Coniston Team
by Rob Clarke, sponsored by Heart of the Lakes Cottages
April 2008
"Two weeks into the new season and things are starting to progress nicely on our main job, on Stake Pass at the end of Langdale valley.
The path is a very old route linking Langdale and Borrowdale and has been in use for a long time. It is now suffering badly from the many ugly shortcuts that are appearing on its lower zig-zag sections. As much as possible we're going to try to re-establish the original line of the path by shutting the shortcuts off and encouraging revegetation of the scars they have caused. Higher up the work becomes quite spread out with many individual smaller areas of old constructed path that need shoring up or extending. This is quite different to our last couple of jobs which involved more work in one large area, but it will be quite interesting to have a number of seperate mini projects to tackle.
It would be nice if the weather would warm up a bit to feel a little more like spring, but at least we have our shed for shelter during break time. An integral part of the team, a shed plays a very important role in keeping morale up during particularily poor spells of weather. You can't overestimate the value of being able to get away from the wind and rain on a bad day and we always feel far more capable of approaching the afternoon's work after a decent break.
Sheds are much loved by footpath teams and also provide a talking point for passing walkers, although those who optimistically wonder if we're selling tea are inevitably disappointed!"
