Grike
Date: 20-Feb-2011
Map: Landranger 89 OL 004
Weather: Generally sunny and a little hazy, but cold in the wind.
From the car park at Broadmoor along the shore and up to Anglers Crag. Along the slopes of Crag Fell to Red Beck then up to the summit. Down and back up to Grike, before dropping down to the Kinniside Stone circle. Beside the road to Ennerdale Bridge and back to Broadmoor : 9 miles as measured on memory map.
Annoyingly after gaining the height of Anglers Crag the path descended losing height as it traverses across the slopes beneath Crag Fell. But really it was a gentle descent / ascent on bracken covered slopes. There were a few hawthorn trees dotted around, with stunted growth on these steep slopes - not enough sunshine here and probably windy a lot of the time. Eventually the path cut uphill a little steeper, up to Red Beck before crossing a wall onto open moorland. It was boggy here and the path was now a small stream, so we had to just take aim for the corner of a plantation and hope for dry feet. We managed ok and some passing rugby league fans pointed us to the path up to Crag Fell. About 200yds after entering the plantation the path cuts up the right side of Crag Fell, with the path gradually steepening towards the top. It's a well trodden path up here and no mistakes that it takes you up to the summit cairn. The views up Ennerdale would be fine if you can see all the tops, but we couldn't as it was hazy and cloudy on the peaks - but still it was a fine vista. At the summit it was noticeably colder due to the wind and as there is no shelter we made our way quickly down to the shoulder between Crag Fell and Grike. It was very boggy down in the dip so we tried to stay on slightly higher ground to avoid the worst of the squelching. The forestry commission are carrying out plenty of harvesting here, opening up views to Lank Rigg and Whoap to the south. A communications tower was a good marker to aim for and the path took us up to the right, gently up to the summit of Grike. We hopped into the stone shelter on the summit and stopped for a well deserved feast of Marmite crisps and a caramel wafer - delicious. The wind was biting though, and although sunny the views were increasingly hazy down the River Calder to the coast.
The way down from Grike was simple on old forestry tracks as we headed down towards the Kinniside Stone circle. Once out of the trees our view to the coast should have been good, but the haze put an end to that and also the chance of any sunset shots along Wasdale. We explored the stone circle for a while - unremarkable, but a peaceful setting. There is plenty of victorian graffiti carved into these stones, but no rock art that I could see. Then it was a simple task of walking down beside the road to Ennerdale Bridge. That brought back happy memories of a long last day of my 'wobbly coast to coast' last year - a fantastic walk. I was quite shocked to see that the Fox and Hounds in Ennerdale Bridge had shut down, so we nipped into the Sheppards Arms for some bad service! I trotted off down the road to Broadmoor laughing manically as I reached the car park. A brilliant little walk in the sunshine.
