Good Friday fun: Walk 198 above Hartsop

The summit cairn of Rest Dodd, third and highest fell bagged today.

WALK 198: Brock Crags (1842 feet above sea level, number 290 of my second round), The Nab (1887’, no. 291), Rest Dodd (2283’, no. 292). 8.25 miles, 2,450 feet of ascent.

15th April 2022 was Good Friday. On the day before this holiday in 2021, Joe (on his last Wainwright walk so far) and I wandered around Fusedale and Martindale on walk 187. This was done in the throes of lockdown, that arbitrary and pointless measure (we all got it anyway, didn’t we) that resulted in every pub, campsite and hotel in Lakeland being closed last Easter and the economy of this vulnerable area taking yet another hit.

Fortunately there has been none of the same this year, so I took advantage of the public holiday to head for much the same area of the world, only this time coming in from Hartsop and bagging three summits on walk 198. Not a spectacular walk in itself but the views of the local area are good and the descent, surprisingly agreeable — these things matter more and more as I age.

Angle Tarn. In the background, Place Fell — now the only fell I have left in volume 2.

Read all about today’s walk, and see more pictures, on the walk 198 page. Rest Dodd, the third and highest fell bagged today, becomes the penultimate fell rebagged out of Wainwright’s volume 2, The Far Eastern Fells. All I have left now is Place Fell (pictured, above Angle Tarn). This is the nearest I am to completing one of the eight volumes a second time. All told I have now bagged 292 of the 330 Wainwrights on my second round, so have 38 to go.

The 8:05 service from Preston to Penrith was so useful that the moronocracy have cut it again, so doing any Lakeland walks by public transport (at least, if I want to get home at a reasonable hour) now once again depends, almost entirely, on The Oxenholme Connection — the five-minute dash across the station in order to catch the 8:27 to Windermere. Backup plans need putting in place for every walk, particularly any in Coniston, Langdale, Borrowdale or any further afield. So I don’t know even when setting out on a given day exactly what my walk will be: only that, looking at the map, I have at least 14 walks to go, and maybe a couple more. Plenty of exploring to do yet, therefore. The next walk should be some time in May.