A Long Walk!

England's tallest mountain, Scafell Pike, rises to a height of 978 metres (3,209 feet). Wast Water, England's deepest lake, is at the bottom. Scott and I often drive out to Wast Water, to enjoy the spectacular scenery. Of course there are lots of photo opportunities too! On a summer Saturday we decided to take a picnic supper and head to Wast Water.  My plan was to spend a peaceful afternoon walking on one of the trails that meanders along the lake shore, ending the day enjoying our picnic whilst watching the sunset. As often happens, though, Scott had other ideas! We arrived at the lake, found a place to park, and laced up our hiking boots. We decided to head away from the lake and chose a path that is actually part of the route to ascend this huge mountain. Our plan was to walk along for an hour or so and then turn back towards the lake.

At least that's what I thought we had decided.

After about 2 hours of walking, mostly uphill, I began to suspect Scott had thoughts of actually going to the peak. "No", I thought, "he can't be thinking that". Those who know my husband well will know now that he, indeed, was thinking that we would hike to the summit! I suppose at this point his idea was that we had already invested a couple of hours into the climb so we might as well finish it.

It was a great day weather-wise, and there were lots of fellow walkers around us. Most were going our direction, as in "up", but after awhile there were quite a few who were descending. I began to occasionally stop and ask about what was ahead of us on the climb. Of course everyone was quite encouraging. One gentleman told me, "Ye can do it lass. You're almost there." (We weren't even close!) Then he added, "But, I'm sorry to say, the pub's closed down." (There's no pub, it was a joke of course.)

Eventually, after about 4 hours of walking, climbing, and scrambling over boulders, we reached the summit of Scafell Pike!

Scott, standing at the cairn marking the summit!

The views from the top were beautiful if a bit hazy. There were quite a few folks up there resting from the climb and snapping pictures. We took our share of pictures, then turned to start our descent. Maybe it was because I was already a bit sore and tired from our ascent, but it seemed as if it was almost more difficult to climb down the mountain than it was to go up! We finally reached our car, ditched the picnic idea, and drove home for some hot showers!

Here are a couple of photos of Wast Water that Scott took on the drive back to our flat.

Wast Water

Wast Water

Well, it was a great day and it ended with a nice dinner out in town.