Border Baiku...

[Croydian]

Expectations ran high yesterday as we sped past Morpeth towards the the hills with Cheviot standing proud in a claear pale blue morning sky. Our destination was Alwinton the ride a 19ish circuit running anticlockwise taking in the delights of Kidland, Whitburn Shank, Fairhaugh, Batallshiel Haugh, Shillmoor, Copper Snout and Clennell Street (for those wishing to duplicate it). All along the warm-up track to Kidland Forest we were amazed at the flood damage, huge swathes of riverbank vegetation had been swept away and great new cliffs had appeared all along the banks. My mate opted to risk a no footed approach to the engorged fords which surprisingly he managed very well. I braved the icy water an was glad to see in the distance the bothy half way up Whitburn Shank was bathed in full feet drying sunshine. Now what happened next was like a UK mirage. Greame shouts " whoa, look at that!" and points at what looked like a huge puddle. Luckily I didn't sprint towards it as on closer inspection it actually turns out to be a 10m stretch of road 5m deep completely missing! The road had collapsedand the high water had completely removed all the debris leaving us no option but to clamber through the woods to reach the Shank. Here the poor summer and lack of rides really bit hard. We both made it to the top, 200m, 25 degree quarter mile climb, but at the topI was seeing stars and mateys Garmin heart rate thingy was chirping like a canary (he was in zone 5.5 of 6 which is not recommended) We recovered our sesnses and swept down to the burn at Fairhaugh only mildly disconcerted by the 6 rounds fired by something large on the nearby MOD range. The ride along the sheep track is always exhilerating made even better with further unpredictable flood damage to inch around. We stopped for a bite to eat on a bridge near Shillmoor at 11am and were enjoying it so much didn't want to finish too soon so decided to take the counter-intuitive switchback up onto the ridge and back up the valley on Copper Snout. A longer but easier gradient (only 20%) it was made slightly more urgent by the two herds of cows with calves that were clearly not happy at two puffing billys breaking the peace. Once at the top we joined the ancient Clennell Street and headed back down a fantastic downhill rattle to the car.
I began this "Baiku" with the intention of poetry rather than pace notes but if anyone has the O/S map or time to plot this ride on multimap I thoroughly recommend the ride as it has a bit of everything. I have recently turned my back on trail centres and yesterdays ride reminds me why, keep it natural, keep it real!!!