Yesterday during our long hike, our guide Jason suggested a good place to hike today. He pointed out one of the fells above our hostel and the lake, and said that if I hike there early in the morning, the lake is obscured by mist and the rising sun burns off the fog. That sounded amazing to me, so I set my alarm for 6:30. When it went off, I rolled out of bed, excited to do something I had never experienced before. I peeked outside . . . it was still pitch black. Yuck. I was so tempted to crawl back into bed, and probably would have, but some of the students said they would join me and I could hear them stirring in the next room. Too late to back out now.
We headed out into the cold, quiet darkness and down the street. By the time we got to the trailhead, the sky was already lightening. We headed uphill into the woods, dim and mossy, the wet leaves crackling underfoot. I felt like Pan’s Labyrinth could have been filmed in these woods. Above the treeline was waist-high bracken and sheep poop. Soon we encountered actual sheep, looking confused at the sight of people disturbing their grazing so early in the morning. We finally reached a rock outcrop on top of the ridge, and were rewarded with a stunning panoramic view of the valley, all of the town of Ambleside, a long view of Lake Windermere and misty mountains all around us, fog still settled in the valleys between the peaks. Some of the higher mountains were shrouded in clouds.
Though it was overcast (and hence no glorious sunrise), I was so happy to be up here in the clouds, so glad I had dragged myself out of bed. After a steep ramble down the opposite side of the fell (and some less than graceful moments with barbed wire fences and muddy rocks), we emerged from the woods and were back at the hostel in time for a hot breakfast.
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