Athena Mellor is following in some pretty special footsteps. Her grandfather and father gave her a love of hiking that has shaped her life, and which she hopes to pass on to her daughter, who has actually covered a good few miles for a toddler already. 

I personally, you know, I love going walking, and I love those big mountain days that I, that I get to have, but then I also love the more chilled out days where I get to just do, like a hike of two of three hours, and then spend my afternoon at a tarn, or, you know, visiting and really beautiful pub with a garden, that kind of thing. 

I'm Chris from Canopy & Stars, and this is A Life More Wild. Join Athena now on one of her favorite trails in Langdale in the Lake District, as she talks about how something as simple as turning round can make your day.  

Um, so we're in the Langdale Valley in the Lake District. It's such a beautiful and iconic part of the Lake District. I really love it here. It's where I first fell in love with fell walking. And now I live pretty close to this area, so I get to come here a lot.  

It's a special place to me because, well, my granddad used to actually love this area. He's in his 90s now, and he used to always come fell walking, and has some, just told us some stories about like walking the Langdales. And then my dad also loved this area, and now it's somewhere that I love, and I bring my daughter, who's two and a half, so she's like the fourth generation in our family to, to love – well, hopefully when she's a bit older – love walking in the Lake District. And yeah, it's now where I'm kind of choosing to raise her. I'm not originally from this area and from West Yorkshire, but I moved to Cumbria three years ago, and it's now, yeah, where I'm choosing to raise my family. My granddad's called Harold, and he'd think this is amazing. I'll definitely be sending him this podcast after, he'll love listening to it. He doesn't manage to walk much anymore and get up to the lakes, but I think he'll love listening to all the sounds, and, and hearing me talk about the Lake District. 

Okay, so I'm going to open up the map now have a look at where we're heading today. Here we are, so we're starting off from Sticklegill car park in the Langdales, and we're going to walk up Sticklegill to Stickletarn, which is a really beautiful little mountain tarn at the foot of Pavy Ark. And all the Langdale pikes, the walk across the Langdale pikes is amazing. But today we're going to, from Stickletarn, basically just cut down and start to descend from there, the Stickletarn is such a beautiful, peaceful spot, so I think it's definitely somewhere we should have a little break and take, take in the ambience.  

I'm just stopping and having a look at this little waterfall here. So beautiful. The sounds of nature are just, yeah, so calming here. It's a pretty popular walk, usually up to this little tarn, but quite quiet today, it's a Monday, so you can always find the quiet times to visit. 

So yeah, I'd say actually, the Langdales and the Lake District is kind of where I fell in love with hiking and hill walking in the UK. After I graduated uni, I did a little bit of traveling. I went to New Zealand. I did a big cycle tour around New Zealand, cycled from the north to the south, and just loved being free and outside in nature. And as you can imagine, New Zealand is an epic country. I came back home, and I really wanted to just get that same feeling that I had when I was there, of just feeling free in nature, exploring. So I started to explore a bit of what was on my own doorstep. Started off in the Peak District, which was close to where I grew up, in West Yorkshire. And then I came up to the Lake District. And I came up by myself, with my, my brother's dog, who's now my dog, Oslo, and we came up for a walk over the Langdale Pikes. I just picked up this little paper map. From a shop, and it was just like the route over the Langdale Pikes, and I just didn't have a proper paper map at that point. Looking back, actually, I was very unprepared for what I was getting myself into, but ultimately it was such a learning experience. So yeah, we hiked up to Stickle Tarn, and then up over the Langdale pikes, and the cloud descended, and there was absolutely no view whatsoever. But then as we started to descend down the valley, the view just opened up again, and it was just spectacular. And yes, like, really, where I fell in love with the Lake District and walking. Just really wanted that feeling of just being up in the hills, yeah, the kind of freedom and the quiet of it as well. So, so beautiful.  

Yeah, so I grew up. My parents were pretty adventurous. They actually cycled around the world before they had four children and came back when my mum was pregnant with my older sister. So I always grew up with those stories of their adventures, which was so inspiring and really exciting for us to hear about. 

But yeah, my, my dad really loved hill walking, and he used to come up here my so my dad's Christopher. He used to come up here walking, also with Oslo. Oslo is the dog who, he is a Lakeland trail hound. So he is from this area, but he's a rescue dog, so he's the dog that we all take walking. But, yeah, my dad actually died five years ago, so I think now, I think he'd love to see what I'm getting up to walking in the Lake District. And he knew, he, he knew I was really getting into hiking, and I was just kind of starting my ramble guides, which is my business that I run now, before he died, and starting my YouTube channel, and just really like sharing my love of the outdoors. And he was so proud and excited about all of that. He bought me my first camera to capture these landscapes. And yeah, so when I walk in the hills now, I always think of him, especially when I'm out with Oslo, my dog and my daughter as well. Because, yeah, I just think he's, he's definitely here with me as well. 

So I was doing my own research for, I wanted to visit somewhere like the Lake District or Snowdonia or somewhere in Scotland. And I was doing my own research on hikes, campsites to stay out, or cute little, you know, B&B's, or little unique places to stay. And I also love a good café with a nice coffee and cinnamon bun or a cake after a walk. So I was doing all this research, for these trips to places in the UK, and getting asked about it. So I basically just made them into ramble guides, which originally just started on the website. It was a website I built myself, all the photos I took myself, and I was just sharing my recommendations with people, because I felt like there were so many websites that give you great walks, and then I couldn't find the nice places to eat or the nice places to stay. So I decided to just put it all together. And now, you know how many years later, almost eight years later, I guess. I've written two guidebooks, but like the original plan, when I first started ramble guides, I had this dream of writing a guidebook, but I didn't know how to get there. I had no idea how I would ever write a guidebook. And well, lots of things happened in between, but I started a YouTube channel where I was basically just sharing my hikes and my adventures, and it gained a lot of interest. People really loved seeing what I was up to. And I realised I had an audience already who would buy my book if I made one. So I decided to actually self-publish. So I wrote the book myself, and then I hired an amazing, small team, well, a woman to design my book, make it look beautiful, and then I self-published it, and that was the Peak District guide first, because that's where I was living at the time. And people loved it. It was like exactly what they wanted. They wanted the hikes and the places to stay, and the beautiful photography and something really visual, and it really inspired me to want to do more. So. So I had a baby in between, but I eventually made my Lake District guidebook, which I published in September. So now I have two of them, and I'm working on two more at the moment, and hoping I can keep going. And yeah, in the meantime, I also have all my online guides as well, that are still ongoing as well. So lots on the go, lots of exploring. It's, yeah, it's kind of a dream job to just be able to, like, explore and go hiking, and for that to be my job, and still pinch myself every day. But yeah, it's pretty it's pretty good.  

I actually meet people quite a lot when I'm out in the hills, who either follow my YouTube channel or on Instagram, and that's so nice, and they're always just really, really lovely and really grateful. Like, you know, met someone recently, and they said it was really random, actually, because we met them in in a town, and they, they came over and they were like, ‘Oh, you know, don't want to bother you, but we just wanted to say we bought our baby carrier because of you guys, and we've had so many adventures with it. We take our baby on hikes, and we just enjoy time as a family.’ And yeah, that's what I share a lot of more recently, since having my daughter is, you know, getting out with the family as well and bringing the kids along. But even before that, it was people just saying, ‘Oh, I bought your book, and we had this amazing time. We camped here, and we enjoyed a beautiful weekend together.’ And, yeah, it's just about people kind of being together and enjoying the outdoors and making it a bit easier for them with the guidebook, hopefully just kind of being like, you know, these are the good spots I've done the research for you go and enjoy it. And, yeah, it's always so nice to hear the stories of people enjoying being outside because of those books or YouTube videos or whatever it is that they've come across. 

So yeah, when we had our daughter, Aífe, two and a half years ago, we knew right away that we wanted, we wanted to bring her out into the Fells, into the Lake District, out on all of the hikes and all of the adventures we were doing. That was just definitely like a massive part of our parenting philosophy, both for us, in that we didn't want to, you know, stopped doing the things that we loved because of having a baby, but also because, I think there's so much that children, and even babies, even little babies, can gain from being outside. I mean, there's basically nothing negative I could say about taking kids into the outdoors, it is only a positive experience. But, yeah, you do have to be prepared. You do have to be more prepared than if it's just you. There's definitely some gear that we've discovered along the way that makes it a lot easier. We currently, you know, we have a great baby carrier that we're still using now with a two-and-a-half-year-old, we started using when she was, like six months old, and that has been rigged up for all kinds of adventures. We even did a seven-day hike across the lake district last summer with it, carrying all our camping gear. We didn't carry all our food because, we did a few like pickups along the way. We have to be pretty organized in that respect. But it was such a cool adventure, and it really kind of showed me what was possible to do, with, with a little well, Aífe was just under two at the time, so yeah, with a toddler, and it was, for both Harvey and I, really empowering to know that we can still do those kinds of adventures as a family. And yeah, now we share a lot of advice and tips and information on social media to try and inspire parents to get outdoors, and whether that's great hikes that we've done, great campsites we've stayed in, but also really useful gear, like I mentioned, the baby carrier, which has just been an essential piece of kit. Also like the kind of clothing that we dress our daughter in. All that kind of thing. 

So just setting off again, actually the sound of the ghyll is quietening a bit as we move a little bit further away, which is quite nice actually, you get, like, a bit of a sense of peace. 

Yeah, my daughter Aífe is two and a half now, so she's walking herself. We're at a really good phase, actually, where she's quite happy being carried in the carrier, which is really nice if we want to do a slightly longer walk. But she also loves walking herself, and will demand to be out of the backpack, especially if she sees any rocks to climb. That is her thing. She absolutely loves scrambling over rocks and little boulders. It's really fun to watch. And my partner is obviously thrilled, because he's a very keen climber. So, yeah, we actually try and pick hikes with, she would love this, because there's quite, you know, there's a there's a boulder on the right hand side here, she would be scrambling up that, trying to climb up to the top, whereas we could go around it on the path. But yeah, I love how kids, you know, will choose the most difficult path, but the most fun one. 

We did a three-day hike in the Cairngorms, and we were, had the most amazing weather on the first day, and then we knew that there was bad weather coming in, and we kind of had to make a lot of decisions and have a lot of conversations about whether or not we should continue. If it had just been Harvey and I, we would definitely have just kept going and pushed through. But when you have a baby at the time, Aífe was 11 months old, there's definitely a lot more things to consider, and we have another whole human to think about, and one that is more vulnerable because they're smaller. But we did actually carry on, and we had an amazing little adventure, and everything was fine, but I think the most important thing is just communicating between you, and not just doing things for the sake of it, actually thinking about what's right for you. We've turned around on so many hikes, and that's actually why I think we have avoided those disasters, because we don't… We actually would rather turn around and have a better experience than push through and have a screaming baby or toddler at the top of a hill. I've definitely still had a screaming baby or toddler at the top of the hill, but I think we've all had screaming babies and toddlers in all walks of life, in the supermarket, wherever. So you know, at least on top of the hill, no one can really hear it.  

We're just on the final little climb now, up to up to Stickel Tarn, up to Stickle Ghyll. We're on quite a steep section, where the water's coming down the ghyll, and we're about to cross some stepping stones, which are like big boulders across the ghyll, and then final little push up to the Tarn. 

It's always worth turning around on a hike, because the view behind you is often one of the most spectacular. So, we're quite high up now, so looking down Stickle Ghyll into the Langdale Valley and all the Fells actually some low clouds going in and out of the Fells as well, which makes it look even more dramatic today. So, I'm actually full time now doing a mixture of ramble guides and social media content creation work, which is pretty amazing. I never really imagined that this would be my full-time job. It definitely has its positives and negatives. There are hard things about it, but ultimately, I feel really lucky to be able to spend time outdoors and for that to be my job, I just love sharing the outdoors with other people. I love capturing it on in photos, and on video, and in words. Making Books is so rewarding because you get something physical that you can hold at the end of it. But social media as well is something that's so, can reach so many people, that I found a really massive impact from that. But yeah, that definitely comes with its challenges, having you know, other people’s opinions on what you're doing can be quite hard, especially when you become a parent. Everyone has their own opinions on parenting, but ultimately, you know, what I'm trying to do is share the outdoors with other people and show people that they can share the outdoors with their children. And that's something that I'm really passionate about.  

I want my daughter, Aífe, to grow up with a really deep connection to nature that I'm hoping will mean that she wants to protect it as well. You know, there are so many issues at the moment with climate change, and she's a little bit too young to talk about that too much, but we do have quite a lot of books on things like plastic pollution and that kind of thing. And I'm really, you know, hoping to talk to her about that more and more in the future, and for her to understand that, while we love these places, we also have a bit of a responsibility to look after them. Well, a huge responsibility to look after them. And I definitely want to pass that on to her. Yeah, I hope that she keeps on developing this love of the outdoors and a connection to it, and that we can teach her how important it is to look after it as well. 

Some Herdwick sheep up on the left of us now, grazing, in the Fells. They're so cute. They're such cute sheep. They always look like they're smiling. My daughter loves them.  

Just walking across the little rocky path to Stickle Tarn, where I'm sure we'll find a nice spot to sit, have a little snack and take in the view. 

And we've arrived at Stickle Tarn. It's beautiful. Can hear the water lapping against the shore. It's just so lovely. We've moved away from the ghyll now as well, so it's a little bit quieter and more peaceful. Feels so good to be up at the top. I always love the hike up, and I'm definitely more someone who is about the journey rather than the destination. But there's something to be said for getting, getting to a destination, sitting down and taking it all in, and then knowing that it's all downhill from here. I definitely feel a lot calmer than when I pulled up after. You know, there's always a little bit of stress that comes from a drive, especially with a bit of traffic. But yeah, feel really calm and really happy to be here and be in such a beautiful spot.  

You're probably already pulling on your boots and shoving snacks into a rucksack. So we'll just say happy walking, and quickly mention that next time, we'll be with Chef Gaz Oakley in his garden. He'll be giving us some tips and recipes and telling us about the journey from cooking with his dad to being a champion of meat free food. 

Keep track of all Athena’s work on her Instagram and follow us on ours to see behind the scenes footage from recordings and a few extra questions we asked each guest. 

A Life More Wild is an 18Sixty production, brought to you by Canopy & Stars. Production by Clarissa Maycock. Our theme music is by Billie Marten.