Day 3 - Rain and Day 4 - Two Crags and a Fell

July 4:  It rained.  We hung around the cottage but stirred mid afternoon for a walk down to Waterhead and a look at Galava, a Roman fort.  It rained particularly hard on the walk to the historic site.  It was excavated in the 1920s and shows the foundation outlines of several entry gates and three buildings.  We walked back in lighter rain along the River Rothay looking for otters, which are at the top of the food chain here.  We didn't see any, but Betsy spotted a 5 inch long crawfish in the water.  The water is crystal clear.

What the Main Gate was thought to look like

The foundation for an officer's quarters

July 5:  It didn't rain and we hiked up Todd Crag, followed by Ivy Crag, and then reached the high point of Loughrigg Fell.  This was followed by a well-earned beer at the Britannia Pub in the small town of Elterwater.

The hike was 9.25 miles long and 1,600 feet in elevation gain.  The hiking was marvelous, my feet are behaving, though duct tape is helping with the hot spots, and the views impressive.  We climbed immediately out of Ambleside to the west, reaching the rolling plateau of the Loughrigg Fell.  There were numerous crags, which are rocky outcrops or high points that have at least one side that is cliff-like (i.e., vertical faces of rocks).  There were several tarns in the low spots and some boggy areas and rivulets.  The landscape in not totally natural, but a result of hundreds of years of grazing and tramping by Herdwick sheep.  There is also lots of bracken on the upper slopes.

Ambleside - Waterhead - Lake Windermere

There were many other folks out walking and enjoying the good weather.  After reaching the second crag, we decided to push on to the highest point of the fell and easily conquered it.  It is only 335 meters high or 1,099 feet.  We sat at the top and got talking with a guy who was hiking solo and was a local, with local knowledge.  He explained the differences between a crag and a fell.  By the way, a fell in the entire land mass of a single mountain and can have lots of crags on it.  He didn't know where the term 'rigg' came from but guessed it was Norwegian.  It was a good guess, but Wikipedia says "Rigg" comes from the Scottish word for "ridge" or "furrow."  Many of the tallest fells are named "Something Rigg."  The local guy also identified a pair of soaring birds for us as  'buzzards.'  

The summit climb

The Peak

We descended rather abruptly, almost to the southern edge of Grasmere Lake, but turned south over a low pass toward the village of Elterwater.  We passed a nice looking Youth Hostel, called High Close, and walked down a twisting road to Elterwater.  We beelined to the very traditional Britannia Pub, since it was a suggested stop in one of the hiking books in our cottage, aptly named "Good Walk, Good Pub, 20 circular walks with a good pub in the middle."  We stopped for a local beer (me), cider (Betsy) and a warm tomato and mozzarella sandwich.

The view looking west

Britannia Pub

After our break, we left Elterwater and walked along a short portion of the well-graded Cumbria Way following the River Brathay, passing a 3-lake combination known as Elter Water, the Skelwith Force (a waterfall), the bedroom hamlets of Skelwith Bridge, Skelwith Fold and Clappersgate, and then along Bog Lane.  We also passed some "hows," "coppices," and "woods."  We arrived back in Ambleside after crossing the River Rothay.  

We had take-away fish and chips for dinner.