Chipping Trigs - Saturday 27th August '16

Although there had been quite a lot of prior interest in this adventure, only three of us reached the start line:- Nic'O, YJ and yours truly. The Settlers were absent due to their leader having fallen down and subsequently gotten up again with injured ribs - could your Angels not have reported for duty leaderless, Chris?

So at 9:15 (not all the delay being due to me) we dauntless three set off for Fairsnape. The weather was warm and dry and for most of the day there was sufficient breeze to make the conditions comfortable. YJ, in his eternal search for extra miles and climbing, approached target no.1 via Parlick summit, but Nic'O and I bypassed it and we regrouped before the col, reaching the trig on Fairsnape an hour and 19 minutes after leaving Chipping:-

In the distance between my companions you can see clearly the tree covered top of our next objective - Beacon Fell.

Descending Fairsnape towards the spreading fields of Bleasdale, we found that parts of our course had been marked:-

Nic'O seemed unsure as to whether we should follow the tape or her GPS, but in the end we agreed to follow our noses.

The route to Beacon Fell did not include too much road and we reached the top an hour and 35 minutes after Fairsnape:-

Looking back, Fairsnape is obscured by me and Parlick by YJ.

Succumbing to the temptation of a coffee shop just a few hundred yards away, it was another 27 minutes later before we set off for our final summit.This included the longest stretch of tarmac (6 miles) that we had to endure and as the weather became slightly too warm for comfort, Nic'O declared, on the stretch called Bedlam Road, that she was losing the will to live. YJ, on the final steep (very) climb up Jeffrey Hill (still tarmac), demonstrated his remarkable climbing ability, leaving us both trailing in his wake. The moorland stretch from the top of Jeffrey to the summit involved very little climbing and we reached the trig two hours and 8 minutes after leaving the Beacon Fell cafe:-

This was probably the best viewpoint of all, with Beacon Fell to the left of YJ's head, Fairsnape the long high ridge to the right of the pillar and Chipping nestling in the centre middle distance.

From there we set off back to our starting point, YJ opting to retrace our steps back to the top of Jeffrey and to stay on the road all the way back, whilst Nic'O used her GPS to help us follow footpaths most of the way back to Chipping. YJ caught us up on the final tarmac stretch and we reached the cars six hours and 54 minutes after leaving them.

Nic'O clocked over 19 miles for our journey and YJ managed to rack up over 21, by avoiding all shortcuts and staying on tarmac wherever possible.

All in all, a fine day out, although for two of us at least, just too much road, especially when surrounded by so much fine hill country. An outing to be repeated - but not just yet!

The biggest disappointment of my day was that the Cobbled Corner Cafe in Chipping had closed at 4:00, just before our arrival back  at 4:09.