Saturday morning 19/03/2011 Coniston.
After a drunken night's sleep and being repeatedly awoken through dehydration, toilet visits, headache tablets and a faulty B&B alarm clock, I finally awoke at the correct time of 7:30 and went downstairs for my English breakfast.
I felt surprisingly well, ate my food, booted up and walked the short distance into town to meet the forming flock at the tourist information car park.
Waiting there for people to arrive I quickly realised I was struggling to stand up straight without wobbling - the reason I was feeling reasonably OK was because I was still drunk. The merciless, and deserved, teasing started here and continued throughout the day and evening.
I then got a lift in Patrick's van up to the Walna Scar Road car park. Here we waited and met up with everyone else.
Roll call
(In no particular order and with Geocaching usernames.)
Ernie (Mr. Truffles) - his event, his soon-to-be 10,000th cache.
Mike (MikeG) - flag carrier (for the peak and for photos.)
Steve (StevieP)
Patrick and Donna (Patdhill) and Dizzy the dog.
Dave and Sue (The Black Pigs) and Brook the smelly caching dog (their words, not mine.)
Paul (Penfolio)
Gary (Bleaklow)
and me Mark (Aggrajag)
We started with a gentle walk along the Walna Scar Road heading towards the Boo Tarn path that we were going to take up to the summit of Coniston Old Man but tragically I remember very little of the first hour. My lungs felt like I was eighty, I was wheezing, my heart was pounding and I was perpetually thirsty. I'd taken tablets and had two litres of water on me for the day, so I was prepared - but my body wasn't.
Within twenty minutes I thought I would die here. I honestly couldn't cope, even taking it all one-foot-in-front-of-the-other I could see I'd not make it to the first plateau nevermind the summit. Why on Earth did I drink so much the previous night?
Ernie encouraged me and told me to take my time, along with another couple who were struggling, and to keep plodding on steadily each time the group stopped to find and sign a cache. I mostly did this and for this reason didn't even see the first five caches.
We headed up and up and up, in beautiful weather with clouds around the peaks, and slowly my body started to work. Like a seized up engine slowly easing free my lungs expanded and performed more quietly so my breathing was far less laboured, my joints loosened and my pounding heart slowed to a steady pace. Continually sipping water from my platypus I gradually felt better although I did take another couple of painkillers about 10:30am for a headache I could feel creeping in.
During one of my 'keep on walking' phases I missed a turning, or to quote someone I "zagged instead of zigged" and ended up a good way off course. Determined at all costs not to walk downhill and waste any energy already spent I mountain-goated it along a non-path towards a potential rendezvous point and consequently completely missed the third cache by about a 70 foot elevation.
Some distance up the mountain
Between the third and fifth cache I was fooled by a couple of false peaks. Maybe it was just delusional hope but it's soul destroying to come over the brow of a hill to see another three in front of it.
Further up the mountain and looking to Coniston Water
We all grouped up at the fifth cache (Geocache link: Peek a Boo 5) ready for the final push; the steepest part of the walk and the last leg before the summit. I was feeling even better so set off second behind Mr Truffles who had got a burst of 'Truffle power' because the next cache would be his 10,000th.
A really arduous walk to the top, I was easily overtaken by Bleaklow, but was pleased to eventually arrive third and joyously congratulated Mr T on his epic landmark - 10,000 caches! - it really puts my 700 into perspective.
It was now 10:50, only 100 minutes into the expedition yet amazingly 1,800 feet higher than the start with us now being at an altitude of 2,550 feet.
Everyone arrived and we celebrated with champagne and chocolate truffles from the main man himself, and also parkin provided by the Black Pigs. (Personally I would have sold my children at this point, had I got them with me, for a cup of coffee.) MikeG constructed his Yorkshire flag and we took many photos of the group and the fantastic views all around us - including 'Low Water' 700 feet directly below us. We even sang 'Happy 10,000 to you' to the tune of Happy Birthday. It was bitterly cold, now exposed to the wind, and there were even patches of snow around but we stopped for 30 minutes before heading off North towards Brim Fell.
Mr. Truffles bags his 10,000th cache
(Also note snowball made by Bleaklow)
Mr. Truffles being congratulated by flag carrier MikeG
A view from the peak down to Low Water - a deceiving 700 feet below
(Please note that my pictures today were taken by a simple point and shoot Kodak digital camera. Distance does not show itself in these pictures and the lighting is also pretty poor in some of them.)
A long flat walk, rising only 30 feet over the next half a mile we soon arrived at the highest point of our day at 2,587 feet - the peak of Brim Fell. Heading South-West we made a long descent to a dip between Brim Fell and Dow Crag and here we stopped for lunch in a lovely sheltered location affording us fantastic views towards the rocky mountaineering sides of Dow Crag. Time to eat, take some more pictures and also have a play with my binoculars.
Looking at Dow Crag
From this lower point of 2,100 feet we then walked steadily up to the peak of Dow Crag arriving at 12:30 and now at about 2,470 feet. Hard going again as I had food sitting uncomfortably inside me - nothing to do with alcohol or the side effects, just simply a lump of food in the way. Otherwise I was feeling fantastic.
Here some of us (not me I confess) found A Window on Dow Crag (Geocache link) which is a hard cache overlooking very steep cliffs. Here there is a stone rested on another stone leaving a 'window' in the mountain. All much too scary for me.
StevieP following Mr. Truffles to 'The Window'
From here a long gentle walk South through bitterly cold blowing fog towards Brown Pike peaking at 2,120 feet. The clouds were very strange for although you could see them blowing past you merely five feet away you could still see tremendously long distances. It was like fog in reverse.
By this point I was full of energy and feeling fit as a fiddle albeit, of course, with tired legs.
From here we headed South West on a long, but easy, dog leg to pick up a couple of unrelated caches. The first half was tricky, rocky paths but the second half was lovely flat grass and was a welcome relief on the ankles.
An about turn and most of the way back to Brown Pike stopping short and heading off East across the Southern face of it before turning North and heading along the East face towards a natural wonder (in my eyes) - Blind Tarn. This is a beautiful natural lake invisible from all sides except from Brown Pike above; crystal clear water fills a genuinely tranquil hidden oasis. We all stopped to admire it's beauty for fifteen minutes or so.
A view from above taken much earlier
A Mediterranean Oasis? Nah, it's near frozen
The same with the sun hiding
Back to the path on the South face of Brown Pike and then a long hard trek East along a stony and rocky path until we arrived, knees aching, at a stone bridge over a small beck. I found this rather strange as it was the first sight of civilisation we'd had for several hours and seemed rather at odds with the surroundings. From here we could also see through the reverse side of 'The Window' way, way up the hills back at Dow Crag to our North North West. Another peek through the binoculars to see it much closer.
The end now in sight we decided to divert once more to pick up another cache at a disused quarry south of the track we were on. Leaving rocky tracks we thankfully started walking on grass again and soon arrived at a man-made wonder. A beautiful waterfall hidden in what appears to be an abandoned slate quarry (I could be wrong.) The pictures do not do the light justice.
Abandoned quarry
A different view
Heading back North to the original track again (and having to regain lost height much to the chagrin of certain members) we soon arrived back at the track and then made the final push North East then East back towards the car park only stopping for a quick look at some rocks to fulfil the requirements of an Earthcache (and educate ourselves) and also a group photo for the same reason.
From L-R: Sue, Dave, Brook the Dog, MikeG, Bleaklow, StevieP, Penfolio, Yours truly, Patdhill, Dizzy the Dog and Mr. Truffles.
Thanks to Donna for taking the photo.
We arrived back at the cars, weary and aching, at 15:30 having been out for six and a half hours and having walked/climbed/struggled through nine miles of mountains atop five peaks - Old Man of Coniston, Brim Fell, Dow Crag, Brown Pike and White Maiden.
Elevation profile of the walk - it's got up and down bits!
The route as mapped by my GPSr
The route viewed in 3D using Google Earth.
The start and finish point is at the far right.
We worked anti-clockwise.
We drove back down to the village of Coniston and for a final flourish took a group photo for a webcam cache (our 20th cache and last of the day) before Mr. Truffles kindly bought us all a much needed celebratory pint. An hour's chatting, more shaking of hands and slaps of backs and then we all mostly went our own ways.
Webcache photo
Five of us remained for a further night. We met up for food at seven but I can tell you it was significantly more subdued than the previous evening and after food and a lemonade I was back at my B&B for 10pm watching TV and ready for a sleep!
All in all an absolutely fantastic weekend. I hope to do it more often and even now, three days later, I'm still buzzing from the experience.
Thank you to ALL that attended for making it the event it was.
Incredible.
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