Skipton is the far end of what I'll drive, and I want that on record before owt else, because the register shouldn't give the impression I range about the country. I don't. But a chap on the walking forum had reported a boot on the towpath a mile out of Skipton towards Gargrave on the Tuesday, and by Saturday I'd decided the report were solid enough to spend the diesel on. Set off at half seven, there by nine.
It were still there, which I were glad of, because three hours of driving to an empty towpath is a long way to carry a flask for nothing, and I've done it before on worse tip-offs. Right boot, brown, good condition, and the laces were the notable feature: tied together and looped over themselves, which is a configuration the register had not recorded before and has only seen once or twice since. I photographed the laces on their own, which I don't often do for laces.
Overcast and dry, flask conditions very good, seven photographs. The book closes the entry with two words — worth the diesel — and that's about as effusive as the 2019 notebook gets, so you can take it that I were pleased. I never learned who the chap on the forum were beyond his username, and I couldn't tell you it now, but he reported accurately and promptly and that's the whole of what you can ask of a man.
Written up August 2026, from the notebook.