Baugh Fell-Tarn Rigg Hill, G/NP-012 - 678m ASL - SD 740 916  - OS Explorer OL19 - 4 SOTA points           

At 11pm the night before, in the middle of a dinner party, Jimmy and I were granted a surprise full day pass-out for Tuesday 30th December 2008. There was little time to sort out all the gear, especially while still entertaining guests, but we did - only thing was it was after 1am by then, ahead of a 6am get-up...

I did get up at 6am though, as did Jimmy. My grogginess was entirely tiredness related, for I had only one beer and one glass of wine during the previous evening's dinner party, which was as well considering the early start on the roads.

Jimmy wasn't ready for breakfast as we passed through Lymm, so we went onto the M6 and drove up to J37, the same one as for Lambrigg Fell G/LD-046. We turned right, and followed into the town of Sedburgh, where we found a pub/inn - The Dalesman - doing bed & breakfast - but with breakfast available for non-residents. This was a full English affair of tea, toast, cereal, fruit juice and then a whopping great cooked breakfast. It was a wonderful start to the day!

   

Jimmy then directed me to the large parking area, at roadside in-between Baugh Fell-Tarn Rigg Hill G/NP-012 and Aye Gill Pike G/NP-023. This would have been OK, but I couldn't resist seeing if more ground could yet be made. Hence I drove down the road forking left off the main road here, and then sharply uphill to the left. This was marked as a byway on the OS map, but had a good tarmac surface, all the way to a large parking/turning area at the top, outside the farm.

   

From here, we walked following the wall/fence and Ringing Keld Gutter, as recommended by Rick M0RCP. This was mainly good walking, although probably easier than at most times with the bog being frozen solid. The final pull onto the ridge was a bit of a slog, but then the amble around the broad ridge was pleasant.

       

We passed the trigpoint, and continued over a shallow saddle to the summit true, marked by a small pathetic cairn. This was a straightforward activation, with me making a batch of QSOs on 3.557MHz CW, then Jimmy making even more on 3.660MHz SSB. This hill was also my 200th unique for SOTA.

   

We got cracking with the descent, but it still seemed to drag on for ages. We arrived at the car, realising that we would need torches for the descent of the next hill - Aye Gill Pike G/NP-023.  Thanks to the following stations, all worked with 5 watts as follows: