A report's a report. A man off the walking forum had posted on the Tuesday about a boot on the dam wall path at Baitings, over at Ripponden, and I drove over first thing Saturday. That's further than my usual ground — Ripponden is over the tops and into the next valley's business — but the rule has always been that I'll travel for a good tip-off, and this were a good one: clear description, clear location, no embellishment. You learn to rate a report by what it leaves out.
It were still there, which is never guaranteed after four days, and there's always a small settling feeling when a reported shoe turns out to be where it were reported. Left boot, brown, laces missing, heel worn right down on the outside — a walker's wear pattern, that, the outside heel, though whose walking it recorded is not a question the register asks. Confirmed in person and numbered, which is the only way owt gets a number. The forum man were offered the usual acknowledgement in the ledger margin.
Grey morning that cleared by ten, and when Baitings clears you get the view down the Ryburn valley, which is a good one and I sat with it a full hour on the stool. Cheese and pickle. Flask did its work. An hour is long for me, but I'd driven for it, and there's a bit of arithmetic in these things: the further the shoe, the longer the sit, or the morning doesn't balance. The notebook doesn't give a photograph count for this one so I'll not supply one. Drove home over the tops with the register one up and the day well spent.
Written up August 2026, from the notebook.