Posts Page - Jims Walking Journey

A walk up Crinkle Crags

The names of the mountains of Lakeland can often seem like they were created by a random password generator and many a hill walker who has wandered over them has wondered how the likes of Catbells, Barf, Froswick or Great Cockup came to be named such. There can be no such doubt however about today’s mountain, Crinkle Crags. It’s a name that perfectly describes the five undulating and craggy crinkles that form part of the skyline at the head of the beautiful valley of Great Langdale.

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Lens Artists Challenge – Bridges

Although a regular viewer of Lens Artists Challenge I’m an infrequent contributor, the subjects often a little abstract for my somewhat linear thinking brain.

However, when I saw this week’s challenge by Beth on ‘Bridges’ I thought that was something I can hang my hat on and when I searched bridges in my photos and found 267 that clinched it. I won’t subject you to all 267 but here’s a selection.

Ancient and modern, busy and quiet, solid and scary, stone wood and metal, some celebrated, some long forgotten and some personal.

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Walking the Wild Pacific Trail, Vancouver Island

The Wild Pacific Trail is a series of footpaths exploring the untamed natural beauty of the wild and rugged coastline near Ucluelet on the west coast of Vancouver Island. Originally the vision of ‘Oyster’ Jim Martin, the Wild Pacific Trail Society was formed in 1999 and over the decades this community project has created a series of footpaths through the rainforests along the coast with interpretive signage, benches and viewing platforms. Having already walked the Tonquin Trail further north on the island I was keen to experience more of the ancient, atmospheric rainforests that stand on the edge of a continent watching over an ocean spanning half way across the world before it meets land again.

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A walk to St Catherine’s Church and Stanley Ghyll Force, Eskdale

I had resolved to visit St Catherine’s Church in the heart of lovely Eskdale during the depths of last winter after an icy walk up Green Crag. The weather could not have been more different when the opportunity arose earlier in the summer whilst Mish and I were at Eskdale National Trust Campsite and the sun shone all week. A bonus was our daughter, who has spent the summer living on an island in Morecambe Bay monitoring nesting terns had a day off and came up to see us.

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A walk to Cap d’Erquy along the GR34 in Northern Brittany

After our stay at Île Grande we’re at another campsite just a stones throw from the beach, Camping Saint Michel Erquy. Unfortunately being close to the coast is not so great when the sea mist decides to roll in and drape its foggy blanket over everything. I’m hoping to walk another bit of the GR34 today, to Cap d’Erquy along the coast of Northern Brittany with its dramatic coastline of sea cliffs, heather clad headlands and sandy beaches and mist was not in the plan. But whilst walking in sunshine with expansive views is desirable, walking in a bit of mist is small beer compared to the extreme heat, wild fires, floods and drought that Europe has been experiencing this summer. Mother nature is telling us something, unfortunately we don’t seem to be listening.

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A walk up Hard Knott and the Roman Fort

The rhythmic sound of a cuckoo resonates around the head of the Eskdale Valley as I sort my gear out in the parking area just before the start of the Hardknott Pass. There is not a breath of wind around and the morning sun is breaking through the thinning clouds warming the earth and bringing with it a chorus of birdsong and bleating lambs that provide competition for the cuckoo’s onomatopoeic song. The sounds of nature, the beauty of the valley and the stillness of the morning brings a smile to my face and I know this is going to be a fine day’s walking.

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A walk around Île-Grande on the Côte de Granite Rose

Île-Grande is a big name for a little island. Measuring just 2km by 1km Île Grande is on Brittany’s Côte de Granite Rose (pink granite coast) a popular 30km stretch of coastline known for its pink granite rock formations and wide sandy beaches. The GR34, Sentier des Douaniers (custom officers path) goes around the island, just a small segment of its long journey from Saint Nazaire to Mont Saint Michel. A distance of roughly 1240 miles makes it the longest coastal trail in France and twice the distance of the South West Coast Path.

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A walk up Whin Rigg and Illgill Head from Eskdale

The last time I was in Eskdale it was freezing. Today it’s a balmy 25°c as I take advantage of a warm dry spell to complete the southern fells within reach from this beautifully remote and most quiet of lakeland valleys. I’m staying at Eskdale NT Campsite and although my objectives today, Whin Rigg and Illgill Head are a bit of a trek from here there’s lots of historical interest on the way which makes this a walk through history as well as a walk in the mountains.

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A walk to Kinney Lake – Mount Robson Provincial Park

By any measure Mount Robson is a mountain lovers mountain. Our first view of it is driving south on Highway 16 where it appears like a giant at the end of a long straight stretch of highway. The tall regimental green pines flanking the roadside act like a funnel drawing our eyes towards it’s huge bulk, long narrow ridges, vertical drops and snow plastered peak. It’s a mammoth mountain and it comes as no surprise to learn that at 12,972ft it’s the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies.

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A walk up Green Crag from Eskdale

The settled high pressure of the last few days continues to keep the clouds away and after another freezing, star studded night the morning dawns bright and clear. It’s a perfect day for walking. If yesterday’s walk, Harter Fell is on the fringes of Lakeland today’s, Green Crag is the border post. There is not a Wainwright further south west of it and beyond are the flattening foothills and fields leading to the Cumbria coastline.

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A walk up Harter Fell from Eskdale

Driving over Birker Fell last night the road started icing up as the sun lowered over the horizon and I wondered at one point if I was going to have to pull over and spent the night on the moor. Thankfully I made it down into Eskdale and after a freezing night under the stars dawn has brought blue skies and watery sunshine, which is providing no warmth at all on the frozen fields but makes for a bright, dry and clear day, perfect for walking.

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A walk in Death Valley National Park

Is a walk of less than a mile really a walk? That’s maybe one for the philosophers but I’ll go with the Chinese proverb that says “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” and count my few single steps in Death Valley National Park as most definitely a walk. I had occasion to recall our visit to Death Valley after reading two recent posts, one by Sarah of travel with me which featured a picture of it and another by Bruce of vanmarmots travels who walked a longer trail than my own short leg stretch at Badwater Basin. Both reminded though just how beautiful and desolate Death Valley is and have prompted me to share my own experience of it.

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Pike O’Blisco and Cold Pike from Wrynose Pass

It’s my second day parked up in a nice little spot on the Wrynose Pass. Last night it got down to -1°c in the van and it’s freezing as I walk up the road to the three shire stone, grateful for the steepness to warm me up. Yesterday I turned left and headed to Great Carrs, today I turn right towards Pike O’Blisco and Cold Pike. It’s another crisp and clear day in Lakeland with not a cloud to be seen in the cornflower blue sky.

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A walk in Ancient Forest/Chun T’oh Whudujut Provincial Park

The Ancient Forest/Chun T’oh Whudujut Provincial Park is one of the newer national parks in British Columbia, being established in 2016. It’s a relatively small park with only a short hike around it and the walking is almost all along boardwalks that have been put in place to protect the delicate ecosystems from human feet. Some of the western red cedars in the forest are a thousand years old or more and the park is a rare example of inland temperate rainforest, an environment unique to North America. And who can resist a walk in a rainforest.

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Great Carrs, Swirl How and Grey Friar from Wrynose Pass

The Halifax Bomber Memorial on Great Carrs

I’ve had a summer away from Lakeland doing other things but as I drink my morning coffee a thousand feet up the Wrynose Pass watching the sun rise over Wetherlam it’s like meeting up with an old friend again. Shared experiences and years of familiarity mean the relationship is comfortably secure and time and distance apart is quickly forgotten. Every corner tells a story, and my particular memory here is of pushing an old mark three Cortina up an icy Wrynose Pass just after Christmas sometime in the mid eighties on our way to Eskdale YHA.

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A walk up Talaia d’Alcudia, Mallorca

I forget that it’s market day and we’re stuck in traffic crawling through the ancient walled town of Alcudia on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca. To pass the time the taxi driver puts his AC/DC playlist on, Highway to Hell is the first song and I’m hoping it isn’t an omen for my planned walk today. Eventually he drops me just outside Campament de la Victoria which is the start point of my walk up Talaia d’Alcudia, the highest mountain on the Alcudia peninsula. As the cab pulls away the sunshine on my face and the silence in my ears are both equally welcome.

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Moraine Lake and Lake Agnes Tea House Trail

Events elsewhere mean many Canadians are vacationing at home this year and it seems half of them have chosen to visit Banff and Lake Louise at the same time as us. Consequently, I made sure to call at Lake Louise Ski Resort yesterday and secure our tickets for the 8.15am bus stopping at Moraine Lake first before going on to Lake Louise. This way we still get to see both of these extremely popular and beautiful lakes but can take our time at Lake Louise and walk the Lake Agnes Tea House Trail, a walk I’ve had my eye on for some time.

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Lens Artists Challenge – Dreamy

‘Found my way upstairs and had a smoke, And somebody spoke and I went into a dream’

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The Lighthouse Loop Trail – Vancouver Island

When ‘Oyster’ Martin moved to Vancouver Island in the 1980’s he fell in love with the rugged landscape and rocky headlands of the west coast that he saw from his fishing boat each day and had a dream to create a trail along the coastline that could be accessed and enjoyed by all. Forty years later that vision has grown into the Wild Pacific Trail and today I’m walking the Lighthouse Loop section, which happens to be the first section that was completed back in 1999.

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A walk around Emerald Lake, Yoho National Park

The alarm goes at 6am and by ten past we are on the road, half awake and unwashed with the bed still warm in the back of the van. All is quiet as we drive out of Lake Louise Campground through the sleepy town and out onto the Trans Canada One heading west. The sun is breaking through but clouds still cover the higher peaks and mist floats over the Bow river as we head up Kicking Horse Pass and back into British Columbia and Yoho National Park. The only other vehicles on the road are gigantic trucks, engines labouring up the incline.

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