R*n 729: Scout Scar

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

And summer's lease hath all too short a date; etc

W Shakespeare

It was a really good turnout. Bitter and Twisted couldn't even fit into the car park, though luckily there is another 100m away.  But that wasn't the end of it because Syd, Tarty Totty and the sweeties plus Forever Blowing turned up late and had to catch up.  So it was a really really good turnout. Seriously though it was seriously great weather as we left the quarry car park by the back entrance and coasted a long downhill with glorious views of the lake district and foothills.

It soon became clear that the hares' warning of one major puddle to negotiate on the trail completely understated the sloshy going throughout, after last night's rain.  But never mind, we are hashers and made of stronger stuff.  After we lost all our height and ended up in the valley bottom the trail bore left and along it for a few wet fields and an even wetter track to a road and the welcome beer stop.  It was Whore In The Jungle's first visit to the Lake District having recently moved to Ulverston, so I guess the watery going was an appropriate introduction.

A W/R split followed immediately and I fancied being an R, which trail followed minor roads for a while until Antiseptic and I came accross our friends Maggie and John at their house loading their dinghy onto the roof rack, so we did a bit of catching up and were left way behind on trail.  Never mind, because a few of the other rambos had lost trail and gone the wrong way so at least we caught up a little.

The trouble with starting a trail on Scout Scar and dropping into the valley is that you can then see how far you have to climb back to the level of the on inn.  Undeterred, we struggled up a particularly slippery meadow and into the woods on steep limestone paths for what seemed like hours to gain the ridge.  Not home yet though as we still had another ten miles (seemed like) along the scar, battling a viscious cross wind to the viewpoint shelter and finally down the windy path back to the quarry car park. Very nearly eight sludgy miles for the rambos, according to the hashers with sat nav apps.

As it was nearly 2:00 there was no time for a circle and Anti and I had to nip off so didn't even get our finishing beers.  Shame!  Great trail though, thank you Adamses.