Whitbarrow

Last Saturday, January 26,  I went walking at Whitbarrow, an enjoyable walk in the snow on a bright and beautiful day.
We had snow lying on the ground in Liverpool all week, with fresh falls overnight, so it was no surprise that only two lanes of the motorway were usable going past Wigan, but when we got past Lancaster it felt bizarre as there was no snow on the ground at all.
It was a bright morning, and I parked just off the A590 by the village of Millside. I parked behind another car, and two more cars parked behind me before I had put my boots and gear on. There were clumps of melting snow falling from the roadside trees as I walked through the village.
I tracked part of my route up on Strava. There were some good views looking out across the lower reaches of the Lyth Valley.

The path brought me to the foot of white scar, and then I took a path that climbed up just before that point.

The snow was quite slippery at points, but there were some attractive trees on the way, and eventually I came out to the sunshine shining on the bright snow.

I was glad that someone else had done the walk since the last snowfall. Finding the path would have been very haphazard otherwise.

There were some great views looking over toward Grange over sands and Arnside, a bit difficult to catch on the camera.

After a while of trudging through the three inch high snow, it occurred to me that it might be quite good for making a snowman. My Snowman had height, taller than me, but not much girth, and was a rather more of a stack or chimney really.

After retrieving my hat, I ventured on, and met the first two of the nine people in total that I met during the walk a little too late to make it worth turning back and asking them to take a picture of me with the snowman.

It was glorious day, walking along in the snow, with beautiful views all around. To the left was Witherslack Hall, now a school, overlooked by Chapel Head Scar.

There is a path shown running back down the valley, whether I got the correct turn or not I cannot be sure, but I followed some tracks in the snow that turned down at a pepper pot type monument.

It felt like Winnie the Pooh, and Where the Weazle wasn't following the tracks in the snow, then the patch became better defined and there were some slippery moments on the snow.

I met a couple who I chatted with a while, and they took a picture of me. He remarked how quiet it was, which came as a bit of a surprise to me. I had made my ascent to the sound of cars travelling on the A590, but here in the valley it was very quiet.
At the bottom I took the path towards the school, and turned back when I realised I needed the path nearer the cliff. I was glad to have walked a little at the bottom of the valley. It must have been cooler here, or sheltered from the sun, and the snow was still crisp.
The path I wanted took me through High Crag Wood, underneath Chapel Head Scar. Walking there must be quite different in summer, when the cliff would be shielded by the the trees.

As it was it was almost eerie, quite quiet, but with the sounds of birds from different parts of the woods.

At one point I passed a dead silver birch tree, with saucer like fungus growing from the trunk, the brown top and white underside looking all the more strange with a helping of snow on top.

Eventually the path reached a lane, where I had a nice interlude.  Having met just nine people while on the walk there were more than that number sat in the Hikers' Rest. Some local people had set up an outhouse with facilities to make tea & coffee, with an honesty envelope to put through the door of the next cottage. I had no change, but the folk already there invited me to join them, and after some polite banter it turned out that some of them had been in Morocco with a family from our church.
The road back through the village went past a pond, where the water was very still and there were great reflections in the water.

When I got back to the car, I was able to take off my boots, which being suede had become a little soggy in the slushy slow. Before I had finished my lunch, it had started to rain, and I realised that I had enjoyed the best of the weather.