With a long weekend ahead I had planned to walk on Friday but the forecast changed at the last minute after which I received an email from David asking had I gone ahead with Friday's walk which I'd mentioned during a group email in the week. I replied that the forecast had let me down and that I'd be heading up on Saturday instead and David replied would I mind he tag along? We had arranged to meet at Skelwith Bridge at 5:30am and leave one car there which would save on parking charges. I was running on time but I didn't know about the overnight road closure on the Kendal bypass (7pm - 6am) which saw me diverted through Kendal before rejoining the A591 at Plumgarths roundabout around fifteen minutes later, I was now running late but with little traffic on the road I should be able to make some of the time up. David was already waiting at Skelwith Bridge confirmed by a flash of his hazard lights set against the pitch black, I pulled over, we greeted and David swapped his gear into my car and we caught up on the drive through to Old Dungeon Ghyll.

My headlights led the way through Great Langdale where we passed four camper vans and three cars already parked up at Rossett Bridge, it was only a few years ago when you were guaranteed to park here but with the rise in Lakeland's popularity over recent years parking at Rossett Bridge has become neon impossible. After passing a fell runner wearing a head torch we pulled onto a deserted Old Dungeon Ghyll car park, the lights from the hotel glowing beyond the stone wall. Learning from previous early starts I'd left my head torch on the passenger seat saving the faff of having to search for it in the dark on arrival. We were accompanied by the hooting of a Owl as we kitted up; David opting for shorts whilst I wore long trousers as I had on my previous two walks. It was milder than I'd expected meaning my beanie and gloves were tucked back into my packs top pocket should I need them later. With the car locked we left the car park and crossed the packhorse bridge before passing through the gate Stool End Farm bound.

The lights from Stool End Farm grew close noting a sudden drop of temperature now flanked by dew covered fields on both sides. The beam from our head torches caught the sheeps eyes which glared back in vivid green, or at least we hoped they were sheep. We crossed over the cattle grid and entered the farmyard passing a dimly lit barn to our left and farm house on the opposite side of the yard. From the farm we passed through a second gate before the track began to rise with the rugged silhouettes of Pike O'Blisco and Crinkle Crags silhouetted against a partially moonlit sky.

To the east cracks of orange began to appear on the horizon, the first signs began to appear around 6:35am and as dawn progressed the cracks widened by which time we were able to navigate without our head torches forty minutes before sunrise. We continued to ascend the flanks of The Band when David spotted a head torch on Pike O'Blisco - ten minutes later its owner was running towards Great Knott, we both agreed it must have been the fell runner we'd drove past as we entered ODG car park, Jeez, he was covering some ground.

We arrived at Esk Hause in near zero visibility only the sound of chatter from distant walkers heading for Scafell Pike breaking the silence. We were deep in the inversion now which shifted in depth sometimes allowing the sunlight to penetrate through, others were proper in the thick of it. We passed the cross shelter at Esk Hause around the same time a young girl arrived who stopped to add a layer before we began the short, rocky ascent on Allen Crags where through the cloud another girl appeared with her two dogs either side.

We arrived a few minutes after the girl who we found sat down stroking her dogs and we shared a smile from the summit cairn. We hung around for a few minutes the cloud teasing us as it thinned to allow the sunlight through only to be replaced by thicker cloud, it was time to leave.

The same walkers we had viewed from our lunch spot back on Rossett Pike were passed as we began our descent, some of these were still sat down as they were earlier but were in jovial spirits as we passed them. Our spirits were up too, how could they not be after a morning of sunrises and cloud inversions but the path underfoot would try its best to beat this out of us, it wouldn't win. We joked about the four thousand steps that we still had to descend and even managed to pick up pace passing walkers in descent while I wondered how the two guys I'd seen on the You Tube video managed to carry their E-bikes up here never mind continue with their epic ride afterwards. Continuing the path that never ends more walkers are passed two of whom stopped to ask "this might seem like a really stupid question but which mountain does this path lead too?" worse still, the lad had a bit of an attitude knowing he hadn't a clue where he was but didn't like being told even though it was them who asked for advice.

We advised them and left them to it. We were nearly down now feet feeling weary but still generally in good spirits whilst shaking our heads at what had just happened. We reached the junction where both Rossett Gill and Stake Gill forms Mickleden Beck and crossed the footbridge the blue skies and sunshine making it feel like the middle of July rather than the beginning of October. We left the rocky embankment of Mickleden Beck behind and joined the smooth grassy valley floor lapping up each step whilst taking in the surrounding scenery. While David had de-layedered a while back I still had my hoodie on and I was beginning to overheat but it made sense not to stop as we were so close to the cars. Great Langdale looked vibrant in the autumn sunshine as we left the valley behind flanked by The Band on one side and the distant voices of climbers on Raven Crag on the other.