Steven's Blog: Lakes Walk Disaster

Distance: 11 miles (planned blue) 2.4 miles (actual red)

I got up early today and was at the start of my planned walk (in blue) before 9am. I had walked less than .25 of a mile when my I started going down hill and my knee started really hurt. I twisted it yesterday when I was running but thought it was fine.

Every step I took it hurt more and more, I looked up the bank I had to walk to get to Graystones and thought there is no way my knee is gonna hold out up there. I decided that I wasn't gonna turn around and go back without walking any Wainwrights no matter how much it hurt (which was a lot). I had no problem on the flat and I could put up with it going up hill. I eventually got to the top of Graystones, it probably took me about 3 times longer than it would of normally because of continually stopping.

It was incredibly windy on the top, my hat which is a beanie style thing blew off my head but caught it as it came off. From the top I could see exactly where I had to walk. I studied the map for a while to see if there was any easy escape routes back to the car if my knee got worse, there wasn't!

While I was stood there my knee didn't seem so bad, so I thought I'd carry on but the moment I started to go down hill again towards Wythop Moss the pain started again worse than before. I stopped again and had a think, I didn't want to make my knee any worse because of a run in 3 weeks but also don't like giving up either. I carried on down hill a little further and decided I would be stupid to carry on. There was no way I was gonna be able to walk the whole route and once I got to the next Wainwright (Ling Fell) I was gonna be a hell of a long way from the car.

So I made the decision to turn around and go back the way I had walked. This isn't very easy either because it ment I had to walk down the steepest section of the whole walk but it was the quickest way back to the car.

When I got back down to the beck I sat on the seat and ate a couple of my sandwiches and drank some tea. I knew I had made the correct decision but was fed up that I had lost another days walking. If I had carried on I'm sure I could of done it, although it would of taken a long time and I know my knee would of been hurting for a couple of weeks.

The annoying thing now is it feels OK, then again the only thing I've walked up or down since is the stairs.

On the way back I came back via Alston, the same way I had gone. I had a bit of fun on the way there around the bends but had even more on the way back. The car doesn't seem too bad around the bends sideways, lol. Only went fast in places where I could see there was nothing coming around the corner.