| Pen y Gent(694m) |
| Plover Hill(680m) |
| Darnbrook Fell(624m) |
| Fountains Fell South Top(662m) |
| Fountains Fell(668m) |
Peaks climbed : Pen y Gent(694m), Plover Hill(680m), Darnbrook Fell(624m), Fountains Fell South Top(662m), Fountains Fell(668m)
Total Distance : 22km, Total Ascent : 794m
Misty start up to Pen y Gent. Steady start but a very steep section just before the summit. The cloud cleared and we could see Plover Hill about a mile and a half away. Mushy ground but not as wet as yesterday.
The path was a good one, but then it's a popular mountain so not surprising. It's just short of two miles to Plover Hill which could be seen for most of the walk. On the top the ground worsened with a lot of marshy bog to negotiate but we managed it without serious incident. Better views from this summit.
Last night I'd spotted a short cut which would remove the need to continue Northwards and around and would bring us more quickly to the crossing point of Pen-y-Ghent Gill. Essentially it involved following a wall straight down, then taking a right turn and down to the road. On the ground there was clearly a path so we followed it and to our great joy, bought us to the intended destination without fuss.
A short section of road to follow, then off and down to Nether Hesleden which was very small collection of houses.
Across the Gill and we followed the valley Northwards until Chris spotted a short cut across the field to meet the track running parallel and upwards. At this moment, I pointed out to him that my short cut had been nicely downhill whereas his short cut was steeply uphill and I was less than impressed. We followed it, however and gained height quickly and before we knew it, we were approaching the third mountain of the day; Darnbrook Fell. It was largely unimpressive in itself, but it did afford an excellent view back across to Pen-y-Gent which has now cleared of cloud. The wind, however, had picked up significantly and we added extra layers for the walk across to Fountains Fell, although we elected to find a sheltered spot for lunch before continuing. The spot was only slightly sheltered so we felt the cold quite quickly which meant that lunch was as quick as it could be.
Fountains Fell has two summits, one much further away than the other, but both had to be visited to count so we made our way over. Unfortunately, other than standing on the summit, there was no reward, it was a small pile of stones with a similar view to what we had had at Darnbrook Fell. A quick photo for proof and we were away again for the main summit which came quickly.
Again, we didn't linger long and headed down towards the location of the car which soon came into view as a tiny speck which grew in size very slowly but eventually we got there, the day done.
Grabbing a drink, we saw a guy walking up the road looking exhausted. We enquired after his health and he told us he was fine, then asked what we had done so we proudly told him about our 12 mile walk, he then responded that he had, in fact, done 30 miles. He was the only person we had seen all day and he out-bragged us! The shame.
