A wet and windy day Geocaching on Scafell Pike from Seathwaite today!
Unfortunately as the weather had been so poor and the forecast for the day was for more rain, all of the group bar one decided not to climb Scafell Pike today. However Sue who was very keen to climb Scafell Pike was up for it! On my drive down to Seathwaite the road alongside Derwent Water was slightly flooded, the night of rain had had quite an impact, however as we got closer to 10am the rain eased and the cloud was lifting higher and higher by the minute.
We set off from Seathwaite Farm and after just a few hundred metres we had to strip off a layer as it was quite warm, and best of all, dry! On the way up towards Styhead Pass Sue told me she enjoys Geocaching in her spare time, and she had her GPS with her today with some of the local Geocaches programmed into it. For those of you who may not be aware of what Geocaching is, it is a fun sport whereby you use a GPS to locate registered items in outdoor locations (Usually a lunchbox with items in, including a notebook in which you write your name and date of visit). We reached Styhead Pass and had to walk about 160m off of the track to locate a Geocache under a boulder. We joined the Corridor route where we got intermittent views down into Wasdale through the mist. We climbed well and as we reached Lingmell Col we were faced with a strong wind, and it was only at this point it started to rain. Towards the top of the ascent we went and located another Geocache. A short walk brought us to the windswept summit of Scafell Pike, which with photographic evidence counted as another Geocache for Sue, woop!
We had lunch in the shelter before descending to Broad Crag Col. We made rapid progress over Broad Crag and Ill Crag to Calf Cove, and then onto Esk Hause where we were again under the mist and getting views down the Borrowdale Valley. We continued to make rapid progress and an hour later we were back at Seathwaite Farm.
