Adding the final touches to the Esk Hause path

Since the last update we've been spending much of our time working, and walking, up Esk Hause. We've calculated that for this year, in total, to repair the Esk Hause path we've walked a distance of 185 miles just to get to and from the work site and spent over 90 hours doing it. We've also climbed, and descended, over 102,500 feet, that's like walking from sea level to the top of Mount Everest three and a half times!

Turfing a section of path

In between all the walking we've also been building a path which has generated a lot of soil and rubble. This is all used to landscape around the path to help the area look more natural after the path repairs have taken place.

Starting landscaping around a drain

To help the path blend in and stop rubble falling on to it we also turf along the edge. Turf that is generated while building the path is reused and if any extra is required it is cut from areas away from the path, and out of sight.

Freshly landscaped drain

As you can see in the following photo often very large quantities of soil and rubble are generated. To reduce the amount of surplus rock smaller pieces are buried and any larger, and more weathered, rock is half dug in to create a natural looking bank.

Rubble and soil generated while building the path

Once the landscaping work is finished the area changes from something resembling a building site to something much more natural. After the area has been seeded (often once a year, over several years) the landscaping work will be indistinguishable from it's surroundings.

Path after landscaping

Resuming our upland work

Since our last blog post we've started our Fix the Fells work repairing a few of the upland paths in Grasmere, Langdale and Ullswater.

Our first job was to prepare for our work up on Gowbarrow that we'd started last year. Once again we needed to fly some materials to the work site, so we set about filling some bags with gravel with a little help from the Langdale & Grasmere ranger team.

 Loading the bags with gravel

The day of the lift went pretty smoothly and we thankfully got all the materials flown to site.

 Flying the materials on to Gowbarrow

Another job that we're working on this year is at Helm Crag.

Starting work

You can see in the photograph below that the path had previously been worked on, but some of this had started to fall out as the ground around it had eroded. The bits that had not been worked on have also deteriorated.

 Bottom section before starting work

Rock had been flown to the site previously but we're also supplementing it with rock that had been used for previous repairs.

 After a few days work

You can see in the following photograph how bad the path has become. There's a lot of loose rubble on the path and the bank to the left is badly eroded.

 Mid-section before starting work

After just a few days work the path has already started to take shape.

Mid-section after being worked on

We're also working up at Esk Hause again this year, continuing to widen the path and improve the drainage.

 Old path before repairs

It takes about two and a half hours to walk to and from the work site, plus there's also a time consuming drive on top of that, so this really eats into the time left for working. Because of this, we're being helped out by the North Lakes team this year, to help speed things along.

The North Lakes team lend a hand

Finishing the path at Esk Hause

After several weeks working up at Esk Hause we've now finished the first part of the project. The first section of path has now been replaced with it's improved drainage, and we've also completed the landscaping work.

Landscaping is an essential part of the job and is key to getting the path to blend back into it's surroundings. You can see in the photograph below how it looked straight after building the new path and prior to any landscaping.

Lower section before landscaping

While building the path, large amounts of rubble are generated, and because we were replacing an old path we also had quite a lot of surplus rock to deal with.

In the photograph below, some of the larger bits of rock have been dug into the edge of the path to discourage people walking there, and also to help the path look a little more natural.

Excess rock, and larger bits of rubble have been gathered together and covered over with the soil that was generated while building the path.

Lower section after landscaping

The next photograph shows another section of path before any landscaping work. Again, notice the piles of spoil, rubble and surplus rock.

Upper section before landscaping

After landscaping, the spoil has been shaped to make it look more natural, it has also been seeded to help stabilize things and start the process of turning the waste back into fell side.

Turfs that were removed while building the path had been kept to one side and have now been used in places along the edge of the path to help stop soil falling back onto the path.

Upper section after landscaping

It will still take a little time for the vegetation to completely recover, especially somewhere as inhospitable as Esk Hause. But if you use your imagination while looking at the "after" photographs and imagine the soil areas greened over, you can see the effect that we're trying to achieve. We'll no doubt be carrying some more grass seed up to site in future years to give it more of a helping hand, and we'll post some more pictures later on to show how it's developing.

Repairing the path up to the Esk Hause shelter

Over the last couple of weeks we've started work on this years upland path repairs, with our first job being a section of path leading up to the stone shelter at Esk Hause. It's on the far edge of our "patch" and getting there is a bit of a trek. It generally takes us over an hour to walk to site each day before we even start our work.

The path that we're repairing had previously been worked on over 20 years ago. When this original path was built all the stone was collected by hand from the fell-side, this meant that the selection of rock was fairly limited. Because of this, smaller stone had to be used, the path had to be narrow and there was little landscaping carried out to help encourage people to stay on the path. All this has led to people wandering off the path and causing erosion problems. You can see in the photograph below that this has also produced an increased amount of rubble, which again leads to people not using the path.

Old pitching

It was therefore decided that extra stone would be flown to site by helicopter so that we could widen the path and improve upon the landscaping. As there is now a lack of suitable rock in the nearby area, without the use of a helicopter it's unlikely that we could have ever made these improvements. As part of our work extra drains are also being added to help shed water and to catch any surplus rubble.

Starting to replace the path

By using some of the original stone plus the stone that was flown in, after just a few weeks of work the path is now really taking shape. There's still a lot of of landscaping to do once the footpath is completed but we're progressing along nicely.

New section of path

Being over 2000 feet high we tend to get a real variety of weather. Usually at this time of year the weather consists of strong winds, low cloud and rain (or a combination of them all) and we don't often get to see the sun for long! Even though Esk Hause tends to get it's fair share of bad weather we were still surprised by a recent reminder that winter wasn't quite over. As we approached the work site on the 23rd May we were greeted by a fresh covering of snow. Much of this melted off over the course of the day but there were several heavy hail showers throughout, and the temperature remained low.

 

Unseasonal snow