The sting in the tail

I picked Ailie up as planned at 9 and by 9.30 we were parked at Alwinton. We headed off up to the hills for the challenge of the Copper Snout walk. I recorded the route on my OS App as we went along but also had the paper map in my rucksack.

We had to stop a few times to put on raincoats and take them off again after the showers passed through. It was 3.5 miles of constant uphill till we came to the old hut where we stopped for coffee and cake. After that it was a pull up to the woods where the path was prettily lined by willowherb. We reached the forestry track which was made of rough pebbles but then we turned west to reach the boggy stretch. This is why we have avoided the walk till now, as it’s drier.

After that we had another slight pull up then it was downhill on a nice grassy track. Ailie was anxious as there was a herd of cows right across the path but they had no calves and were placidly munching the grass so I persuaded her it was ok. (She knows I’m a farmer’s daughter so trusted me!) Further down we found a nice place to stop for our sandwich (out of sight of the cows).

When we reached Shillmoor and the Coquet we had a long traverse through high bracken before we reached the sting in the tail, the very steep pull up out of the valley. From there it was 2 miles back to Alwinton, the last mile on the road which wasn’t pleasant with hot feet. 9 miles and 25,361 steps. Total ascent 1700ft. We certainly knew we’d done it!

Mr C is going to put a pizza in the oven for dinner tonight. Wine will be drunk.