Birkhouse Moor with a Third Leg!

After a bad finish to what should have been a lovely day on Gowbarrow via the Panorama route two days before (post to follow when my photos are back), I had to have a day off to let my disintegrating leg recover. For the first time ever, I had to sit it out while Richard bagged a Wainwright (Birks) on his own 😦

All photos Richard Wood/digital
As you’ve all probably gathered by now, one of my legs has suddenly quite literally fallen apart. Apparently, the hip joint has worn badly and it is taking my knee with it and causing terrible pains in my shins. The day before’s walk had only been 6 miles and was almost flat as we’d started off high but I finished the walk in terrible pain and had an awful night afterwards.

After a day’s rest, I decided to try the Wainwright of Birkhouse Moor with Richard as part of his Wainwright bagging. Of course, this is normally a prelude to Helvellyn via ‘the edges’ but I wouldn’t have been able to add them in and so Richard decided not to bother either – solidarity and all that…

Birkhouse Moor from near Patterdale

During my day off, as the weather had started off pretty bad, we’d decided to drive around to Keswick from Patterdale to do some ‘gear shopping’. It’s very rare indeed that I ever go gear shopping but I’d come to two conclusions… One was that the high front of a proper walking boot was probably causing my knee to work too hard as you can’t bend your ankle the same in boots as you can in shoes. I’d noticed this many years ago when I swapped from approach shoes to walking boots for the hills. So, firstly, I bought a couple of pairs of good approach shoes.

The other conclusion was a sad one for me and something I said I’d never do – I’d decided I had to buy some walking poles. Richard, an equally reluctant user, had to take to using a pole a couple of years back for his disintegrating hip and I’d had to borrow his a couple of times recently and found it seemed to help a bit.

By the time we got back from Keswick it was a lovely afternoon so Richard had nipped up Birks (with my instructions) and I accompanied him to the start of the path and then walked disconsolately back along the Grisedale Valley to base, complete with new pole. Oh dear, what a come-down 😦

The other thing I’d bought in Keswick was some Ibuprofen Gel which I’d applied the night before and again the morning we started for Birkhouse Moor. This had rendered my leg completely numb – a very disconcerting feeling for me. We walked along the road to Glenridding and then up the riverside to join the Mires Beck track.

Mires Beck

As we set off up the stonepitched path alongside the Beck, I worried about whether my numb leg was getting damaged but there was no way to tell. This prompted me to go very slowly indeed and use my ‘good leg’ to do most of the stepping up and let the dying one be dragged up behind it.

I found I was managing okay and we even managed to pass one family group and catch up a guy who’d steamed past us earlier so I felt a bit better. The path up Mires Beck is exceedingly easy and quite gently-angled but I could see things got steeper ahead.

Glenridding from the top of Mires Beck

Birkhouse Moor End from near the top of Mires Beck

Sheffield Pike’s Heron Pike from the steepening of our route

The path briefly steepened considerably but then went into a good, wide zig-zag to take us to the top of Birkhouse Moor. I was pleased I’d reached another summit but was very worried about my future as a hill-walker. I’d been very depressed for the whole visit since my first day hadn’t gone well and I’d hardly been eating.

Catchedicam – one of my favourite Wainwrights

Helvellyn East Face

Swirral Edge Zoom

It was a lovely sunny day but too cold to hang around on the summit so Richard just took photos and we set straight off for the ‘hole-in-the-wall’ – the usual way up to Striding Edge. If anyone had been watching they’d have thought us most strange as we clambered over the stile and headed off back down to the valley, ignoring Striding Edge completely!

I had a terrible time getting over the stile with a bad leg and a walking pole!

The first section of the descent was again stone-pitched and pretty steep so I was again very worried about what damage I might be doing to my numb leg. However, I put a lot of weight on my walking pole and very slowly stepped my way down.

‘Old hippy’ with her walking stick! 😦

The dramatic end of Birks which I’d had to forgo the day before 😦

View up Grisedale to Dollywaggon Pike and Fairfield

Further down the path flattens quite a lot so I tried walking without my pole as I was getting one sore wrist – I’d swapped from one hand to the other quite a bit but my ex-broken wrist from 2012 wasn’t too happy. I was even less happy the next day when I discovered I’d dropped my thinsulate glove somewhere down this path.

We decided to have a sit in the sun when we found a flat bit out of the wind. This was okay until we had to get up and start walking again when we both struggled to get going again.

I was upset to see that someone had found a dead sheep skeleton and hooked it upright onto a wire fence by its horns so it looked like it was standing on its hind legs. I thought it quite disrespectful as, to me, all life is equal and all death deserves the same respect.

The Keldas area, as always, was beautiful – especially under sunshine and blue skies…

We eventually reached the valley and I was horrified to see we’d been four and a half hours to do one hill! The walk should have been around three hours at most. I was happy that I’d at least done another hill though and hoped that I’ll be able to do another one sometime.

The next day was superb so I decided it was time I had a row on the lake as I didn’t get one last year on any of the Lake District lakes – very unusual for me. At least I can still do that 🙂

Looking back at our mountain