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The Dodds from Sticks Pass |
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11th August 2024 |
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Overview |
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Ascent: |
3,387 Feet - 1,032 Metres |
Wainwrights: |
4, Stybarrow Dodd - Watson's Dodd - Great Dodd - Clough Head |
Visiting: |
Calfhow Pike |
Weather: |
Hot & Sunny Throughout - Highs of 24°C Lows of 13°C |
Parking: |
Layby, Stanah |
Area: |
Eastern |
Miles: |
10.8 |
Walking With: |
David Hall |
Ordnance Survey: |
OL5 |
Time Taken: |
6 Hours 45 Minutes |
Route: |
Stanah - Sticks Pass - Top of Sticks Pass - Stybarrow Dodd - Watson's Dodd - Great Dodd - Calfhow Pike - Clough Head - Wanthwaite Bank - Wanthwaite - Bridge House - St John's-in-the-Vale - Sosgill Bridge - Low Bridge End Farm - Stanah |
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Parking Details and Map |
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Nearest Post Code: |
CA12 4TH |
Grid Reference: |
NY 318 218 |
Notes: |
The small layby can be found on the northern spur of Thirlmere on the right hand side if travelling north or just after the junction with St Johns-in-the-Vale if travelling from the south. |
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Map and Photo Gallery |
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Rooftop views over Stanah towards Great How, Sippling Crag(The Benn) and Pike from Sticks Pass 13°C 7:05am |
A few weeks ago, I mentioned to David that I hadn't walked the Dodd's for a couple of years, and David replied by suggesting this route that he'd walked within the last couple of months. I liked the route so much that I just needed the perfect day to walk it. The walk was originally planned for yesterday (Saturday), but with any forecast sunshine appearing from midday onwards we switched the walk to today, the brightest day of the weekend. It was another early start, arranging to meet at the layby just before the Legburthwaite junction at 7:00am and I arrived to find David already there around 6:50am.
Other than a couple of other cars, we had space to park, so I nudged my car in front of David's and below a tree. Trouble was, I could have done with closing the gap, but that meant wrestling with the tree, so David pulled his car forward, job done. Except as David got out of his car, he brushed past some nettles - not the best start and I couldn't help but feel partly guilty! It was mild enough to start the walk in t-shirts and shorts and despite the sun still being low only casting its light on the upper slopes of Sippling Crag and beyond. We locked the cars and strode up Stanah Lane, passing a couple of tents in a nearby field. |
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Signpost at the bottom of Sticks Pass. |
We hadn't been walking long when I mentioned to David about a certain platform I'd stumbled upon which encouraged visitors to 'Lakelands 10 best infinity pools' I'm all for people enjoying the fells with everything Lakeland has to offer young or old yet within minutes of sparking up the conversation we stumbled across this vandalised sign. We could only look at one another in disbelief. |
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Views towards Watson's Dodd (left) Stanahgill Head and Stybarrow Dodd (Right) |
We continued with our ascent passing through tangled bracken before the fell side opened up at the familiar sheepfold where we stopped for a quick breather. |
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In the sunshine as we gain more height, here looking over Sticks Gill towards Brown Crag. |
Once the sunlight breached the ridge it was like someone had turned the oven up bringing with it instant heat and light so strong it made my eyes water. We couldn't help but notice that a cloud inversion had formed and was moving north v e r y s l o w l y. It was only as we gained more height that we could see the extent of the inversion which stretched as far south as the Langdales and as far east as the Kirkstone and High Street fells. Anyone on Fairfield right now would have been having the treat of their lives, sadly not the case for anyone west of Dunmail Raise. |
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Looking back on the top of Sticks Pass towards Raise, White Side, Helvellyn Lower Man and Browncove Crags. |
The pass levelled and we seemed to reach the top of the pass within no-time passing a solo woman walker who must have been up for the sunrise. After watching what the inversion was doing (seen right) we began our ascent on Stybarrow Dodd. |
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Catstye Cam, Raise, White Side, Helvellyn, Helvellyn Lower Man and Browncove Crags from Stybarrow Dodd summit. |
Notice how the inversion is beginning to spill over the top of Browncove Crags while over on the left Fairfield had just succumbed to the inversion. |
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Splendid views towards Watson's Dodd (left) and Great Dodd (right) |
"Remember the first time we came up here Paul and we spent half an hour talking about cheese" "Aye I do Wallace" True story, good times. It was from here we noticed a young lad who had made a direct ascent on Stybarrow Dodd from a path that branched off Sticks Pass which took a more direct line to the summit who had just topped out behind us. We also began to see figures on Great Dodd and it's not 9:00am yet. |
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Looking back on Stybarrow Dodd, Raise, White Side, Helvellyn Lower Man, Helvellyn and Browncove Crags. |
The cloud dramatics over Browncove Crags never materialised which had started to retrieve within twenty minutes of first sighting it. |
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The view back on Watson's Dodd, Stybarrow Dodd and the Helvellyn group. |
We crossed the soaked ground between Stybarrow Dodd and Watson's Dodd performing in the hop and skip Olympics before the ground dried out as we reached Watson's Dodd summit. I was so intrigued watching what the cloud inversion was doing that I forgot to take a summit photo. |
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Approaching Calfhow Pike and Clough Head. |
We had passed a couple of solo walkers as we shouldered Great Dodd and stopped again to admire the views, sadly the inversion was in full retreat mode and could no longer be seen beyond the flanks of Browncove Crags. We summited Great Dodd with ease and admired the views in every direction, once more the views and general chit chat got the better of me and I forgot to take a summit photo.
We began our descent of Great Dodd with grand views of Calfhow Pike and Clough Head where we were passed by a young woman fell runner and her black labrador, its lead tied to her waist. We weren't sure who was pulling who and by the time us old timers had reached Calfhow Pike the pair were on the way back down Clough Head. |
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The view over the top of Beckthorns Gill towards the Lord's Seat Fells and Skiddaw group. |
Not forgetting High Rigg below and Latrigg beyond. |
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Lonscale Fell, Blencathra and Clough Head from Calfhow Pike. |
The solo woman and her Labrador had disappeared back towards Great Dodd when we spotted another solo walker and his dog performing the Olympics hop-skip and jump in the marshy area about 300 yards ahead. |
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Looking back on Great Dodd and Calfhow Pike. |
Not far from Clough Head summit now. |
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Clough Head summit. |
We'd have like to have enjoyed the view too but the couple weren't for moving either for us, or a solo chap who arrived a few minutes before us. |
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The winding path below Red Screes. |
We left the summit still in brilliant sunshine and topped up our suntans for the narrow path below Red Screes. |
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Blencathra seen beyond Threlkeld Knotts. |
That's the same path we'll be descending by seen below. |
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Lunch time. |
David only had to mention the word food and my stomach began to growl, it wasn't quite lunch time yet but it was close enough. |
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Lunch with a view. |
Here looking towards Wanthwaite Crags and a distant Fisher's Wife's Rake beyond. |
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High Rigg from the Wanthwaite side of the Old Coach Road. |
After lunch we re-shouldered and began the last of the descent over Wanthwaite Bank with Hilltop Quarry over to our left. Here we needed to pass over a wooden sty that was in such disrepair it was impassable. The trouble was so too was the wire fence on either side which swayed and twanged just by looking at it. I'm still recovering from straining my back and I ummed and arred how I was going to get over while I lacked that spring in my step at the moment.
David used the two planks that were once part of the sty and propped them into either side of the wire fence and hey-presto, we had a two sided step. We just needed two dummies to try it. The step worked and before we knew it we were descending through the woodland alongside the quarry - two further short descents via narrow stony paths lead directly onto the Old Coach Road less than half a mile from Hill Top Farm. |
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High Rigg as we head towards Bridge House, St John's-in-the-Vale. |
The temperature was much higher than it had been on the tops as we passed Hill Top Farm and joined the B5322 while dodging traffic for a short distance before silence resumed as we took the bridle-way towards Bridge House. |
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Bridge House. |
It wasn't like the farmer had done it on purpose but we could have easily missed the next gate where two huge agricultural trailers had been left. After passing through the gate we passed through knee high soft grass towards a curve in St John's Beck where we stopped to admire the views towards Blencathra. Bridge House was just minutes away now. |
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Blencathra from St John's Beck, Bridge House. |
We crossed St John's Beck over the sturdy iron bridge before joining what we thought would be the many trod's through St John's-in-the-Vale. |
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Idyllic scenes as I look back on Bridge House. |
Rod had forwarned us about how muddy the fields get through St John's-in-the-Vale not just due to rain water but by the cattle too. |
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Impressive views towards Bramcrag Quarry, Sandbed Gill and Bram Crag. |
The plan was to walk the entire length of St John's-in-the-Vale by following the footpaths through the fields but the cattle, or should I say bulls protecting their calfs had other ideas. After passing through the first field the only thing separating us and the next field was a herd of cattle whose numbers doubled when the local farmer corralled a second herd with the first. That was far too much testosterone to be gambling with so after spying a gap in the wall above our heads we made a quick ascent for the upper footpath that runs parallel with High Rigg. |
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It feels much safer up here than it did down there. |
Back to the walk... |
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The impressive Bram Crag. |
Divided by the equally impressive Sandbed Gill. |
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Views of Castle Rock as we continue through St John's-in-the-Vale. |
Having joined the path, we passed Low Bridge End Farm, where the owner was taking food orders from half a dozen visitors. We both spied the ice cream sign at the same moment, scoffing at the thought but pressing on at the sametime. The heat bore down on tanned foreheads and I was thankful for the shade as the path passed within feet of St John's Beck, both of us no doubt thinking of a dip without actually saying owt. The path climbed, as the beck ravined below, still relishing the shade; sunlight between the canopy grew larger as we rounded Wren Crag, where the noise of traffic travelling along the A591 brought us back to reality.
Accompanied by the smell of two stroke exhaust fumes we joined the tarmac, passing the familiar Turnip Corner as views extended across fields towards Castle Rock. We were so close to the traffic that we could have been mistaken for pit-crews at Brands Hatch, given the speed at which the traffic was passing. Soon the tarmac gave way for grass as the verge grew wider as our cars came into view, windscreens reflecting the sunlight they looked, and probably felt a hundred degrees inside. David opened his car first and felt the blast of heat escape almost scorching his eyebrows. My car next, which was nowhere near as hot after parking it under a tree, even this morning's water bottle had stayed cool. I started to feel rough, which David put down to the heat. I added that I'd only eaten half my lunch, which I still think is an after effect of the flippin covid. I finished my water bottle and started to come around. The heat was intense and I was looking forward to switching my A/C to artic blast, but lukewarm would do. David opened the driver's door when I heard this "ouch" The stinging nettles had only gotten him again. Bloody hell, did I see the funny side. |
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