DSC07234 The West Bank Bad Step, Scaley Beck. Upper step & useful wire fence.
The most difficult footpath?
My wife & I walked the Blencathra Wainwrights. Finishing on Blencathra, we descended Doddick Fell (one of the ridges on the south side of the mountain). This path is steep and rocky but has no great difficulty. At the bottom, direct access to the road (A66) is not possible and we had to follow the footpath (on the fell side of the open land boundary wall) eastwards towards Scales. I could see from the map that the path loops into the Scaley Beck valley.
Upon reaching this valley we encountered this steep, rocky and smooth step. We managed to get down by holding onto the fence as the rock was curiously devoid of good handholds. This put us onto a horizontal path which led in a few yards to a second, even steeper rocky step. This step was much steeper than the first and was about 15 feet high (high enough to do serious damage upon falling). To the left (facing downhill) was a vertical chimney absolutely oozing with water and slime; in the middle is an overhang; to the right was a vertical wall. Again the slabs above were curiously devoid of good hand holds. Hoping to get a better grip on the rock and fully expecting to be down in a minute, I removed my gloves in order to get a better grip and threw them down to the bottom. Bare hands didn't help at all and after lots of dithering, we climbed back to above the first step. A faint path leading higher into the valley seemed to offer a safer alternative. We followed this, heading for what appeared to be a more manageable slope, but this path soon petered out. As we battled further up through dense foliage, a walker appeared at the top of the corresponding Bad Step on the West Bank coming in the opposite direction. He had some difficulty in descending that step but did make progress. I realised that he would find my gloves and I tried to shout down to him, but he couldn't hear because of the water and he didn't look our way, so didn't see us. I was hoping that he would be stopped by the West Bank step because I knew that he would pick up my gloves.
The thick foliage and steep slope slowed us considerably and it took a while to reach the stream bed further up the valley. We now followed the stream down hill, back towards the path. Even here progress was difficult, with many rocky drops being encountered; at several places we actually had to wade in the water. After a long time we finally regained the path where it crosses the stream. There was no sign of the walker nor of my gloves, so presumably he'd climbed the step and picked up my gloves thinking that he might catch up with their owner (me).
My wife and I managed to ascend the rock step on the East Bank without too much difficulty; it's definitely easier than the West Bank step, although again, it might be intimidating to descend.
We finally got back to the car at Scales. I looked at the map, trying to decide where the lone walker might emerge onto the road. We drove to several possible locations but we never saw him (or my gloves) again. What was bizarre was that he was the only other walker we saw on that side of the mountain and at the very moment that I was (temporarily) separated from my gloves.
Has anybody else walked that path and encountered those Bad Steps? I would say that they are definitely the most difficult that I have encountered on a footpath.
DSC07234 The West Bank Bad Step, Scaley Beck. Upper step & useful wire fence.
The most difficult footpath?
My wife & I walked the Blencathra Wainwrights. Finishing on Blencathra, we descended Doddick Fell (one of the ridges on the south side of the mountain). This path is steep and rocky but has no great difficulty. At the bottom, direct access to the road (A66) is not possible and we had to follow the footpath (on the fell side of the open land boundary wall) eastwards towards Scales. I could see from the map that the path loops into the Scaley Beck valley.
Upon reaching this valley we encountered this steep, rocky and smooth step. We managed to get down by holding onto the fence as the rock was curiously devoid of good handholds. This put us onto a horizontal path which led in a few yards to a second, even steeper rocky step. This step was much steeper than the first and was about 15 feet high (high enough to do serious damage upon falling). To the left (facing downhill) was a vertical chimney absolutely oozing with water and slime; in the middle is an overhang; to the right was a vertical wall. Again the slabs above were curiously devoid of good hand holds. Hoping to get a better grip on the rock and fully expecting to be down in a minute, I removed my gloves in order to get a better grip and threw them down to the bottom. Bare hands didn't help at all and after lots of dithering, we climbed back to above the first step. A faint path leading higher into the valley seemed to offer a safer alternative. We followed this, heading for what appeared to be a more manageable slope, but this path soon petered out. As we battled further up through dense foliage, a walker appeared at the top of the corresponding Bad Step on the West Bank coming in the opposite direction. He had some difficulty in descending that step but did make progress. I realised that he would find my gloves and I tried to shout down to him, but he couldn't hear because of the water and he didn't look our way, so didn't see us. I was hoping that he would be stopped by the West Bank step because I knew that he would pick up my gloves.
The thick foliage and steep slope slowed us considerably and it took a while to reach the stream bed further up the valley. We now followed the stream down hill, back towards the path. Even here progress was difficult, with many rocky drops being encountered; at several places we actually had to wade in the water. After a long time we finally regained the path where it crosses the stream. There was no sign of the walker nor of my gloves, so presumably he'd climbed the step and picked up my gloves thinking that he might catch up with their owner (me).
My wife and I managed to ascend the rock step on the East Bank without too much difficulty; it's definitely easier than the West Bank step, although again, it might be intimidating to descend.
We finally got back to the car at Scales. I looked at the map, trying to decide where the lone walker might emerge onto the road. We drove to several possible locations but we never saw him (or my gloves) again. What was bizarre was that he was the only other walker we saw on that side of the mountain and at the very moment that I was (temporarily) separated from my gloves.
Has anybody else walked that path and encountered those Bad Steps? I would say that they are definitely the most difficult that I have encountered on a footpath.