The
media was abuzz with articles about the Paper Bridge, an outdoor “installation”
that had been erected in Grisedale from 4 tons of red paper. It was the brainchild of the artist Steve
Messam and had gathered some vociferous comment, both positive and
negative. I’m clear about outdoor art, I
quite like it and am a fan of Andy Goldsworthy and I saw this piece as a
kindred idea.
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| Grisedale |
There
was plenty of space in the Patterdale Hotel car park and I set off up the Grisedale
valley with the brightly coloured bridge soon coming into view. There were a few people around when I reached
the arch – a packhorse-style bridge made from numerous sheets of red paper and
I set up my camera on its self-timer to make sure I was on the top of the
bridge before the shutter fired. There
were a few people at the bridge and I’m sure that its position just off the
Coast-to-Coast route brought it a few more visitors. It had been quite a few years since I had
walked in Grisedale and it really is a beautiful valley.
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| "PaperBridge" |
As
I left, many more visitors were arriving, some of the thousand or more that
visited on the day! I headed up the
valley past Ruthwaite Lodge towards a peaceful Grisedale Tarn where I set off
for Deepdale Hause before the walk to the day’s highpoint. St Sunday Crag was quickly ticked and I headed
to Gavel Pike which, as an unclimbed Simpson summit, was the target for the
day. The Nuttall and Wainwright summits
of Birks soon came and went and a steep descent towards Arnison Crag was
followed by some undulating ground with a short steep rise to gain the last
summit of the day.
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| Fairfield, Seat Sandal and Dollywagon Pike overlooking Grisedale Tarn |
The
car park was a lot busier than at the start of the day and I read some reports
on Twitter that visitors who wanted to walk to the bridge couldn’t find a
parking space in Patterdale and had to forgo the pleasant walk to, at least in
my opinion, a really interesting outdoor artwork.
Thanks
Steve, for getting me out of the house!
