A hike above Ennerdale and on to Black Sail hostel

Ennerdale Water Lake District Black Sail

I picked up son Joe from his Manchester flat last Sunday and we then headed up to Ennerdale Water, for a day hike and an overnight stop. I’d booked us a night at the YHA Black Sail hostel (once a shepherd’s bothy) so the walk was to terminate there.

Ennerdale

Ennerdale is managed by the Forestry Commission and The National Trust as a wild area (see www.wildennerdale.co.uk for more info).  The valley holds Ennerdale Water: a glacial lake considered ‘small’ by the standards of its neighbours at a mere 2.5 miles long.

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Heads down on Helvellyn – or – Striding Edge the wrong way round

Descending from Helvellyn up to the 'start' of Striding Edge

Striding Edge the wrong way round? The ‘right way round’ sounded daunting enough to me, when I signed up for Michelle’s ‘summer trip up a Mountain’ group on Facebook. I’m not the most cavalier of ridge / high track walkers (witness my cramped fingers after a day on the Rum Cuillins – you can only grip an outcrop for so long you know..) and I’d got the Assault On Striding Edge route kind of mapped out in my head. That was before the weather changed our plans.

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