Eastern Team Archive
Find out what the Grasmere and Langdale team have been doing and where...
Welcome to the Eastern team diary archive
For more insight into our work: Visit us at http://fellrangers.blogspot.com/ or follow us on Twitter @NTCentralFells
The Mickleden project
August 2011 by Ade Mills
At the beginning of August we made the decision to have a break from our workon Stickle Ghyll and move our attentions onto the Mickleden project for a while.
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Surveying paths for future work
July 2011 by Nic Fish
July has seen the Central and Eastern Lakes footpath team surveying paths for future footpath work. This planning is done often up to 3 years before the actual work will be undertaken. This has to be done so that helicopter lifts can be booked in for future work, rock sites also need to be checked by Natural England, this is to make sure that there is no rare mosses or flowers growing on or near the sites, they also make sure that there aren’t any remains of prehistoric buildings, or anything of historical interest.
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Iain Gray leads the Grasmere Gallop
June 2011 by Ade Mills
Much of our work during June has focused on landscaping work at Stickle Ghyll. While we were bagging up rock for the helicopter lifts we filled several of the bags with large "landscaping" stone that we use to help define the path. This helps stop people, or sheep, wandering along the edge of the path, forming a channel which water gets into and starts eroding the edge of the path. This if left unattended can cause the path to become undermined and eventually cause it to fall out. As sections of the path have been in place for nearly twenty years the telltale signs of erosion have begun
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One step at a time
May 2011 by Ade Mills
During May our main job was to finish repairing the stepping stones at Stickle Ghyll. The original stepping stones had been in place since the mid-1990's but had slowly moved over time when the beck had been in full spate, which meant that to get from one stone to another was a bit of a jump. With a diversion in place so that any walkers could cross safely without interruption we set about winching some new stones into place. We used rock from higher up the beck and also moved about the original stepping stones into new positions. After five days of grunting and straining away we were preparing to winch the last rock. More
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April 2011 by Ade Mills
It's for the birds
Our first job in April was to finish off the bird feeding station next to Stickle Ghyll car park. To create a viewing area,we attached three hazel panels to a six foot high post and rail fence. Once they were securely fastened we cut viewing holes at different heights, to accommodate people of different heights and age ranges. More
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February 2011 by Nic Fish
Collecting Rock for the Elterwater Common Path
After finishing off the stock-proof fencing and hedgelaying at Troutbeck our work has mostly involved some low level footpath work on Elterwater Common. The path that needed our attention has been of concern for a while. It previously had some remedial work a few years ago that slowed down the rate of erosion but since then the path had started to deteriorate again. More
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January 2011 by Ade Mills
Practicing the ancient art of hedge laying
With the winter break over it was time to get back to work for the Central and Eastern footpath team. Our first task was to look at a job completed last year (Garbon track feb-may 2010), with heavy rain forecast for early in January, it is was an ideal time to make sure the completed work was working successfully. The aim of the project was to reinstate the track that had been washed out by the floods of Nov 2009. The floods caused huge damage to the track, as well as sending the floodwater straight into the farmyard. more
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December 2010 by Ade Mills
A bit of reflection
Since most of the Eastern team have been off on their well-earned winter breaks for much of the month and with 2010 coming to a rather cold and snowy end, it seemed like a good time to reflect a bit on some past footpath work. So for this month’s update I’ll be focussing on the work we carried out on Loughrigg between 2007 and now. more
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November 2010 by Ade Mills
Final Push on Mickleden
November has mostly been focussed on finishing the path at Mickleden. Down to just two team members for the majority of the month, and hampered by poor weather, the “final push” was left down to Pete and myself. The main work has been repairing smaller sections of the old path, where it had started to fall out, and adding some new drains where required.more
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October 2010, by Nic Fish
Completing Mickledon and a return to Harrison Combe
As the days close in and winter approaches again, the Eastern and Central Valleys footpath team come to the end of another hard and physically demanding season on the fells. more
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September 2010 - Completing Stickle Tarn and moving on to Mickleden
September saw us finally finish off the work on repairing the path that leads from Stickle Tarn to Harrison Combe. We finished off the last few small sections of pitching and then set to work on the landscaping. more
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August 2010 - Working with volunteers, Mickleden to Rosset Ghyll and Stickle Tarn to Harrison Combe
Summer once again seems to have come and gone, which meant August was another wet month. It seemed strange working in the pouring rain when there was a hosepipe ban in the North West. The reservoirs do however seem to be getting back to their normal levels. more
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July 2010 - Stickle Tarn to Harrison Coombe.
As we have worked our way up the fellside, the terrain has become increasingly rocky. This has proved extremely useful as it has provided us with plenty of landscaping stone, but it has also made the digging somewhat hard work! more
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June 2010 by Nic Fish
This summer's projects are well underway. Work is progressing well on the team’s first project (the path leading from Stickle Tarn to Harrison Stickle). Almost half the work is already completed and the path looks like it has been there for years! more
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May 2010 - Garburn and volunteers on Mickleden
May saw us finally finish off our work of repairing the path at Garburn, near Troutbeck. We have been working on the Garburn path, on and off, since February, so we were all extremely pleased to get the final touches completed so that we could get focussed on our upland repair work. more
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April 2010 - Volunteers, helicopters and Garburn
April was a busy month for the Eastern valleys footpath team. It started with the first path maintenance day for this year’s intake of Fix the Fells volunteers. Once again we were bathed in sunshine all day, which always helps the day run smoothly. All the volunteers seemed well motivated and enjoyed the half-day drain run up Loughrigg. more
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March 2010 - Garburn
March has mostly been taken up with the work of repairing the path at Garburn, near Troutbeck.
The path is around 100 metres in length and has been built using slate placed depth-ways into the ground, over half a metre deep in many areas. more
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February 2010 - Gardening and Garburn
The month started with yet more snow, which hasn’t helped with the progress of the winter projects. Work continued at Low Fold Gardens (a National Trust cottage) as the fencing was completed and work started on the garden. more
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January 2010 - Winter work
Heavy snow at the start of the month limited our opportunities for getting out on to the fell after returning back to work from our well earned Christmas and New Year breaks. Usually we would be out and about clearing drains and assessing the high level footpaths for future work, but we had to pospone our “drain runs” firstly due to the snow, which is still hanging around at the end of the month on the tops, and also because of the icy conditions, which make clearing the paths pretty much impossible. more
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December 2009 - Stickle Ghyll festivities
December was a quiet month for the Grasmere and great Langdale footpath team. With lots of holidays to use up, most of the team where on holiday from the 11 December. Which was probably a good thing with all the snow and ice the UK has been having. The team however did run their usual monthly work party, which this month had a bit of Christmas feeling to it. more
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November 2009 - Harrison Combe, Stickle Ghyll and flood damage
At the beginning of the month, whilst on a drain run up Loft Crag, Leo managed to get a few photos of how the path at Harrison Combe is developing. So far things are shaping up nicely. more
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October 2009 - Stickle Ghyll
October signals the end of another long wet season for the footpath teams. Finishing touches are added to the summer’s projects and, with the clocks going back and the nights closing in, the footpath teams change back to a five day week. A welcome change for most members of the team! more
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September 2009 - Harrison Combe
September was the month that saw us complete the final stages of the project at Harrison Combe. All the original stepping stones were reset and mixed in with the new pitching stone, that had been flown to site in July, to form a continuous pitched path. Because of the extreme wetness of the site, a network of drains and gullies were incorporated within the pitching, to remove water from the path as quickly as possible. more
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August 2009 - Harrison Combe & Stickle Ghyll
The start of August saw the team start one of their muddiest and wettest projects, replacing the stepping-stones on Harrison Combe. more
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July 2009 - Bag filling and volunteers
July began with Pete and myself continuing to fill bags with rock in the area around Thunacar Knott in preparation for the helicopter lift at Harrison Combe. As, at the time, we were still down to a two man team some of the Fix the Fells volunteers came along to give us a hand. more
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March 2009 - The intricacies of bag filling!
March has once again seen the annual event of bag filling! This time each year, usually in snow, hail or rain the footpath teams wander off into the fells armed only with a crow bar in search of suitable path-building rock for the year ahead. Each bag is filled with around three quarters of a tonne of rock, and the bags are marked as pitching, drain stone or landscaping stone. more
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February 2009 - Helicopter lift preparations
The footpath teams are now preparing for the annual bag filling. This usually takes place in March with the first helicopter lift of the year happening towards the end of the month. more
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January 2009 - Winter work at Stickle Ghyll
After returning from our well-deserved winter holidays, the Langdale footpath team has been mostly working on the lower levels. more
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July 2008 - Loughrigg path
July has seen the main summer project of Angle Tarn to Esk Hause, progressing well. Over 50 meters of pitching, 6 drains and a lot of landscaping has already been completed. more
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June 2008 - Sculpting bedrock at Rosset Ghyll
June saw the second helicopter lift for most of the footpath teams. Good weather meant the majority of the lifts took place on time. By the end of the week all the teams and contractors had got their bags lifted. more
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2007 Summary
In 2007 the Grasmere and Great Langdale Upland Footpath Team concentrated mainly on three projects: Stickle Ghyll, Esk Hause & Angle Tarn, and Loughrigg. more
