Spring Walks 2017 Sergeant Man From Grasmere, Monday May 1st 2017

Reporter: Vanessa Miller

The walk was an ascent of Sergeant Man from Grasmere via Easedale and returning through Far Easedale.

On a fine day for the lake district, chilly and windy but not raining!

We started at the Stock Lane car park in Grasmere, where a group of 7 walkers met up, and wound through the village to Easdale Road which we followed up to Whitney's lovely house next to Goody Bridge which crosses Easdale Beck. Here we picked up the rest of the party making us 16 and continued along Easdale Road until we branched off left on a footbridge over the beck to join the bridleway that runs alongside the beck and on up into Easdale.

The path climbed along the southern banks of Sour Milk Gill, which is a tributary of Easdale Beck, and brought us up to Easdale Tarn where Whitney left the group to make her own way back down. By this stage the sun was shining and we were all getting a bit hot. The rest of us continued on up alongside a small gill feeding the tarn until we reached the rocky slabs between Belles Knott and Eagle Crag where 3 of the party split off to walk together at a slower pace than that set by the main group.

The main group of 12 ascended Sergeant Man where we had a welcome stop for lunch. Eccles cakes were provided by Steve which we all enjoyed. After lunch we crossed the plateau to High Raise and then followed the gradually descending path along Greenup Edge. As this path reached a crossroads in a saddle we turned right and dropped more steeply down into a lonely bowl of potentially boggy ground which we crossed and after a short ascent on the other side reached the head of Far Easdale. From here we followed the steep and rough path down nearby to Far Easdale Gill.

This path from Greenup Edge is supposedly a bridleway all the way into Lancrigg but would be very rough riding on horse or bike, but we did see a tough guy carrying his bike up, I thought you were supposed to ride it!

As we reached the valley floor near the confluence of Far Easdale and Sour Milk Gills the path levelled out and soon brought us back to Goody Bridge and Whitney's house where we all enjoyed late afternoon tea in her garden with cake and tea provided by Liz and Paul and even more tea provided by Whitney.

The splinter group of 3 called in passing, they didn't have time for tea but told us that they had carried on behind us up to the summit of Sergeant Man and then returned via Blea Rigg and a different path into Easdale in the vicinity of Castle How.

The main walk was about 11 miles.

Many thanks to Dave Miller for leading us round this walk. A very enjoyable day and weekend.