Day 62 – Eddleston to West Linton, 8 miles



View from trail

 After a wonderful breakfast of croissants and French toast, I headed off to West Linton -- only 8 miles because today was a rest day. After some preliminary route finding difficulties, I finally reached the trail I had been searching for, and had clear walking the rest of the way. I moved slowly because I knew I had plenty of time, and because I needed to frequently check the map to be sure I made the proper turns on the unsigned, remote trail. No mistakes, no bogs, no rain.



Not the lost ones



I encountered only two people all day. The first was a rancher who was searching for a dozen lost cattle. When I told him my route, he gave me his phone number in case I happened upon his cattle. Unfortunately, I didn’t find them.  I believe the standard reward is 10%, and it would have been really cool to have a pet steer to carry my backpack.



Lesley

The second person was a friendly lady riding her bicycle. She was quick to sense that I wasn’t a local and immediately stopped to talk. The fact that I was exiting the grounds of a large, private estate when she rode by may have been her clue. I knew I wasn’t on a public route, but, as we learned yesterday, being a foreigner is akin to having license to trespass – especially when the private route is much shorter than the public one.

I arrived at West Linton shortly after 1:00 – far too early to check into my B&B. I’m now sitting in a pub writing this posting, and lamenting about not having been able to claim a reward steer to carry my backpack tomorrow.

Solution to last week's puzzle about long-handled forest tools (you may need to enlarge the picture to read the sign):

© 2011 Ken Klug