Banana Power

Langstrath Picture by Christine Hurford

A beautiful day (pictured above) for the 4th of August Fix the fells work party,

considering the rainy forecast given.

We set off up Langstrath valley with 19 volunteers, 15 spades, 3 mattocks, 20 scrumptious
brownies and a heavenly slab of banana cake, all cakes courtesy of Charlotte the volunteer.

Morning Brew Picture by Christine Hurford

Despite the walk up the valley being flat it really takes it out of you, so we had a bit of

banana cake to get us up the short steep climb to the work site on stake pass.

  

 Stripping turf  Picture by Christine Hurford

The morning work began with some of the volunteers seeding and landscaping on

the digger path below the picture above, whilst others removed a strip of turf off

where the path and drainage ditch is going to be.



2011 Picture by Joe Cornforth

Its hard to envisage how the path will look when finished,  the picture above

shows a completed section of path from last year.



Rock rolling Picture by Christine Hurford

 After removing the turf (and having lunch) we set to removing all the rocks that

were going to be in the way of the drainage ditch.  All the rocks are used to build

up the bottom side of the path to maintain a sustainable gradient.

Mining Picture by Christine hurford

Through the course of the day Rich, Christine and Jenni mined pinnal

(a rock dust created by glaciers) which is used as the path surface. 

By the end of the day we had a helicopter bag full that equates to 1 tonne.





Landscaping   Picture by Christine Hurford

Another stunning picture from Christine above showing the filling in and landscaping

of a erosion scar caused by many years of use and water damage.

We also had a surprise visit from Tanya Oliver (our new fix the fells coordinator)

and keen husband Paul Oliver, we managed to find some spare tools for them,

and they joined in eagerly.

Find out more about Tanya on her blog :- http://heelwalker1.blogspot.co.uk/

Nine years ago the West lakes footpath team stone pitched sections of the

      path from Wasdale head to Sty head Tarn.  Since then the sections in between

          the pitching have eroded and need some attention.

Bursting knott pitching Picture by Joe Cornforth

In May we bagged up 60 tonnes of stone from a scree nearby and flew it up to the

work site a few weeks later on the 22nd of May.

The West lakes team started work in June with me helping when i can, the job

should be completed by mid September.

Barry tweaking a step Picture by Joe Cornforth

The old pitching has held up exceptionally well and it has been illuminating

working with the team and getting tips from people who have more path

work experience than I have years (small exaggeration of five years)