Not quite Vietnam… but there’s one particular Bridleway near me, which I have now realised is always “dammed” off by debris of some nature or another.

At first I thought it was just natural treefall/windfall, but now I realise it’s on purpose because it’s always in the same place, I think it’s also no coincidence that its on a blind corner just as you emerge from a hedgerow sandwich to the start of a downhill section.

Most times it’s been a sturdy branch of some nature, which while inconvenient, was passable.

This weekend it was a full Holly Tree/Log going right across the track and deep into the undergrowth either side of the track. Had I been going any faster (I was a bit slow for the mud) this was definite injury material – holly thorn stabbing at the very least.

Why would anyone do this? What can you do to stop it? What could I have done had I injured myself?

Carry a chainsaw and a baseball bat?

Report it to your local authority rights of way officer.

Well I guess you have kinda answered one question – why?

As you say this is near a blind corner, my guess is that someone has either had an incident with fast bikes surprising them here, or is fearful of the possibility, and is doing what they can to slow bikes down.

However, if it is deliberate, would it count as block a public ROW and be an offence? If so, maybe worth reporting to local ROW office?

holly thorn stabbing at the very least

Just go straight to the cops 😉

We get idiot walkers doin that at Kirroughtree, they tried it when there was a race on once, the guy got a hefty fine. They pull branches accross the trail on natural sections. But its not like we,re riding a walking path so i cant see the problem. My mate came round a corner and smacked into one of their baracades. He went over the bars lolz

Bloody walkers i,ll wedge their walking stick up their archibald

As you say this is near a blind corner, my guess is that someone has either had an incident with fast bikes surprising them here, or is fearful of the possibility, and is doing what they can to slow bikes down.

If the wanted to slow people down to reduce danger on a blind corner it would be more effective to block the trail just before the corner, placing the obstruction after the corner is only done to cause injury.

@TheBrick – Depends on how blind the corner is…? To be fair, OP said ‘on a blind corner’ not ‘near a blind corner’. If you can see to half way around from either side, but not all the way round, putting an obstruction in the middle could be the best place to put it as it slows people down both ways.

And if I was doing these sorts of things primarily to cause injury – I wouldn’t be using logs, sticks and holly trees…

Just build everything they put down in to the trail. After a while you could start leaving notes thanking them, and suggetsing the size shape and position of the “improvement” they can add to the trail.

Post here where it is as well, so that other folks can look out for it.

best booby trap i’ve found was on a ride a few months ago – i found a 3inch diameter by ~8ft long steel sign post still attached to lump of concrete across the trail 😯 don’t think it was put there by walkers but by chavs hurling it down the hill from another bigger path above with a clear line of destruction between the two locations. luckily not on a corner but it did weigh a ton!

A regular occurrence on a trail near me. It’s a tiny piece of footpath (I know!) that cuts a corner off an unmade road. It’s near some houses but doesn’t actually cross any properties and so pinching it is probably wrong technically but not morally as it isn’t affecting anyone’s privacy, etc.

Ever larger combinations of dead wood has been laid across here and some of it is quite skilfully placed now, with just the right combinations of size and spacing so you can loft a wheel over the first bit but then it’s a wheel trap.

So I left a note. In which I admitted that riding on a footpath is a civil matter, and if the landowner or their agent approaches me I’ll admit to it and leave by the shortest route, as per the rules. Which as the path is about 80yards long is no hardship. However, I’ve added that wilful blocking of a public right of way is a criminal offence and if it continues I’ll be forced to report it to the RoW officer.

I haven’t been that way for a few weeks, might add it to tomorrow’s ride now.

And if I was doing these sorts of things primarily to cause injury – I wouldn’t be using logs, sticks and holly trees.

Yep true, I read of a case the news recently of wire strung across the trial at neck height.

Coming down into Sedbergh once, there’s a travellers camp. We came round the corner to find planks with nails hidden about the trail. Lethal. Luckily we spotted them

It’s on a Chiltern Way Extension between Binfield Heath and Harpsden bottom.

A few years ago i was riding a snakey bit of singletrack in Epping.
I came around a tight bend and some tosser had pulled a tree into the centre of the trail.
They had also snapped branches off ,so it was like a tarzan style jungle trap.
I wasn’t able to get out of the way and hit a spike on my shin ,skewered my leg – into my calf.
Left a bloody big hole in the side of my leg which needed quite a few stitches and ended my leg modelling career!.
It could have been much worse.
I’ve always stated that if i ever see a cowardly tosser leaving trail booby traps I would have a couple of “friendly” words in their ear!

It is a really low form of behaviour.

When that happens up here it’s usually to stop quad and motocross bikes from using a trail – a couple of the trails have complete trees cut down and dragged across them

Darlington Council are actually pretty proactive at pursuing ROW issues though like locked gates, intentional blocking of trails etc

disappointed in the complete lack of boobies on this thread.

I get stuff like that on some of the local trails, TBH I’ve usually thought it has just been kids rather than deliberate booby trapping, but I suppose I might be wrong…

I have a scar on each bicep from a bit of bailing twine strung across a bridleway near me. It could easily have been my neck. I don’t actually think the intent was to hurt bikers, since it was close to a cow cross-roads on a farmer’s field. I guess it was just there to guide the cows. At least I like to think no farmer would have done that to maim intentionally

The lesson here is don’t ride at the front

Someone spitefull kept pulling logs across a local trail here,
just around a slight bend out of sight on a fast downhill,
could have been a nasty accident if one of the local kids had hit them. Time to get the saw and Bob trailer out!,
wish the culprit had turned up then! 😈

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syy57AeajXs[/video]

philconsequence – Member

disappointed in the complete lack of boobies on this thread.

You fell into the boobie trap.

Nice one Teef 😆

disappointed in the complete lack of boobies on this thread.

Her yer go:

Coastkid -what chainsaw is that, it was making pretty light work of the trees and I’m thinking I might like one of those bad boys

And, courtesy of Britain’s Rip-Roaring Favourite Newspaer, here’s a nice pair of tits:

There’s one trail near us, it’s a byway, so the 4×4 crowd use it a bit, that’s often blocked by debris, presumably left by Mr. Angry.

It’s a long downhill (well for round here anyway) and I’ve nearly come to grief on a couple of solo night rides, ey keep moving the blockage.

Idiots, but then again I guess direct action is often the way we achieve things….

OOOOOH! that is nothing.

Where i ride and live there is a guy that hates cyclists. seriously. He has called the police many times and been told to MTFU, but it doesnt stop him. Lately he hasnt done anything, but he used to put rocks/logs across our trails and eventually it came to a head when one of our race team went over the bars when he came across a tripwire across trees.

But to cut a long story short, he has a rubbish life and has been cautioned by the police! 🙂

lucien – Member
Coastkid -what chainsaw is that, it was making pretty light work of the trees and I’m thinking I might like one of those bad boys

I’d hazard a guess that it’s a Husqvarna chainsaw,
I’ve got one and a very nice piece of kit it is,

Get pictures of the blockage on separate occasions and report it…

lucien – Member
Coastkid -what chainsaw is that, it was making pretty light work of the trees and I’m thinking I might like one of those bad boys

I’d hazard a guess that it’s a Husqvarna chainsaw,
I’ve got one and a very nice piece of kit it is,
aye its a old Husky!, a revvy old beast it makes light work of dead wood logs 😮 reckon the culprit (believed to be an irate dog walker upset at local kids riding down here) believed the local council removed all the tree`s 😀 and all been quiet since!

The police have arrested and charged a serial pest around here after he graduated from logs/stones to wire between trees.

This is serious stuff. Not so long back a guy died as a result of hitting trees put on a trail to stop mountain bikers in some of our local woods.
see here.

I’ve also come across wire strung at neck height , supposedly to stop motorbikes – OK I agree they shouldn’t be ridden on the trail where the wire was, but it’s predominantly young lads that are riding there. Do we really want people to die over issues of land access ?

You need to get on to your rights of way officer right away, and if you ever see anyone in the act report it to the police.

Just a thought, but some trail obsticles are put in place by horse riders for themselves to use as jumps, they’re not put there by upset ramblers/dog walkers/landowners.

goldenwonder – Member
Just a thought, but some trail obsticles are put in place by horse riders for themselves to use as jumps, they’re not put there by upset ramblers/dog walkers/landowners.

I had wondered about this – there are a lot of horses use this trail also, and I noticed that up until now the obstacle had always been “a pile” of branches, and most times I just went around it. This time a tree was perched up around thigh height on the banks and went right across. Too heavy for one man to move there, but a horse, or group of people could have pulled it.

The problem is… horses or not… it’s still fundamentally dangerous.

I quite agree, but it is a bridleway.
Live & let live etc.
I’m not condoning the building of dangerous trail hazards that are designed to hurt cyclists, but we don’t have sole use of the trails.

it’s still fundamentally dangerous.

Absolutely. There are 2 issues that bother me most:

1. Stupidity – some people really don’t think about the possible consequences of their actions. There is NO EXCUSE for endangering someone as per the examples above

2. Ignorance – whilst some people openly choose to ignore their access rights, many simply don’t know. I have met land-owners who refuse to accept that cycles are allowed across their bridleways. Maybe there are horse-riders who think bridleways are just for horses

I actually don’t object to obstacles on a path that us bikers should not be on, provided they are there to slow us down safely and stop us rather than maim us.

I quite agree, but it is a bridleway.
Live & let live etc

i need a definition for “Live and let live”