Heybaz
27-12-2007, 04:05 PM
Fed by Burnmoor Tarn and a small catchment running off west side of Scafell, this is always going to need a drop of rain to get it going. Be warned though, too much and you'll want to be elsewhere!
Three of us wandered up the track from Boot, through Gill Bank farm and across the bridge. The landowner clearly doesn't want anybody on his land above the bridge and, having looked at the drop described in UKRGBS upstream of the bridge, we decided that putting in below was just fine! (If that sounds wimpish, go take a look! Given the low water level on the day and the shallow landing, I'm happy to have wimped it!)
Immediately three small twisty drops led onto at least 50 meters of paddling - and we had to carry between the drops due to trees in the beck. After the 50 metres we had to carry again. For quite some way. Until we came to the first of the bigger drops that we had come to play on. It was completely choked with trees and made the entrance inpossible.
Another 80 metres or so of carrying led us to the next blockage, at the next drop. Do you see a theme developing here... At least this could be overcome by lowering boats into the pool below the strainer, following them down with some assistance from throwlines and - at last - running the constricted drop. A further 100 metres of paddling followed to a fine rock slide / slot with a huge tree trunk and root ball jammed in the bottom. This will be there for quite some time I imagine. My paddling partners decided it was time to lug boats back to the road at this point, but I thought it worth continuing down, just to see hat the resy of the beck looked like. The answer to my curiosity is that there were a couple of more rock slides, all equally choked with trees before the final drop that can be seen from Boot Mill, prior to starting up the track. Guess what it had sicking out of the top of the only line...
Anyone thinking of taking this one on? I suggest a walk up without boats just to get the flavour, then heading to the Upper Esk. There are fewer trees in upper Eskdale. Honest.
Three of us wandered up the track from Boot, through Gill Bank farm and across the bridge. The landowner clearly doesn't want anybody on his land above the bridge and, having looked at the drop described in UKRGBS upstream of the bridge, we decided that putting in below was just fine! (If that sounds wimpish, go take a look! Given the low water level on the day and the shallow landing, I'm happy to have wimped it!)
Immediately three small twisty drops led onto at least 50 meters of paddling - and we had to carry between the drops due to trees in the beck. After the 50 metres we had to carry again. For quite some way. Until we came to the first of the bigger drops that we had come to play on. It was completely choked with trees and made the entrance inpossible.
Another 80 metres or so of carrying led us to the next blockage, at the next drop. Do you see a theme developing here... At least this could be overcome by lowering boats into the pool below the strainer, following them down with some assistance from throwlines and - at last - running the constricted drop. A further 100 metres of paddling followed to a fine rock slide / slot with a huge tree trunk and root ball jammed in the bottom. This will be there for quite some time I imagine. My paddling partners decided it was time to lug boats back to the road at this point, but I thought it worth continuing down, just to see hat the resy of the beck looked like. The answer to my curiosity is that there were a couple of more rock slides, all equally choked with trees before the final drop that can be seen from Boot Mill, prior to starting up the track. Guess what it had sicking out of the top of the only line...
Anyone thinking of taking this one on? I suggest a walk up without boats just to get the flavour, then heading to the Upper Esk. There are fewer trees in upper Eskdale. Honest.