Harter Fell to Harter Fell

There are not many days where the skies are so clear.

Where the whole of Cumbria stretches out.

It was certainly a day to stop and “sniff the daisies”.

As my friend likes to say about her pace of walking.

A little bit constrained by time we wanted to get up high,

with out the slog of a long walk in.

The passes from Cumbria’s east to west enable a little bit of cheating.

Wrynose backs nicely on to Langdale and what takes ‘some time’ to reach along Oxendale Beck can be scrambled up in an hour or so from Wrynose.

Pike O’Blisco sits above the Three Shires Stones,

the old county boundary of Cumberland, Westmorland and Lancashire.

Having been up ‘that way’ before we walked down the road a bit to Wrynose Beck

and followed the finger post up.

Don’t expect a paved track.  It may be a right of way but it is not so frequently used as that from the top of the pass.  You’ll find yourself picking a route over boggy overflow from the beck, tussocks and stones.

All worth putting up with for ‘splendid isolation’.

An alarmed start to the day was paying dividends.

Wrynose Fell looked eminently attractive with its piles of stones reflecting the soft autumn light.

Bracken turned brown, yet valleys still green  and sheltered from impending frost yet to tinge their brilliance.

From the Pikes of Blisco and Cold,  Kentmere outlined the western edge with one Harter Fell,

and a mere stumble down the road its name sake the final hill before the county falls in to the Irish sea.

Cumbria was ‘the place to be’ on a bright autumnal day.