Three Dodds and a Pass. . .

It's not something that we're fanatic about, but at some point over the next ten years or so, the Liverpud and I would like to have climbed every Wainwright fell in the Lake District.  There are 214 and we have a little scratch map on the wall at home.  He's done a few more than me - I've climbed just over fifty -  but when planning a walk, he tries to incorporate a few new ones each time.

Last Saturday on a hot and hazy day, we set off to do a recce for an upcoming walk that he is leading for our rambling group and it was to include not one but three new Wainwrights!

We started from Glenridding and made our way up the Sticks Pass. This is the view looking back at the valley once we've hit the beginning of the pass.

And this is where we're heading - you can just see the path going up in roughly the middle of the photo.

Very near the top, looking back.

From the top, we can turn to the right to go up our first new Wainwright - Stybarrow Dodd. The path as you can see is good and it wasn't too steep (we'd already done a good deal of climbing already to get here).

But first a look ahead at the other side of the pass.  This is looking west over Thirlmere. I wish it hadn't been quite so hazy as we'd have had a good view of lots of other fells.

At the top of Stybarrow Dodd, it's a short jaunt off to the left to Watson's Dodd and then up to Great Dodd which you can see on the right of the photo.

Here we are on the top of Great Dodd - you can just about see Keswick and Skiddaw in the distance.

We then made our way down and spent the next hour (in the rain no less), walking over tufty bog. Still the colours were quite vibrant.

The sun came out eventually though we could still hear thunder in the distance. This is looking back at Great Dodd.

We crossed more moorland.

And made our way up to the valley that is just behind Sheffield Pike.  We walked to the edge and starting descending. About halfway down, you meet a path that takes you to the right and all around this horseshoe.

This is the view halfway around - you can just see Ullswater in the background. We then descended to roughly where the Sticks Pass begins and retraced our steps back to Glenridding.

It was a long walk - over 14 miles and it took us about seven hours with all the ups and downs.  I don't fare well in the heat and I probably didn't drink enough water during the hike.  A hot bath sorted out my sore legs and then I slept about ten hours.  Unfortunately, it's too long a walk for the group as we are bound by a coach schedule, so the Liverpud is going back to the drawing board.   And I went to our map and scratched three more Wainwrights off.