Another hot day at the office

Blissfully unaware of the drama that was unfolding downstream, TF and myself looked briefly down on the waters of Lingmell Beck as it flowed down to the Esk valley before turning our attention to our second big climb of the day in our recce of TF's race in a fortnight's time.

We had started from the NT car park above Blea Tarn using the stony track to the foot of Wrynose Pass. From there we climbed up Wetside Edge (a good recce for Saturday' Duddon race) and then to the col below Greyfriars. By now the early morning mist had mostly burnt off and the day was getting warm. We reached the road at Cockley Beck and then made our way up Mosedale to the watershed before turning and climbing the steep flank of the valley to the col north of Little Stand.

Our next objective was Pike o' Blisco and easy running on the dry grassy terrain brought us to Red Tarn and the final ascent of the outing. From Blisco we made the long descent to Blea tarn and back to the car park.

We had been out for 5 hrs 8 mins, covered 11.57 miles at an average pace of 26 mins 42 secs and climbed a total of 4,500ft. Although the pace was not fast it was a hard outing in anybody's book and the steep unrelenting climbs were good training for what is to come later in the month.

It was not until driving home that I heard on the radio of the tragic events of the Cumbrian shootings and was glad the incident was terminated at Boot and not a few miles further along the road at Cockley Beck.