Joint Effort - National Trust - Fix the Fells and Newlands Adventure Centre

There are a lot of paths to maintain and repair in and around the North Lakes Property and Lake District in general. Whilst the NT has Upland Footpath Rangers and now is the main partner in the Fix the Fells programme we sometimes have help from the public as well as the busy Fix the Fells volunteers. For public on this day read Newlands Adventure Centre Stair. For the second year the staff at the adventure centre wanted to help maintain the paths they use for their core business - out door adventure.

A joint work party was organised and led by the NT Rangers Joe, Dan and Jack together with staff from Newlands and Fix the Fells volunteers.

Start of the day a mixture of staff, FtFells volunteers and NT staff ready for the off.

The aim of the day was to complete the circuit of three nearby routes on Cat Bells and clean out 60 stone lined drains, sweep 400 metres of pitching (stone built steps) over a distance of 9 kilometres. The weather was kind to us, warm and sunny with a slight breeze.

Hard at it Brushes, spades and mattocks on Skelgill Bank

As usual on Cat Bells it was busy with walkers and families taking on what Alfred Wainright described as a family fell. There was a lot of engagement with the public about what we were up to with many comments of  "I thought the path had been swept and now I know who by thank you!"

The view from Skelgill Bank back towards Keswick

After a short break for tea and or coffee we continued on upwards to the summit where we stopped for lunch in an area out of the by now not forecast and picking up wind. The statutory picture was taken of the combined group of Fell Fixers.

Smiles all round, NT Rangers FtFells volunteers and Newlands staff with Newlands Valley in the back ground

Suitably refreshed we set off with another task in mind. We had been asked to take down the unofficial and not mapped cairns that had been built up by passing walkers over the years. No problem we thought. We had forgotten how large they had become by taking stone from the path to build them.

Cairn, what cairn - this one was huge and on a clearly defined path. It took over an hour to recycle it back to the path.

The footprint of the former cairn can clearly be seen to the right of the picture. Some upland seed mix will be applied to help the area return to grass. Interestingly apart from the usual hidden bags of dog poo and litter at the bottom of the cairn was a drinks can with an expiry date of November 1999 perhaps the start of the cairn?

A good day was had by all with many thanks going to Newlands Adventure Centre Stair for gifting a days hard graft by some of their staff for the benefit of all who use the paths on and around Cat Bells.

The best 4 x 4 by far - perhaps not?

It was a great day, weather was going to be kind to us as the intrepid four volunteers Phil, David, Jim and supervisor Mr T aka Theo the collie set off to Dunthwaite Estate nr Cockermouth to repair and refurbish stiles for the fishermen by the river Cocker - what could possibly go wrong! We took with us the countryside team Land Rover and trailer with sufficient supplies to see us through our proposed work.

Well it`s like this!

We may have a little problem?

Having repaired and built some new stiles it was time to leave. Sadly our transport and trailer had other ideas. So it was unhitch the trailer and extracate the Landy from the mud.

Trailer off but still stuck!

Fortunately we had some wood left plus shovels to assist in getting us out of the mud. We were not going to be beaten by the mud as the Rangers had done on several occasions previously and call upon the services of the nearby NT tenant farmer and his tractor.

Getting there.

Apart from repairing an building stiles we ended up landscaping as well to remove the evidence of us being stuck. Don`t worry we subsequently found a use for the lifesaving timber we had used to free ourselves.

A strategically place branch hides the identity of Phil as we set about landscaping the ruts!

To be perfectly fair to the Land Rover the previous week the Nissan off roader had also been stuck on an incline nearby on solid ground - it could not pull itself and a trailer up a small wet incline. Wagon first then tow the trailer on a rope - just a normal day volunteering?

Mind you it would have helped if the land Rover was equipped with mud tyres and not road ones -  countryside vehicle road tyres - now where is my volunteer manager!

Just to show we could get anything stuck - Nissan defeated by solid wet ground and a trailer!

Will we come back for more - of course we will. Positive feedback from the fishermen that pay a hefty premium to the NT who own the fishing rights on that stretch of the river were good. Sort of made it worthwhile. (the fees for fishing rights go back into the North Lakes property towards the cost of all the conservation works we undertake)

Bringing in the (under-age) punters!

On Sunday 2nd of September I joined John at Loweswater Show on the National Trust stand. This was a new experience for me because although I have visited the show before it has always been as an exhibitor.
This time we were offering activities for children - badge making and 'angry birds'.  Badge making is self-expanatory; 'angry birds' consisted of four toy birds (owl, blackbird, blue tit and robin) and nest boxes of the type which the actual birds would use.

Great fun, and some frustration, was obtained by trying to throw the correct bird into their appropriate nest box. As well as an educational benefit success generated the prize of a lollypop!
We also had some adults attempting the 'angry birds' challenge and some enquiries about the Wild Ennerdale project and the extent of National Trust ownership in the National Park.

Ros Earthy