The Road goes ever on and on; Down from the door where it began;
Now far ahead the Road has gone; And I must follow, if I can;
Pursuing it with eager feet; Until it joins some larger way;
Where many paths and errands met; And whither then? I cannot say.

[JRR Tolkien, Lord of the Rings]

Tuesday 10 February 2015

Little Mell Fell

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It was approaching half-past two this afternoon by the time we pitched up at the campsite at the foot of Little Mell Fell, and by the time a late lunch had been eaten, tea drunk, faffing completed and boots donned, it was approaching half past three. I was determined, however, to get out for a leg-stretch. Aside from anything else, I couldn’t possibly finish the day with only 800 steps on my Fitbit!

Although I had intended Little Mell Fell and Great Mell Fell to form a single outing, the former was the obvious choice for a very quick late-afternoon outing, so that’s where we went.

Very quick it certainly was: twenty five minutes after setting off we were standing at the trig point, trying not to think about how splendid the views would be if we weren’t fully enclosed in a cloud.

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If it had been just a tiny bit earlier, we would have headed down the north side of the hill to make a decent circuit, but as it was we dropped down to the east, where we met a few patches of snow deep enough to get into the boots (gaiters would have been a good idea, but I do so hate them):

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Within the hour, we were back at the campsite, with 1.7 miles walked and 700’ ascended.

As much as people are enjoying inversions on the bigger hills, I do hope the cloud base is a bit higher tomorrow!

2 comments:

  1. Twenty Five minutes to the top? You must have found a way of lengthening the walk! I've only done this fell twice - and that's quite enough for me! Great Mell Fell is rather better and makes a plasant Sunday afternoon dog walk.

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    1. We did start from the campsite, rather than from the top of the road ... and maybe we dawdled a bit.

      We did visit Great Mell Fell too (although not until Thursday), and I would agree that it is the more interesting hill. Just a pity that we didn't have visibility on the top of that one either.

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