Woken up from a fitful nights sleep by my phone alarm clock I set about making final preparations for the long day ahead. Four litres of water were stored in the backpack, sandwiches retrieved from the fridge, crisps, chocolate, celery and carrots added to the mix. I have to note that I'd already packed the suncream four days earlier after my last two long walks ended in sunburn.
I set off to meet StevieP near to where I work for 6am.
"Why the early start?" I hear you ask, "especially as you're typically a lazy sod on Sunday mornings."
"Well", says I, rising to defend myself and to stop this silly third-person speaking...
In similar style to the epic outing in March to Coniston, today we were all hoping to join StevieP as he bags his 10,000th cache atop Helvellyn in the Lake District. No small feat for him (over 9000 caches in front of me) and no small feat for me as Helvellyn is the second or third highest peak in England after Scafell Pike and Scafell - depending on your Marilyns and Hewitts. (See Wikipedia page on Helvellyn, also see Highest mountains in England.) It is approximately 500m taller than Coniston Old Man but more telling is it's prominence of 712m as opposed to 416m - this is a more accurate guide of how much work you have to put in to ascend to the summit.
6am
Pick up StevieP and drive up the M1 to Overton to meet MikeG. Get into his car and drive through Huddersfield to the M62 and pick up Paul 'Penfolio' at 7am.
7am-9am.
The long drive up to the Lake District was an enjoyable one swapping stories with the guys who I've not seen for a few months. We also picked up a couple of driveby caches on the motorway and then the A591 so that Steve had some leeway should we get any DNFs later in the day - it's a tricky business trying to ensure that your 10,000th cache is a specific one! As we then hit the smaller roads we also picked up another couple of caches on the A592 close to our destination - Glenridding which is on the south end of Ullswater.
9:30am - 160 metres - our starting altitude
Having now met up with Mr Truffles, KevW, and his two children 'The Penguin Boys', we set off west and I was soon wheezing away and feeling as though my heart wanted to go home already. The short steep climb to the first cache would originally have been a bad omen but I've now become used to the fact that each day my walking starts with tired legs, a pounding heart and lungs that seem painfully inadequate yet I know that this eases away after about 45 minutes as my body loosens up. My rucksack is extra heavy today with 2 litres of extra water (i.e. 2kg extra weight) and also enough food for two stops rather than the typical one. Thankfully I'm assisted by the cool damp weather. Incidently there had been terrible rain the day before and we were on rain alert today too - looks like I'm carrying the suncream for no reason!
The first cache was found quickly by main man StevieP but we notice that the puzzle coordinates inside are missing. Fortunately the cache these refer to is located after his planned 10,000th so missing it won't affect him.
We then headed along the hillside on a gentle climb before a quick 20m rise at the end (to 250m) to find another cache - Glenridding Saunter 1 - a puzzle nicely worked out the day before by KevW. A simple hide that stumped both Mr Truffles and StevieP before I walked up and instantly put my hand on it - just one of those strange random things but I was pleased I did as I think it was my only find of the day.
A long gentle walk up a track to arrive at Glenridding Saunter 2 (again pre-solved by KevW) for 10:30 at an altitude of 340m. This was the last cache of the day in any series - all the rest were unrelated standalone caches.
Following a path further up we stopped for another cache just where Red Tarn Beck joins with Glenridding Beck at about 420m before all splitting up while each planning a route across the stream so we could ascend Raise - our first major summit of the day.
I'd wandered off with MikeG and we found a good place to cross but I still managed to dunk my right leg in the water. A cold shock but in hindsight I think it was 95% temperature drop and only 5% water leakage over the top of my boots - thankfully. I'm no expert but I suspect wet feet would make for an highly unpleasant walk and blisters.
From the stream level of 400m we had a short, sharp and tough scramble up to 440m before joining a track and then a steady walk to 500m over the next 15 minutes and then the climb started in earnest.
Scrambling up the hillside in the absence of a path
11:30am
Over the next 45 minutes I zigzagged a walking mile up the hill, rising to a whopping 810m; I just put my head down and simply placed one foot in front of the other, keeping to my own pace, only stopping momentarily to drink water and to root out some celery from my backpack. I was feeling pretty good and 'all systems normal' so I made good time. StevieP and I then diverted off the path to head north towards the actual peak and another cache at 870m in a howling cold wind which we had become exposed to as we reached the summit edge.
Halfway up the tough path. If you look carefully you can see a car near the reservoir wall. Helvellyn is off to the right shrouded in mist.
Even further up (but still not the top) - the car is now a black dot
I was warm enough just wearing my usual t-shirt and walking coat except where I was exposed to the wind; it really was biting cold so I fastened my walking pole to my backpack, pulled my hands into my sleeves, pulled my hood on tight and gritted my teeth.
We then headed southwest for half a mile descending to 820m and re-ascending to 850m to the top of White Side where we regrouped with most members except MikeG who was determined to reach the Raise summit as it was one of the few he'd not visited previously.
12:30pm
Heading due south (briefly in light rain driven by the wind) we descended back down to a 'lowly' 780m and stopped for lunch under the shelter of a rock outcrop before climbing steadily back up to the summit of Helvellyn Lower Man at 900m (the fifth highest in England) and another cache entitled 'Wainwright's Missing Mountain?' Scrambling around the damp rocks here, still in howling wind, I was decidedly uneasy about my footing and was thankful when StevieP located it above me - I carefully extricated myself and wrapped up again before continuing.
A lunchtime photo. If you look just above-left from centre you can make out the snaking path we all complained about earlier.
Along the edge here and then a gentle climb up to the trig point at the top of Helvellyn, which is also a virtual cache, at a whopping altitude of 950m. A couple of pictures but no real time to stop as StevieP is excited... he's on 9,999 caches and the next one is something of a milestone!
A very brief walk, perhaps 200 feet, and we all stopped in a sheltered rest area - a stone wall in the shape of a cross, probably has a name I'm unaware of - to rest, assemble the flag and to leave Steve to find the next cache himself.
Still bitterly cold, Mr Truffles and I joined him to help in what turned out to be a really tricky hide amongst a cairn pile surrounding the monument to Charles Gough - an artist who had died there in 1805 and was found three months later still being guarded by his dog.
1:00pm
Cache finally in hand we all congratulated Steve on his epic milestone - much hand-shaking and back-slapping as we were all so chuffed for him. Finally we settled down for some photos before moving on to try and find somewhere warmer!
StevieP signing his 10,000th log!
Steve stood by the monument with his 10k cache
Group photo with the Yorkshire flag: The Penguin Boys, Penfolio, Mr Truffles, StevieP, KevW and MikeG
We headed south descending steadily to 890m to the peak of Nethermost Pike, a quick down and up to High Crag and further south, slowly descending to Dollywaggon Pike around 820m.
I'm not too hot on geography (I have to look at maps to get the names for my blog) but at some point I took some pictures of the staggering views. It was hard to get the exposure right - too much sky caused the furthest mountains to white-out of my picture - but honestly I thought to myself 'Here are the English Alps.'
Epic!
It was around this time I was also starting to feel the energy desert me. I poured away a litre of water because my lower back was aching (strange because that doesn't usually happen) and I also deliberately lost a little of my pace. Then things got tough...
Over the next 30 minutes we descended 270m down to 550m using crudely made stone steps (placed there to cut down erosion) and this damn near killed me. The steps made hard work with their random layout and random tread sizes but with my legs now tired the struggle against gravity was much harder than the ascent. I slowly got left behind with MikeG and Penfolio as none of us liked the descent.
15:25pm
We met up with the group at Grisedale Tarn and then continued the still long but less steep descent over the next 3 miles down to 200m.
Catching up with the group again we discussed our final leg to the car park. Opting to skip a planned cache we took another route to an 'easier' cache - it's all relative and 'easier' at this stage meant 'almost impossible' for me. I'm out of energy. I'm not running on reserves, I'm not using my spare tank, I'm not even running on fumes, I'm empty.
Still 1.5 miles to go to pick up a couple of roadside caches, the first of which I suspected (accurately it transpired) was my 900th cache. A bit of a shame because in all honesty it was a crap cache in a crap location.
The last one was much better, albeit tricky to find, and then it was back to the car park to change shoes, drop off backpacks and to head to the pub for a celebratory round of drinks proudly bought by the hero of the day Steve.
Not much else to report after this... drive blah blah blah and home for 9pm but I must give thanks and my appreciation to MikeG for driving the majority of the distance there and back.
Overall a fantastic day, enjoyed by all. We saw some incredible views even with the variable weather but once again camera pictures simply cannot do them justice.
Using my GPS I've got my walking total pegged in at 14.8 miles and I bagged 19 caches. We'd gone from an altitude of 170m to 950m but I estimate total walking ascent to be approximately 1,005m. I got this by simply adding up all the big UPs and not subtracting any DOWNs - that's just over one kilometre of vertical ascent!
Profile of our ascent mapping metres against miles
Most of all though it was a great day for us all and of course especially for StevieP - well done Steve!
A Google Earth image of our route. We started on the right (the green dot) and headed anti-clockwise. North is approximately at 2 o'clock.
