(S)The route for this walk is mostly straightforward. Follow the path where it exists from the car park across a terrain of mud, rock, bog, tussocky grass etc with a wall on the right to begin with, passing Goat Crag and Bull How on the left.
(1)When the path peters out, as it frequently does, follow the right general sense of direction, north-east to north and be prepared later for a pathless and energy-sapping, if not also morale-sapping, slog up the shoulder of Slight Side. The summit at least provides some variety in the form of a rocky top that necessitates some simple scrambling to reach the highest point but, on a day when the top is covered in cloud, there is little incentive to linger. The top was highly regarded by the late Alfred Wainwright, considering it to be one of the top six in Lakeland. A few sheep were the only other signs of life on this occasion, appearing through the summit mist.
(2)A group of wet, bedraggled, dismal-looking cows on the way up (and still there on the way back down) the main grassy side of Slight Side seemed to rather sum up the mood of the day. If you are not to be a fair weather walker only, you need to be able to take the rough with the smooth, and days like this are all part of the process.
(E)On the return route, rather than reverse the outgoing route, it is possible to provide an element of variety by heading across pathless grassy slopes due south east to cross a stream and then locate a path that comes down the main valley of the River Esk, emerging at Scale Bridge and reaching the Eskdale road at Whahouse Bridge from where it is a short walk back along the road to the car park. It is actually quite pleasant to be on a proper path again after crossing so much pathless terrain earlier in the walk and there are good views across the Eskdale valley to the peak of the pyramid-like form of Harter Fell with Hard Knott seen to the left.