Day 6: Grasmere to Glenridding

After two killer days, we realized that even with all our training for distance and elevation, we just hadn't been prepared for the terrain (rocks and mire, mire and rocks), orienteering in featureless landscapes, or the difficulty in judging distances when so much of it is up and down.

Today was to be a much easier and enjoyable day even though the rocky terrain was still a challenge.

After a rest day in Grasmere, we again took our time at the start.

It was a gorgeous morning, clear skies and much cooler than the two previous hot days.

We meandered along the backroads of Grasmere

...to Great Tongue and chose the easier, lower, right-hand route up.

Even with the detour around a landslide-compromised portion of the path, the walk was delightful and the views back toward Grasmere...

...and to either side were breathtaking.

We reached Hause Gap in good time and stopped for a spot of tea by a waterfall, where we met a couple about our age from Minnesota (Sharon and Rob) who had mistakenly taken the harder, high, left-hand route and were now joining ours. We advised them to take the easier, lower route down. (Later, we walked with them for several days, so you'll hear a bit more about their adventures and mis-adventures in a later posting.)

After lunch it was still a bit of a push up to Grisdale Hause (Pass).

The top of Grisdale Haus was quite windy and we donned our parkas.

But once over the saddle, we came upon the peaceful hidden valley lake, Grisdale Tarn.

Then, we started the long way down Grisdale Beck...

 Just a part of the long and meandering path down Grisdale Beck to Glenridding.

Unfortunately, we have no other photos from this beautiful (and exhausting) walk, as Therese's camera blacked out (temporarily, although we thought it had died) and Peter lost his camera photos in the transfer (never delete your SD camera chip until your sure you've saved all the photos on it!)