Thanks to everyone for the spots and the chasers for looking out for us while we are on holiday in Lakeland. We thought we would write up the first three days of activations. In all the times we have been to the Lakes this is the first time we have had so many consecutive days of beautiful sunshine! It did not look likely with the heavy rain on the way north on the Saturday.
Carolyn (G6WRW) wanted to ease herself into fell walking again so after arriving at our campsite between Kendal and Windermere we sat in the campervan and chose two nearby 1 pointers, Whitbarrow (G/LD-056) and Gummer’s How (G/LD-050). We arrived at the first late the next (Sunday) morning and set off along the track and then up the rocky path through the trees that was still a little greasy from the rain the night before. Finally we came to the grassy top and worked our way along the track deciding to go off-piste to get to the summit, something we realised on the way back was unnecessary.
C started on 40 metres with a brief break for me to qualify then Colin (G4UXH) asked if we were going to do 2 metres as it was a WOTA too. I duly obliged with a handheld and Susan (G1OHH) also responded to my calls. Carolyn then made another 16 contacts on 20 metres including a couple of summit to summits with two hills in Austria. An uneventful walk back and a quick drive along the A590 brought us to our second hill of the day.
Another easy walk up and some great views over Windermere, this was one to savour in the good weather. Just 40 metres for Carolyn this time but 40 contacts. I used 2 metres on the handheld but only the same two contacts so some topping up on 40 metres was required. These two outlining fells still had plenty of walkers crossing the summits.
Another day and I managed to talk Carolyn into a walk up Coniston Old Man (G/LD-013). With geocaches marking the route we decided to take the Boo Tarn trail (for discerning fell walkers according to AW) and it was certainly a nicer, grassier route than the tourist trail to the east with better views of the waters and surroundings; the other route was taken on the way down and it did have some interesting closed quarry workings and different views to enhance the rocky downhill slog. We did point at Blackpool Tower at one point but that was down from the top out of site of the “touristsâ€. We were also a bit late as we decided to eat our sandwiches at the end of the Boo Tarn trail where it meets the tourist route near the top before we joined the throng of people on the last leg.
After the long walk we decided to enjoy the views and the sunshine, spending more than 2 hours on the summit. I operated on 2 metres on the handheld and ran the battery flat (sorry to the last contact in Anglesey) while Carolyn operated on 40 metres to get the locals then enjoyed some DX on a nicely open 18 metres. Many people came to the summit and left but we only saw a few on the way up and, because it was quite late, not many on the way back.
Today was the day we moved on so we decided on the relatively easy summit of Red Screes (G/LD-017). It took us an hour to get to the top following the well marked trail (with stones and steps) but that was with numerous water stops; it really was too hot and we were on the sunny side of the hill. We finally made it with Carolyn setting up on 40 metres and me on 2 metres, this time with a half-wave end-fed on a pole. The reason for the better setup was that Carolyn wanted to work Derek (2E0MIX/P) on Dent (G/LD-045), which is one of the last few chases she needs for LD.
The better antenna led to more contacts for me, including a summit to summit with John (M0VCM/P) on Helvellyn (G/LD-003) (we could have waved at each other) and Carolyn got lots on 40 metres before moving to a flat 17 metres where she picked off some CQ callers; the mobile was not allowing spots either via 3G or txt.
We have now moved camp to Ravenglass and as I type I can hear the train whistles from the Eskdale railway. Hopefully we will get some of the western fells activated over the next three days given that the weather is to remain hot, perhaps too hot, so please listen out for us and we will try to alert in the morning,
Helen
M0YHB
