Looking up from the start of the walk towards Blake Fell and its outlier, Sharp Knott.

Angela, who's occasionally bagging Birkett summits, points out Owson Fell and High Hows, the two green summits to the left.

Walking up the Water Board track to Cogra Moss Reservoir.

The clockwise, circular walk round the lakes starts here by crossing the dam.

Angela wouldn't say no to climbing High Hows, straight ahead of us, if we can find an access point.

The new path around this side of the lake has bedded in well.

The Forestry people have been clearing the diseased larch from the forest around the lake, hence the ragged nature of the tree line.

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To reach our first summit goal we would have needed to access the scrub land and field to the left of the trees on High Howe

but there was no sign of an access point that didn't involve climbing an awkward wall or fence.

Angela wasn't over-keen . . . so we adopted Plan B and headed off round the lake instead.

We'll look for an alternative access point another day.

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Crossing round the back of Cogra Moss.

The land was clear-felled a few years back and has started to green over.

Just a few larch remain on the fell side under Blake, they stand out by virtue of their individual autumn colours.

The clear felling hasn't done anything for the beauty of the walk, but the views are slowly improving as time goes on.

The path up till now has been gravel surfaced or follows the forest track.

On this far side of the lake there's a short stretch of a hundred yards or so that hasn't been worked on, so it can get a little muddy in bad weather.

A slight rise and we reach the gravel path working its way around the lake to meet up with us from the other direction.

In many places they have planted broad leaf trees (in tubes) but the young trees here seems to be natural re-growth of the conifers.

The old iron fence is a throw back to the time when the lake was a drinking water reservoir.

The island has a scaffolding walkway out to it for the fishermen, but thankfully a lot of old redundant ironwork has been removed in recent years.

John and Angela down by the lakeside as we approach the dam once again.

Loes is ahead, leading the way while Angela gets a last photo of High Hows for future reference.

It was a short walk back along the water board track to the car

then we were heading home to smarten ourselves up for a meal at the Kirkstile Inn in the evening.

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The sun was shining a few days later as Paul Cheshire, my daughter Cathy and I enjoyed a local walk to Crummock Water.

Paul Cheshire, another long term walking friend . . . a friendship that started back in the last century !

Don't take umbrage Paul . . . it applies to all three of us !

The water level is fairly high and the fence line seems to extend further into the lake . . . an optical illusion I know.

The bay in the distance is known as Sandy Yat but the beach is covered in gravel rather than sand.

The conifers belong to Lanthwaite Woods and Whiteside forms the backdrop in the distance

The contrasting colours on Lanthwaite Woods were delightful, especially when the sun came out.

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We've also had quite a lot of rain recently so the river has been quite high of late.

It covers the river's gauging weir alongside the Lanthwaite Woods car park and also extends out over the meadow on the other side.

The big bend and swimming pool are full to the brim.

Paula takes a selfie with Cathy.

She looks even more like a cheshire cat, nay even a ventriloquist's dummy, in other photos unpublished here !

Being her own 'selfie' she has no-one else to blame.

The high winds associated with storm Ciaran have caused the trees in Lanthwaite Woods to drop quite a lot of leaves.

Still the young beach trees and bushes elsewhere have held their autumnal colour, and form highlights in an ever-greying woodland.

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