Gear Giveaway Group Grabs Grisedale Pike.

Richard Jennings organised this event in support of the Calvert Trust. The idea was that, several dog  owners who sometimes write messages on this walkers forum have a walk up Grisedale Pike then gather together in the pub and give Richard and partner, Donna Jennings, bits of their spare gear. This then gets sold and the proceeds go to the Calvert Trust. Quite a neat idea, I expect you’ll agree… ( I wish I’d thought of this for Mind..dhuhhh…)

And so, me and superdawg got up well before the Crook starlings had thumped the “sleep” button on the DB radio alarms and turned over to snuggle back down in our privet hedge for another hour of dreamysnoozysnorytimes; in utter darkness, in fact and scooted off in the general direction of Braithwaite via the A66 at Bowes which was, in fact, predictably and enjoyably empty. So I got there half an hour earlier than planned without setting off any speed cameras and parked, for three quid in the school playground. (Reasonable, that, for the Lakes…)

At Braithwaite the sun shone (a bit) and various dogs turned up at the starting point at the Royal Oak with their owners.   Several stray owners turned up without any dogs at all. So, there were fifteen(ish) walkers and six (ish) dogs for the closely packed contours and sloppy snow and scree up to the top of Grisedale Pike. I didn’t actively count the numbers.

The group got a bit strung out on the climb up the Pike, and Bruno, who was determined to be at the front, as usual, had to be restrained on his lead, otherwise I would have lost sight of him… and thee were sheep… So he had a proper whine and a moan about it and pulled me up the hill. So it wasn’t all bad  . Later, in the forest, where the group was more tightly formed, he had a good run at the front of the pack with several other dogs. They all seemed to get on remarkably well…

Just before we did  get to the top,though,  the weather, which had been fairly benign, spoiled itself and some nearby tops disappeared in hillfog and a lively breeze gave us a bit of a battering till we scuttered off towards Whinlatter. Conditions weren’t ideal for a relaxed lunch gazing at the view, and in fact, it could have been described as “grim” so we left in the general direction of Hobcarton End and Whinlatter.

A few  had dropped out on the climb, but some replacements were recruited on Hobcarton End – which was declared to be a “Birkett” and which I grabbed greedily. I later found out that about 20 years ago, I’d been this way before….  so any smugness only lasted till I got home.

Later, after a bit of the Whinlatter jungle, complete with leeches, drums and Burmese mud, we gathered in the Royal oak for the passing of contributions. There seemed to be a fair amount of quality stuff, so Calvert’s should be in for some reasonable spondoolies. There’s another, similar event planned for late summer, I understand.
The Calvert Trust provides Outdoor activities and holidays for disabled people and has centres in the Lakes, Kielder and Exmoor. For more info and to make direct donations click Here
And it was nice to meet several peeps (and their dogs) from thee walkersforum – individuals who had just been user names and photo’s up to now.
I think we did about 8 miles.
More charity stuff tomorrow, then I’m off on another windy backpacking trip with Dawn. I have a new and replenished supply of dehydrated rice pudding for this, so there’s no need for anybody to worry…