To reach this virtual cache, did you travel along the M6 motorway?
If you did, yourself and many others were using the "modern" and relatively easy version of this A6 main road.
Before the motorway opened in 1970, the A6 over Shap Fell was the main route connecting north and south through North West England. It was a notoriously difficult and sometimes dangerous stretch of tarmac where the road crosses Shap Fell at 1397 feet above sea level. Commercial drivers knew it as one of the most treacherous and unpredictable routes in the UK, never knowing what the weather could be when they reached the summit.
Take a minute to look around at the steep hills, remoteness and how bleak the landscape looks. Now imagine being sat in the driver's seat of a 1952 Scammell lorry with no heating, travelling at an average of about 12 miles per hour, through a winter storm over Shap Fell Summit.
This virtual cache takes you to a memorial paying tribute to the many journeys undertaken, maintenence work completed and local residents who helped drivers and crews when needed.
To log this virtual cache, please answer the following questions:
1. Which 2 things did local people "give freely" to stranded travellers in bad weather?
2. What is the name of the stonemason from Troutbeck Bridge?
3. Include a photo taken at the location, making sure not to reveal the answers to questions 1 and 2 (please note: as per Geocaching rules, your photo does not need to include faces). The photo can be messaged to me or uploaded with your log.
Please message me your answers either via my Geocaching profile or by clicking 'Send Answers'. You are welcome to log this cache before receiving a response. Please note, logs where you have not messaged me the answers within 7 days may be deleted.
Virtual Rewards 3.0 - 2022-2023
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between March 1, 2022 and March 1, 2023. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 3.0 on the Geocaching Blog.