SILENT PILGRIMAGE
If you take a walk up from Grasmere to Easdale Tarn, and bear right as you come over the hill down to the Tarn, you’ll come to the beck that runs out of the Tarn and down into the valley. If the water’s not too high, you’ll see a set of stones, and if you are careful and have good balance you can step across them to the other side. There are rarely people there, and you can sit and eat your pork pie or malt loaf in peace.
If you decide to wild camp overnight at the Tarn, the better ground is on the other side, on the ground a little higher up. Flatter pitches, and drier ground. Also, if you are camping on the night of the first full moon after the turn of the year, you are less likely to see why the stones were put into the stream in the first place, which is a good thing for you. That night the gap between the worlds is very thin, and it is the start of the Gathering, and if you are down by the stepping stones you may see the Folk in procession, leaping where you just stepped, dozens and dozens of them in silent pilgrimage on their obscure business, streaming from one side of the fells to the other.
If they see you watching, one will pull out a tiny silver whistle and blow it, and that will make you fall in line with the hushed procession, and when the search parties are finally sent out they will find your empty tent.
Two of the older Mountain Rescue volunteers will observe your footprints in the soft ground, heading from your tent down towards the beck, and they will look at each other for a moment, shake their heads, and cross themselves before going back to help in a search they know will not find you for seven years.
