It's been a busy September so far. School has restarted, swimming lessons have begun again and life looks just a little bit like "normal". We've also squeezed in two Lake District weekends, bagging 3 Wainwrights that we can mark off on the Little Chaps' new map (not all that new, it was a present from Grandma last Christmas but we have started using it at last!). All this whilst managing the inevitable tiredness that every parent is familiar with around this time of year.
Generally speaking, no-one in our family needs any additional motivation to go and do something outside. We'll happily linger in the woods or park after school, spend time in the garden or get our bikes out for a quick ride. We love being outside and the Little Chaps know that a good day out, even when tired from school work and the social interactions of the week, can restore energy levels and is a type of "rest". Sometimes this blog may give the impression that the Little Chaps storm off up every mountain without any complaint but the reality is that each and every walk or bike ride is carefully chosen to enthuse, involve and engage them to try and ensure that we can make the most of our spare time together.
In this blog, we are going to try and share some of our experiences (and resulting tips) that have helped us to squeeze the maximum out of each weekend, regardless of weather or mood (adult or child!). And we have also enjoyed some new walks that we hope you will enjoy too...
Explore!
There is so much to see in the countryside and so many things to learn. Walking in itself is not always that interesting but it is the easiest (and cheapest) way to explore the world around us. In good weather, all you need are some sensible shoes so that you can explore the local woods and green spaces. Investment in specialist equipment (boots, waterproofs, rucksacks etc) is only necessary once you start to venture further afield and to climb the higher peaks. Both Little Chaps happily climbed mountains in their wellies for quite a while.
We try to make sure all our adventures include something of interest and the Little Chaps have never uttered the fateful words "I'm bored" (yet!). We have walked to Sheep being sorted for market
medieval villages, hill forts, castles, observation towers, rock formations etc exploring and understanding the history and geography of the area. It is only much more recently that climbing a hill for its own sake has become the "interest" for the day - we are working on the Dales 30 and the Wainwrights now - but we try to divert past waterfalls or other features
where we can. Our summer walks in Borrowdale with a bus ride at the end were a particular
highlight and we were all quite happy to "enjoy" some typical Lakeland weather (rain!) for an open top bus ride home! Farms can be great - we have seen lambs being born, sheep being sorted to go to market, watched a sheepdog at work, talked endlessly about tractors or combine-harvesters or just stood and looked at everything on our way past.
See some of our routes here.
Walking around Hinckley Point - cranes, diggers, lorries - what's not to like?!
Start small
The Little Chaps are great walkers now, with good strength and great stamina that increases with every growth spurt. They have good hill strength because they have done lots of walking. Our first adventures had the boys in rucksacks on our backs but they were always encouraged to get out and walk, even for a hundred metres. Little Chap #1 would only walk "interesting" sections that were rocky and a bit of a scramble for him but it was great to see him being interested in walking. We've always thought that it is better to walk 5km that everyone enjoys and feels like they want to do more, than do 10km that is too much, too tiring and leaves the Chaps feeling like walking is too much like hard work. If you are an experienced walker Little Chap #1 aged 18months
then it is hard to reign yourself in and to do walks that you and setting off solo
think are boring or too easy. If you are just starting out, it is
easy to think "how hard can it be" and find out that it is a bit too hard to be truly enjoyable. Most of the routes we have undertaken have short cuts available (either for bad weather or for tiredness) and have plenty to see and do along the way (see above!). Walking is definitely all about being outside and making time to stop and play and explore helps turn a short distance day into a great day out for everyone.
Fuel the day
Food and the outdoors go hand in hand! You absolutely need the energy to have a great day out. Snacks are also a great motivator, helping you to push to the next wall/gate/just around the corner. A biscuit or two before the main climb of the day and a good supply of biscuits to fuel the walk down really help to keep the Little Chaps moving. Children do have a higher metabolic rate than adults so they are not just being awkward when they say they are hungry. "I'm tired" is usually cured with biscuits!
We find that a pack of hob nobs (or the supermarket own-brand!) makes great hill food. Cereal bars are good but they are all individually wrapped which is a lot of waste packaging and, when it comes down to it ,a cereal bar is just a fancy hob nob! The important thing is to find what works for you and your Little One(s). The hob nob solution works better than sweets and chocolate because they don't melt and are made up more complex sugars that give longer lasting energy. We have also found that a pork pie, particularly in colder weather, is much easier for Little Chap #2 to eat than a sandwich so he eats more lunch and also, importantly, eats it quicker so we don't get too cold waiting for him.
And whilst it is true that food should not be considered a reward, let's face it, cake at the end of the day is always well-deserved.
Stay warm
We frequently see people on the hills who are under-prepared and are definitely feeling the effects of the weather. This is when accidents happen - please don't do it! No-one enjoys being cold and if you always get cold on a walk then you will probably stop going.
We also frequently see children out who are underdressed and who are clearly not enjoying themselves and this feeds through to the parents and impacts on their day. This is really easy to do when you are carrying them in a backpack and we have definitely done this by mistake to Little Chap #1 before we learned how much he needed to wear. Our record was getting him into something like 7 layers - 1 short sleeved baby-grow, 3 long sleeved baby-grows, 1 coat layer, 1 padded Well wrapped up for a
waterproof layer, 1 waterproof - for a trip up Ben More on "proper" winter hill day
the Isle of Mull one May bank holiday. It was our friends who
got cold waiting for him to feed on the summit, he was toasty warm! On that note, don't forget that you will be moving slower than normal so you need more layers than for a normal hill day. We still layer the Chaps in about 5 layers now for winter summits and carry spare layers even on warmer days out. Again, this does not need to be specialised equipment, normal t-shirts and long sleeve t-shirts will do the trick although fleeces are useful because they pack down small when you do need to get them into your bag because they get too hot. A really great tip is to get an emergency bothy bag (or group shelter) and to use it at lunchtime - they really keep you super warm. I think our record inside was about 45mins on a damp Munro summit waiting for Little Chap #1 to breast feed.
We've done our best to stick to these points over the last couple of weeks. And that meant that, on both weekends, our original plans were saved for another day (and another blog) due to changeable (i.e. standard for the Lake District) weather conditions and lower-than-normal energy levels. The bonus here is that we walked on hills that we might not otherwise have considered and have enjoyed 4 brilliant days, exploring the fells and valleys and spending valuable time together, and feel relaxed and ready for the week to come (although the boys didn't really want to leave!).
Pics left to right: climbing Place Fell, Towards Place Fell trigpoint, Gowbarrow summit (looking at Red Arrows but not in picture!), Great view of Ullswater from the Terrace Path
At the end of the first week of term, we headed up to Ullswater with the intention of climbing one or more of the higher peaks in the Lake District. We stayed at the excellently-located but not very flat/level Side Farm campsite. A few rocks under the van wheels helped but we all woke up on one side in the morning! Saturday morning dawned and the clouds failed to lift from the tops. The Chaps were also tired from their first week of school so we changed our plans and realised that we could bag a Wainwright straight out of the campsite - Place Fell. A good path climbs across the hillside from Side Farm (Little Chap #1 was on the ball and spotted 2 red squirrels playing on a tree) and we were on the top for lunch and a reasonable, although still cloudy, view. The descent was easy although we broke our own rules and bagged a top simply because it was there (High Dodd) and then descended more steeply almost to the Lake shore. The path then followed the edge of the Lake back to the campsite. We had plenty of time to watch all the sailing boats and the Steamers and throw some stones in so the Little Chaps didn't notice their tired legs on the return leg - but they slept well that night!
The weather was much more clear on the Sunday but we had already made the decision to do something very simple ahead of another tiring week at school. As it turned out, it was also the Ullswater Triathlon this day so we saw several hundred people running into the Lake whilst we enjoyed our breakfast. We packed the van and drove about 2 minutes (well, 5 but only because we were behind some of the cyclists starting out after their swim!) out of Glenridding to the National Trust car park at Aira Force. The path follows the river valley through the trees and we watched a woodpecker at work high up in the canopy because we were ahead of the crowds - Aira Force is popular and the car park spaces soon fill up. As the valley opens out, we turned right onto a steep, mostly grassy climb up to the summit of Gowbarrow Fell. We had only just made it to the trigpoint when we heard a fighter plane which was odd for a Sunday. It turns out it was several planes as the Red Arrows flew down the valley in formation. It was great to see them from above! The rest of the route is on a good and obvious path on a terrace, high above the lake giving great views of the valley. The Little Chaps played mountain biking all the way down (a new "motivator" to add to my list!), carefully picking a line that they could ride their bike down so I think we will be planning a mountain bike trip very soon. We ate the rest of the birthday cake (didn't mention this was the reason we were there!) and headed home earlier than usual, knowing that in just 5 days we would be driving back up to the Lake District.
Left picture: Little Chap #2 and Grandpa enjoying the "view" on the climb up,
Right picture: Little Chap #2 enjoying some peace and quiet looking down to Grasmere
Two Lake District weekends in a row is unusual but following the previous week's birthday celebrations, this weekend we were joining Granny and Grandpa at their holiday house (they thought it would be "relaxing" having us around for the weekend!) in Elterwater.
The weather forecast was still not great, with cloud forecast to remain on the tops so we once again looked to AW (Alfred Wainwright) for some inspiration and motivation and found it in the form of a walk up Silver How. Our original plan was to park in Grasmere and approach via the Easdale Valley and Easedale Tarn but we won't mention that Grandpa forgot Granny's walking boots so we had to drive back to the house! Instead, we'll tell you how we cunningly set off up the Langdale Valley, hiding in the trees from a couple of rain showers that would have soaked us in the other valley, before climbing steeply out of the valley onto the ridge. It was a steep climb but the advantage of this is that you soon get it out of the way and reaching the top offered some of those famous dramatic Lakeland views (the ones with the tops hidden from view!) and also a good lunch spot because there was almost no wind at all (very unusual!). There are loads of "summits" on the ridge and I am sure I have used a different path every time I have been along here so we picked what looked like the most direct route choice each time until we reached the obvious main summit that is Silver How. The clouds were lifting by now, giving better views although the summits were still in and out of cloud so we definitely made a sensible choice staying a bit lower. Getting down can be tricky as there are a few streams that look like paths that can lead you over small crags etc so the trick is to keep going along the ridge almost to Red Bank before dropping back into the Langdale Valley and returning to the house for some cake.
Left picture: Slaters Bridge in Little Langdale. Pics to right: Entering the cave/mine
The Little Chaps had decided before we even got to the Lakes that we would be going caving on the Sunday. This is one of our favourite day-after-the-big-day-out walks because it is short, easy and full of interesting things to see (even when you have seen lots of them before!). Cathedral Quarry is just over the hill in Little Langdale and is a great excuse to get out the torches and disappear underground. Despite this being the second day, we were soon up the small climb out of Elterwater, stopping only to pick the last of the blackberries which are coming to the end of their season. Little Chap #2 in particular cannot pass a blackberry bush without pausing to fill his mouth! Down the other side of the hill, with a short stop to watch a sheepdog rounding up a herd of sheep who we then watched being sorted for market, to Slaters Bridge and we headed into the first tunnel. You don't need a torch for this one as it soon opens in a huge cavern with a big hole letting plenty of light in. The tunnel continues out of the cavern and a short scramble up to a platform takes you towards a blocky path into the main cave section. You do need torches here as you go into the old mine section. Stay left to walk straight through but there is a short tunnel on the right that leads to another underground cavern and a deadend. Return to the central hall and continue along the tunnel, which is quite low in a few places, to emerge around the corner from where you first went in. We continued down to the footpath, before crossing back over the river and climbing back up the hill to return to Elterwater. A bridleway descends through a working quarry so we stopped to look at the diggers etc before returning to the house for lunch. Another great walk with loads to see and do so that no-one noticed their tired legs. It was a quiet car journey back home though!
So with four brilliant days under our belt, three Wainwrights ticked off our list and our mental-energy levels reset and restored, we are all going back to school/work for a rest, already thinking about where we can go next.
Pic: view of Weatherlam Horseshoe from Little Langdale. "Granny's Favourite Mountain" and site of a plane crash. Definitely "interesting"...
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