River trips

1.8 metres ........ 09 December 2007

NB - The SEPA website wasn`t producing any river data on the following day, so I couldn`t get an actual level. So this value is an estimate based on the reading on the gauge at Burnmouth.

I missed the much higher levels on the previous Thursday, but this level still provided some good fun. As usual, the Linn is good at this level.

Linn

Seven routes down the Linn, only one didn`t go too well.

The main channel river left was fairly straightforward, following the normal curved line between the rough stuff on the left and the wave in the centre, and cutting off to the left to avoid the boils and whirlies.

The second channel provided two routes, the usual right to left diagonal line down the smooth chute right over on the right hand side, and a sneaky route very hard right, right beside the rocks. The first one went very well, I cut diagonally right through the join between the stopper and the hole. The second one was okay, but there was a wee bit of rock bashing.

The third channel has a nice run down on the left side, the route on the right was just too shallow to make it do-able.

The fourth channel had some good routes - very hard right was okay, but a bit rock bashy. The hole on the left was good - the hole had a central ridge which provided the best route through the centre of the hole. The shoulder to the left of the hole worked okay, but the shoulder on the right was okay to start with, but the water flow turned sideways and dropped into the hole just at the end, so I ended up dropping into the side of the hole, but just washed out.

All in all, at this level, the Linn is worth spending time at.

Linn bypass

The Linn bypass was running, the first exit could have been okay, maybe a bit bony at the bottom end. The second exit would have been okay apart from all the scrubby trees growing in the river bed, so probably best avoided at this sort of a level.

Wall

The wall just had water coming over the top of it, however some good tallies could be had.

Wave right hand side of wall

There was a bit a wave , but it was a bit disjointed, so the surfing was a bit marginal.

Weir

The centre chute was quite straightforward.

Rapid down to Hell Hole corner

Coming down the normal route left of centre presented few problems, but there were some quite big waves. There are some odd bits and pieces river left which were playable, including one with a quite sticky stopper, which was very reluctant to let go of me, even though it looked quite benign.

Hell Hole corner

The normal route down right of centre had some surprisingly big waves, but didn`t cause any problems.

Hell Hole corner to Thistlebrig

As usual, nothing much in this section. However there are a couple of groins river right - one a bit above the mill, and one a bit below it. The one above the mill was actually quite hard to see as you came down the river towards it - suddenly there it was - and it had what looked to be some quite sticky stoppers. They would have provided some good sport, but as there wasn`t anyone handy to drag me out if I got stuck, I gave them a miss. It was easy to inspect them from below, as there wasn`t a strong current below the groin. Definitely worth having a look at this level.

The groin below the mill produced a small set of waves, you would have to catch them on the way down, as there is little chance of getting up to them from below.

Thistlebrig

Thistlebrig still had its characteristic left to right diagonal current, even though a lot of the rocks on the left have water coming over them. The easiest run down is to stay right of centre past all the scary stuff on your left, then whenever you feel it is safe to do so, cut out right into the big eddy on your right.

There was quite a lot of playing to be had right across amongst the waves on the left.

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