Pike of Blisco, G/LD-024 - 705m ASL - NY 271 042 - OS Explorer OL6 - 6 SOTA points           

"Diary of a Madman" - part 4

Wednesday 2nd June 2010, and what an unbelievable day it would turn out to be. Things began well with a delicious cooked breakfast at the B&B. I chanced at presenting the landlady with three tins of soup and a flask, and she accepted the challenge. Not before snapping at me that "You won't get three tins in that". Now, call me bigheaded if you like, but I do happen to be rather knowledgeable about how much Baxters soup fits into a one-litre flask, thank you very much!

   

While I was waiting for Jimmy to finish getting ready, I chatted to the landlady who was having a fag in her front garden. She glanced at my car and started to give me a lecture about me parking it illegally. I protested my innocence, referring to the times given on the yellow signs, adding that we would be away by 9am. "Doesn't matter, you have to be 6 feet from the junction, my daughter's a police officer, just emigrated to Australia, and she would tell you that you can't park like that, though she couldn't book you, they've decriminalised now you see, a traffic warden could still do you for it though". My car must have been 12 feet minimum from the junction in any case.

       

Fortunately Jimmy then appeared, which meant I could make my excuses and get away. The route was becoming familiar - up through Ambleside and turn right for Langdales. This time we drove to the top of Wrynose Pass, where there was plenty of space to pull in at the side of the road. The morning was hot and sunny, and applying sunblock was the first task.

       

Jimmy and I commenced along a well-maintained path, pleasant walking quickly rewarded by reaching the appealing looking Red Tarm, resting beneath Cold Pike. However, we were now looking for our right turn, to head more steeply and rockily to the summit of Pike o'Blisco G/LD-024. At the top were two large cairns, with the as ever well researched Jimmy informing me which one was considered to be the true summit.

He set up right by the cairn enjoying a fantastic view over the valley for his 2m FM activation. This time I opted to deploy the MM17 and activate on 18MHz CW. Conditions were definitely down, and I only had five takers. Jimmy worked more on 2m FM.

Keen to make the most of this lovely day and continue hunting down those SOTA uniques, we got cracking with the descent and eagerly anticipated our further progress through the passes.  Little did we know quite what to expect!  We had hoped to do Hard Knott G/LD-034 and maybe Harter Fell G/LD-028, but in the event, it turned out to be Muncaster Fell G/LD-055.