352. Causey Pike ascent - 26th August 2019

An early morning drop off near Ravens Creek in the Newlands valley and we started walking up towards Causey Pike about 9.30. Half an hour later I stopped for this view of Barrow, partly because I wanted to make sure I got something if it clouded over completely. You can see that the top of Causey Pike is in cloud although it did come and go as we ascended. We climbed Barrow and Outerside in October last year (2018) but had such poor visibility that we had little idea what either looked like. The clear path on the side of Barrow is the one we walked up that day. Half an hour after this picture we encountered what we now know to be a red grouse. It had flown across to intercept us from 80 yards away in the heather and marched down the path to meet us. It was very determined to keep us out of its territory. Each time we thought we had got past it we heard a flutter of wings and it caught us back up again. We only really shook it off when we reached the final steep ascent to the Causey Pike summit.