I’ve logged many hours running in and around the Lakes, so when I happened across this route linking up many of my favourite places in one route, I was keen to give it a go. I was very lucky with my chosen weekend; the selection of the dates was based mainly on when neither my partner nor I were due to be working and far enough after Christmas, so I was also very lucky with the timing of low tide on Saturday 7th February, with dawn around 7:50am and low tide coming in around 8:45am.
I set off from Ravenglass at 8:05am with my Crocs in hand to complete the first few legs solo. Unsure where exactly to start and wanting to find somewhere that equalled Moot Hall or Glen Nevis YHA, we found a suitable flagpole just off the main street.
The tidal crossing was easy enough, coming around knee-deep at most, but was really cold! The Crocs in sport mode were great for keeping my feet mostly clean and, after meeting the car for a quick towel and getting my socks back on, I set off along the road to get into the hills proper. Meet-ups at Birker Fell, Hardknott cattle grid and Walna Scar Road helped a great deal and meant I was carrying enough supplies for emergencies and a few hours of food.
After the road sections, I got a taste of what the weather might have in store for me, with quite a strong cutting wind whipping behind me as I ran up Birker Fell. The first few meet-ups with the car were rapid: a quick water bottle change and gone again in less than a minute. The trails around Boot and Seathwaite were delightful. I thought I knew the areas from other races and events, but the single tracks were lovely and flowy, and the sections from Wallowbarrow Crag to the Fickle Steps crossing were pretty gnarly. If I was doing the descent from Hardknott to Wallowbarrow in summer, I would be very wary of ticks.
The trails were so quiet that it wasn’t until the base of the Old Man of Coniston that I passed my first hiker, several hours in! The rest of the trail flew by, with company from Tilberthwaite until Keswick, help on the bike around Little Langdale, club mates around Grasmere, and company over High Street and from Patterdale to Keswick. I am very grateful to Rich, Phil and Mark for their night pacing, as the clag, driving wind and rain made for some tricky navigation, and over High Street the shin-deep snow, nicely resting on freezing puddles of slush, made going slow and sapping. When I reached the old coach road, I was glad to have some easier-going terrain again, even if the fields and lanes approaching Keswick were hard to follow in the dark.
I remember chatting with Rich on High Street as the clag enveloped us and the drifted snow hid the track, wondering who else would be out on the hills that night and who else would be silly enough to be out at that time, not knowing that Rob Brown was midway through his Steve Parr Round that weekend.
Keswick at 2am was surreal and I was back on my own for the next few legs, meeting the road crew at Crummock Water next. The climb up and over was fine, but the descent down Gasgale Gill was a little sketchy on tired legs, with some sections of scree where you wouldn’t want to slip. Around Crummock and Buttermere, dawn started to ebb into the sky, but the benefit this offered was dampened by the torrential lashings of rain, with a nice headwind that came with it. Meeting wild campers and bothy-goers around Honister was nice, as the trails had been a little lonely, and passing through the quarry as they started work felt almost overwhelming.
Through Rosthwaite and onto Sty Head, through some surprisingly deep snow, I was lucky to have some company again, and my road crew thought I might beat them to Wasdale due to road closures around Loweswater, but in the end they had plenty of time.
Wasdale came and went with a quick stop at the Fell and Rock Climbing Club hut in Brackenclose before pushing over familiar ground from Lakeland 100 to Boot.
Approaching Boot, the sun decided to appear and I went from needing four layers, hat and gloves to finishing the final miles in my T-shirt. Being joined by the bike for the beautiful miles along the Esk Trail was glorious, as I could finally think about the end, but the steep climb back up to Fell Lane through Ian’s Wood brought me back to reality. That was steep. We had a nice time getting a little lost in the Muncaster Castle playground before finding the right exit to slip and slide through the woods to the finish line.
In keeping with the traditions of a long run, I chose to end where I’d started instead of the listed train station car park and retraced my steps to the flagpole off the main street, with beautiful views over the water, touching the flagpole 31 hours, 27 minutes and 45 seconds after setting off. There was even a well-placed bench ready to catch me.
Thank you to Richard Jennings for organising and setting up this route. I thoroughly enjoyed the style, scenery and adventure. It had been on my list for a while as a good winter route, with few exposed tops or ridgelines, meaning that, safety-wise, it would be more achievable in winter, especially if I went solo. Also, big thanks to the runners who joined (Ken, Rhiannon, Rich, Mark, Phil, Thomas) and to the invaluable road crew for their help (Nick, Karen and Flora, who also biked). I ran as a fundraiser for Papyrus and wanted to raise £1 for every km run, but had to up my target when I finished and found I’d done 206.5km, about 10km more than OS Maps suggested, which was expected.
Donations to Papyrus would be greatly appreciated: Seth’s Lakeland Way Run
Seth Kennard