R*n 750: Priest Hutton

How fortunate we are to have had two such enjoyable r*ns with only the one rest day between them! Sir Tom Tom and Fiddler on the Hoof set a great daytime full-mooner; and were kind enough to do so the day before so we could start as early as we wished. Indeed, two hashers were off around 8.30 and the next two half an hour later. Others joined in after lunch or even on another day, such is the flexibility during these strange coming-out-of-Covid-restrictions times.

With no On Inn possible we started in a village hall car park again; this time close by Priest Hutton. The first of two Wimp/Rambo splits occurred immediately, with the Rambos heading South towards Borwick, through pleasant rural scenery and past the start of the "Uber Rambo" loop. Your scribe and partner did not take this option, being pressed for time, but on examination of the route on offer later I can see that it took r*nners over part of r*n 728 in reverse as well as another path that I recced for the same r*n, so I don't feel too bad on missing it on this occasion.

All the while we found plentiful flour and even more plentiful chalked arrows. Sometimes as many as four visible at once, so there was no difficulty in following the trail which looped around back into Priest Hutton village. Around this point the four early hashers were united and hashed around the rest of the trail more or less together. It certainly can help when checking to have a few extra bodies to do the leg work.

And so we trotted along a bridleway and onto the canal towpath. It would be somewhat interesting to know how many hashes use the canal to link up with other paths, certainly a high percentage recently. Up past the Tewitfield locks, long disused, including the only problematic check where apparenty the flour had been eaten by persons or animals unknown! Back on trail we headed East and then South, at some point splitting from the Wimps trail again before arriving back in Priest Hutton and retracing the Wimps out-trail to the car park. All in all a fabulous trail with plenty of scenery and interest, great company and even the weather behaved.

Only a week to go, as I write this, to the next r*n when STT will recycle the flour from this r*n and co-hare with Wears the Soap.

On! On! till then.