Great Langdale and Grasmere Team Training Lengthsmen!
Published 02 July 2009
by Ade Mills
During the month of June the second training session took place for this year’s influx of Fix the Fells voluntary lengthsmen. The training involved a path sweeping and drain clearing session, starting at the Old Dungeon Ghyll Hotel, going up Loft Crag and down Stickle Ghyll, taking in Pike of Stickle and Harrison Stickle on the way!
Pike of Stickle
Clearing the path up to Harrison Stickle
The weather was mixed but brightened up nicely after lunch, and a large section of path was successfully cleared
Drain clearing
A footpath specification was also written for the Mickleden path, stretching from the bridge at the bottom of Stake Pass to the section of path that we have been working on at Rossett Ghyll this year. Much of the rock is already available on site, as work has been carried out on this section of path a long time ago, but most of it is now in a poor condition. It is likely that this work will be undertaken in 2010.
We were again joined by the Fix the Fells voluntary lengthsmen for a practical work party, this time on the lower reaches of Stickle Ghyll. We continued on the section of path that we had worked on when BBC’s Countryfile had come to do some filming, and that we had also worked on with the National Trust Regional Office work party. The work involved pitching and drain building, but proved hard going due to the prevalence of extremely large boulders, buried in the ground!
June has also seen us finish off the project work at Rossett Ghyll, with the shed being taken down at the end of the month in preparation of it being flown up to our next project at Harrison Combe. The last few sections of pitching were completed along with the final bits of landscaping and re-seeding .
Final section of pitching on the Rossett Ghyll path
Towards the end of the month Pete and myself started filling bags with rock, ready for the upcoming helicopter lift at Harrison Combe The bags were filled in the area around Thunacar Knott, which was the nearest decent rock site.
Rock collection at Thuncar Knott
As we are still down to a two man team the bag filling has taken longer than expected but we have been able to call on the Fix the Fells volunteers to give us a hand, so hopefully everything should be bagged up and ready to be flown by the end of the first week of July.
