St Bees to Shap Trek – Day 3

We made it to Grasmere from Stonethwaite. Quite a bit of heavy rain but with some sunny spells. More importantly there is a phone signal, something we haven’t had for the last 3 days.
Heading off to the pub soon, probably Tweedies Bar as they had 7 or 8 real ales on when we checked it out earlier.
We left the Langstrath Hotel at 8.25am and walked up the dale beside the river, which is now a raging torrent from all the heavy rain. High up the track was under several inches of water and became a waterfall higher up.
Very boggy underfoot. Made way to start of ridge to Calf Crag, Gibson Knott and Helm Crag . We spent about 1.5h on the ridge from 12pm, including several photo stops, chats with other walkers and a bite to eat. The light was pretty good but changed very quickly for photos.
The path came down steeply into Grasmere and it rained again as we finished the 8 mile walk at 3.15pm. The hotel is pretty good. Not much choice when booking as few places here will take 1 night bookings but we seem to have done well.
Well, the pub is calling to us so must dash.

Dave Butcher
www.davebutcher.co.uk
www.darkroomdave.com