Area: Grasmere, Lake District
A delightful outing, coming as it did after a morning tour of Beatrix Potter's 'Hill Top'. EE surprised me by saying she wanted to stay on and do some walking rather than just driving home, so we headed back to Grasmere and parked on the Keswick road. Helm Crag is just the perfect miniature hillwalk, and I'd never done it before despite many visits to Grasmere (I recall bivvying in the playground in the late 1980s!). From the little lane, a nice hotel is reached before steep steps gain a contouring path round to the broad summit ridge. This is a delightful place with wonderful views over Grasmere, Fairfield and Helvellyn. The weather was now wonderful, warm and sunny with a gentle breeze. The top is a mild scramble, but further on is the 'howitzer', the true summit with a harder (very short) scramble up the learning pinnacle. EE had lots of surplus energy so we decided to extend the day along the ridge towards Gibson Knott, another lumpy summit, all knolls and hidden dips. We then cut down pathless terrain to Green Burn, none of this was any problem for Eve despite marshy terrain and bracken. We gained the valley path eventually, which led delightfully back to little lanes which meant we didn't even need to walk down the main road.
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