Sunrise on Friday 13th

The old intake works.

The night was clear and windless but the haze seemed to have got worse at sunrise. I waited till the sun was up to dry the tent off a bit before setting off at 7:40am. I headed east along the grassy trail passing more ancient settlements. I took the left fork above Worm Gill and followed it round to the left and into a valley heading NE. At the head were the remains of the intake works shown on the map. The only building was just a derelict shell and the whole complex seemed disused and should probably be demolished and landscaped. I crossed the river and started the long steep climb of Caw Fell.

I took it steady and the first part was fairly easy but as I approached the summit it became more bouldery and difficult. Eventually I came to the summit cairn then continued to the wall. I stopped here for a while with the intention of looking for somewhere to pitch my tent. A little downhill to the north was a wet area where I'd previously seen a small spring issuing so I left the water bag there to fill from the trickle. The silence was soon shattered when a helicopter came up from Ennerdale, circled the area and set down briefly to let two men get out.

Workmen arrive the easy way.

They headed for the wall to the west while the helicopter returned to the valley bottom to collect fence posts and wire. One man said they were going to repair gaps in the wall with fencing and the helicopter, at £1,000 per hour, was the cheapest way of getting the materials on to the fell. I expressed my surprise but wasn't too surprised when he said they had to repair the gaps as part of an EEC condition on the land. I said it would have been better to rebuild the gaps in the wall but he said that would have been too expensive! I decided to move on and abandon the water I'd collected. I headed towards Little Gowder Crag, following the wall on the right as the helicopter dropped more loads of fencing materials on the left side. Before the crag I came to a saddle and what looked like the last grass or place to pitch a tent for a while. There was no water around so I looked down the steep valley heading to the south and saw a tell tale lush green area not too far down. I left my pack and headed down with the water bag and found an excellent small spring. Back at the top I pitched the tent but the views were almost none existent due to the haze. The wind got up a bit but it remained warm.