Living La Vida Lester: Hikes I Never Blogged About

After reading all of my wonderful wife’s blog posts of late I figured that is was time that I added a blog about some of the hikes that I have done so far in my 6 months here in the UK.

Coniston Old Man to Dow Crag to Black Rigg – 8/7/09

This was a nice 4 hour hike after work on a beautiful sunny Friday. We started at the car park at the base of the Old Man and headed up the shoulder. once at the peak we headed down the back side and then up to Dow Crag and finished by travelling across the ridge of Black rigg and then back to the car park via the Walna Scar Road. Here are a few pictures:

Tarn from the Peak of the Old Man

Goatswater from Dow Crag

Duddon Valley from Dow Crag

Here is the complete Coniston Album

Great Gable – 9/12/09

A friend from work invited me to join him and a group of others for a hike up Great Gable. We started this one early as it is one of the larger peaks in the Lake District. We started the hike at Wastdale Head and soon realized that this was not going to be an easy day. The trail got rather steep right away and then as we approached the summit it turned into a scramble over boulders or various sizes and shapes. Once we got to the summit it was clear that this was well worth the slog. This was by far one of the best days that any of us had seen in this area of England. There was absolutely on wind and the sun shown brightly all day. We took the easier back way down back to Wastdale Head and ended our day with a well deserved pint in the local pub (there are always puns at the end of a good fell walk). Here a few pictures:

Great Gable is in the Center, from the Bank of Wastwater

View of Wastwater from the Trail

Lunch at the Summit

A Well Deserved Pint

Here is the complete Great Gable Album

Silverdale – 9/19/09

The weekend after we scaled Great Gable we went on a nice long walk over in the Silverdale area of England. This was a nice change in pace from the week before. This was a mostly flat hike that followed the myriad of footpaths that are around the Leighton Moss Nature Reserve near Silverdale. After a long day of hiking the paths we again ended up at a pub for a nice pint (see the pattern :) ). Here are a few pictures:

Peter Lane Kiln – Used to bake Limestone and create lime for farming

Leighton Castle

Limestone Pavement

Here is the complete Silverdale Album

Red Screes – 9/25/09

This hike was up a fell that sits along one side of Kirkstone Pass. A friend, Nate, had just arrived in the UK for his 2 year contract and I took him for a drive up to Kirkstone Pass so he could see what the Lake District is all about. Once we got there we decided to take a walk up the Red Screes. After the drive up to the pass the actual hike up was only around 20 minutes. The views from the top were great. Here are a few pictures: