Route: from the Mill Yard heading south, not strictly legally, along a faint track through unlocked gates and across fields to keep closer to the river than normal but then rejoining our regular path to the sewage works. At the road, turning left and running uphill to the start of the path through Dorothy Farrer's Spring Wood, gaining height and interrupting a be-stockinged erotic photo-shoot amidst the bluebells. Just before the intended left turn, taking a left through a gate into Mike's Wood and following a fairly faint track zigzagging through this to the originally intended path and to a crossroad of tracks at the summit. Turning right, downhill, through the farm at Frost Hole, stopping to admire three black lambs in a farmyard shed, across a bridge and rising to join the familiar track down to Side House. Here crossing a field to descending again to the road, turning right and then left to join (for the first time) a riverside path to the comparatively newly reinstated bridge at Hagg Foot. Now repeating a familiar circuit of the hill above Cowan Head by turning right just after the Cowan Head complex and following a zigzagging track up hill, approaching Winter Lane but turning right before reaching it to cross fields and then join a path to the road into Staveley and hence back to the start.
Conditions: cool for the time of year though humid. Cloudy but with only a brief hint of rain.
Pub: the Hawkshead Brewery Beer Hall, Staveley, for Hawkshead WPA a session series beer and lunch
