The Lake District: A Return to Mickleden
It was my birthday in August, and what better way to celebrate than to pack some stuff in my backpack and head to the Lakes? I dragged my long-suffering partner along too, although it’s not apparent that I have company in the video above. That’s because I don’t want my Youtube channel to be a “couples” channel. Being somewhat shy, he was happy to oblige.
Having originally intended to go to Eskdale, hike to Great Moss and spend the night there, as it’s one of my favourite places to go in the Lake District, we actually surprisingly found no available parking when we arrived there.
I also had a rather infuriating encounter with a bunch of lads heading into the brown, crispy valley with a stack of portable BBQs and packaged food, clearly with no carry bags or anything else to carry their rubbish back out with them.
People who wilfully ignore the risk of wildfires and spoil the valleys with their selfish littering are ragebait to me, and after asking them, in a very friendly manner, to reconsider their BBQ plans due to the high wildfire risk as there’d been no rain for weeks (there were several “EXTREME FIRE RISK” signs on the road in), I lost my temper when they ignored me and continued walking into the valley. It find it absolutely astonishing the way so many people just don’t give a shit about our outdoor spaces. This kind of behaviour has noticeably increased since 2020, and it’s been both maddening and thoroughly depressing to see.
Anyway, we decided to go over to Greater Langdale instead, surprisingly actually finding parking over at the NT car park near the New Dungeon Ghyll. I say surprisingly, as this car park is usually rammed in August. By this time, it was rather late in the day and, after considering our route options (The Band is a favourite camping spot of mine) we strolled out into Mickleden. The river was shockingly low but there was still water running through it, providing a lovely relaxing soundtrack as the day closed in around us. There were plenty of cute Herdies around too.
With darkness rapidly approaching, we found a quiet spot hidden from the path to spend the night, watching the sun set from our chairs. Whilst our location was, technically, not within the “tolerated zone” for wild camping in the Lake District, which broadly states that one should be above the 400m mark, our position was sufficiently discreet and of course we left absolutely zero trace in the morning.
The Langdale area is one of my favourite places to hike and camp, especially during winter. The fells around there are particularly striking, and when the rising sun warms the Langdale Pikes, it’s really quite a sight to see.
