OUT AND ABOUT WITH RALPH: Busy tourist hotspot still offers peace

Hill outings are a bit different in the English Lake District. It’s a tourist hotspot where there are probably a hundred times as many visitors as you’d find on the busiest day on Skye.

It was early, and the hills were shrouded in low cloud. But I reckoned the cloud was thin, and set off up the pass into the forest on the bike. Soon I entered the mist but after a few hundred feet of climbing the sky was brightening with gleams of sun and patches of blue. Another couple of hundred feet and I emerged into clear warm sunshine, the valleys filled with a sea of white above which the peaks rose clear and sharp.

Forest tracks climb up and up – here is ‘Bob’s Seat’ with a wonderful view over the forest – continue on along the new ‘Wow trail’ to a viewpoint which is one of the most amazing in the Lake District, perched high above the valley on a promontory with a 180 degree view of lakes and mountains.

I carried on climbing a rideable path right up to 1800 feet where a short walk takes you to the top of Lord’s Seat. It was warm and flat calm with a view out over the puffy white clouds, now starting to disperse, with glimpses of green valleys below. Northwards, sharp and clear across the Solway, was Criffell and the first hills of Scotland. A cuckoo called. Nobody else was about. Climbing above the cloud always gives that feeling of being above the world and all its worries.

I took a different return route along a steep rough path climbing back up the ‘Seat How Summit Trail’. You’re not supposed to cycle this path but then there surely wouldn’t be anybody about yet. Seat How is another fine viewpoint rising above the forest, as I walked the last few yards I noticed a man sitting below the top. He was listening to the the radio on his phone, some programme about DNA. Below and in front of him was that stunning view of white clouds and mountains and forests of which he didn’t seem to be taking much notice. I left him and continued on my way down the paths to rejoin the forest road.

I didn’t expect to meet anyone, so was surprised to suddenly encounter a race marshal and a whole lot of people jogging up the track. It was only nine in the morning but the forest was busy. Suddenly I was meeting and overtaking dozens of runners. Embarrassingly, I rode right across the finish line. It was the morning of the weekly park run, surely one of Britain’s hilliest. The car park was bustling, and the road back down the pass increasingly busy with tourists heading for the hills as the sun came out.

At another spot high in the forest is a secluded bench with a superb view, this one dedicated to an S. Royce who lived to 74 and his wife who died aged 102, bearing the emblem ‘Quiet Moments are Life’s Rewards’. I sometimes leave the bike there to save 1000 feet of climbing when heading for the hills.

Although it was still early, a large group of walkers was heading upwards by another path, half a mile away. There was a lot of chattering and laughing carrying across in the still air, maybe it was a school party. Most people now overtake me on the hills but there were a few really fit hill runners, men and women in equal numbers. You often see them skipping lightly over the mountains, sometimes with a dog in tow.

Slowly I crossed the very familiar top of Grisedale Pike, I’ve probably climbed it a couple of hundred times, then followed the ridge down and up to Hopegill Head above the high, dark Hobcarton Crags. A runner was jogging steadily up the steep slopes on the other side. He crossed the top with a comment – “Looks like rain” – not out of breath or even sweating, and sped down the path towards Grisedale. I met him again 10 minutes later, heading back the way he’d come. The walk from Grisedale Pike to Hopegill Head and back took me well over an hour.

By now the walkers’ group was coming down the slopes to the col, their cheerful chattering carrying far ahead of them. It was a dozen or so young Muslim women, greatly enjoying their day on the mountains.

Back at the bench was an older lady with a dog.

I mentioned that I rarely met anyone there. “Oh I often come here,” she said. “It’s a lovely spot.”

Which it was.

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