Hill. Spotting the summit from the track we made our way over while keeping an eye out for the Clovenstone. As soon as the words "it should be that way" left David's mouth, we spotted the top half of the stone lying about 350 yards west of the summit. "Mind if I go and take a look while you guys wait here?" I asked? Nah, go for it; we'll lose some layers while you're working up a sweat. "Cheers, lads!"

With lunch over, we packed up and made a pathless descent before rejoining the wall, which would lead us back to the A6 and Shap Road Summit. Even though this was a Bank Holiday weekend, traffic was light and did little to disturb the afternoon silence as we left the fellside in favour of the carriageway.

It had clouded over, but the temperature was rising towards 20°C, and with little to no wind, it started to feel like a warm summer's day. David unlocked his car as Calva made straight for the back seat and curled up. It's difficult to place the seclusion we all felt today, all of us agreeing to return to these hills, taking in new routes that due to boundary changes, only became part of the Lake District National Park back in 2015.