The suns out, people are enjoying the countryside. I’ts great to see so many families with young children walking out.
So why, oh why do they have to fill the whole width of a path?

At the end of todays ride I have to cycle through a local beauty spot, cars (lazyness), walkers, horse riders and cycles are using the wide track that leads up to this place, with a polite vocal ding dong, no movement, a louder ding dong, nothing. I then end up shouting “excuse me”, still nothing. Normally I wouldn’t mind too much but a couple of adults in this big group had seen me a few metress back and just decided to ignore the fact I was there. In the end I ended up swearing under my breath, which some of the children found very funny and decided to chase me, luckily this was on a slight incline and I got away.
Maybe it’s my female hormones, but we need to be looking out for other users of the countryside, if I’d been riding a great mahoosive stallion type beast , they would have moved sharpish.

🙁
There is i d ten t everywhere 🙁
To solve the problem I to ride on saturdays or on remote palces

Yep. It’s just getting to or from those remote places.
What gets me too is the amount of litter that gets dropped. Who do they think comes along in the countryside? It’s usually volunteers who try to keep it all neat and tidy, hoping that wildlife don’t get injured.

About to go and eat some chocolate, hoping to mke me less grumpy.

Yup where I am there is a national park where cycling is forbiden. Last time we went in 😳 we pick up 3 bottles made of glass (2 of perrier and one of wine). Best thing is the park is forbidden to cyclist because biking is not compatible with the wilderness of the location…
At least you get to ride in the UK 😉 and hence do not have hunters.

hummmm chocolate … (go and wander to get some 85 cacao choccies)

“…and hence do not have hunters”. They were shooting the deer in Lyme Park last week which is very close to where I suspect Bunnyhop had her poor experience of Stockport kind today.
Never mind J, it gives you chance to practice your trackstands.
I’m on my way round, somebody mentioned chocolate?

Barca- You’re welcome anytime.
But I’m guessing that because we’re only really allowed to ride on 2 concessionary tracks (cough) through Lyme park, we’re pretty safe from the deer hunters (cullers).
They do of course shoot grouse from the shooting cabin up on Middle moor.

yup real chocolate 😉 and some home made biscuit hummmmmmm

How come they were hunters? I though hunting was reserved to the royal family?

BH, steph and i rode round one of the RL routes last sunday (through brook bottom, past new mills golf course out to the road then back along past that huge cross and back down some pretty gnarly descent to the park)… it was good fun. want to do stuff there again. soon.

Every year, stray wild deer come and mess up the breeding of the herd. So the hunters seek out the roque deer and the herd has to be culled anyway to keep numbers down.
Deer are getting quite common now in Britain, as I understand it we’re their only predators ( well full grown deer anyway). Wolves would have been able to take down an adult deer in the old days.

i can’t wait til wolves are reintroduced to the countryside.
it’s going to be awesome.

you need a Pro2 hub me dear, freewheel up behind them, if they don’t move pedal backwards and they dive into the canal/hedge/field of nettles, but don’t forget the cheery and smug “hellooo, lovely day”

xherbivorex – drop me a line, I am very slow at the moment, but I can guide you round loads of stuff around there. In fact it’s where I had my swearing incident ( at the lakes).
The descent you went down from the cross is ‘the banks’, a local favourite.
See you soon.

Now you mention it Mr Nutt, there was a lovely drop on the left into a river.

i guessed that was where you were talking about BH.
it was pretty quiet last sunday, but then again it was quite windy and grey…

slow is fine, i’m hardly a speed demon myself! had to push up quite a bit (especially that white rock trail up to the golf course) but it was still an enjoyable afternoon.

on that descent, how do you handle those wooden dropoffs? they were a bit vicious… are they rideable?

They do of course shoot grouse from the shooting cabin up on Middle moor.

Really? I’ve never seen them doing that. Not that I’m saying they don’t mind, it’s just that they must use silenced sniper rifles or something. You don’t need to shoot grice anyway, you can just ride over them 😉

Well not sure people really want wolves to be reintroduced. They have been reintroduced in the PNM, but Shepherds apparently lose a lot of sheep due to wolves attack (dodgy night video of an animal running at the sheep). So political powers have to ask for some ‘official shooting’.

I say burn the hunters, and the ruthless people.

oh sorry juan, i was kind of joking (although it is man’s fault that wolves no longer live on this island though, but let’s not get into that here!)

Hunters are everywhere.
Mrs Moses & I were hiking near Entrevaux (Var) last October, and as we climbed to the top of a ridge we saw that we had been watched by two boar-hunters (Sangliers) with very smart guns of a type that’s illegal in Britain: combined shotgun & rifles. (Two barrels, under & over)

All the tracks around Mellor Cross & Roman Lakes are rideable in both directions when you’ve done them a few times XB. I think the only one that would be a “maybe…on a good day” would be the climb out of Rowarth toward the farm with the bonkers dogs going toward New Mills. I’ve only ever ridden down it though.
Actually, the loose stone climb that goes past the cottages up in to the woods and comes out below the Cross would be beyond me as a climb for definite so not all rideable up and down at all. I’ll shut up now 😳

ha!
we did pass someone coming up that loose stone part (well, the middle of it anyway, next to a golf course?) but the upper bit with the wooden drops; those drops were like 2′ but with a 6″ lip- i guess i could ride them knowing that they’re there now (on my bouncy bike) but i can’t see how anyone could clean that part going up it…

Had this ourselves today Bunnyhop.
Rode at Mabie with the kids and were returning via the forest road to the carpark.
Passed a group of horse riders..no problems…they moved to the left of the track..we moved to the right and slowed right down…thanks and “hellos” were exchanged!!

Then 200yds down the track there’s some rambler, his wife and their Labrador.
Hear us approaching and decide to stop dead, somehow managing to block about 3 quarters of the track with their dog right in the middle of the road!
What would it have taken them to move to the side??

Cos we’re really scary-looking…me, MrFC and an 8 and 10 yr old!!

BUT I couldn’t help but call out a cheery “thanks” as we cycled by!
Why can’t people just use some courtesy?? It costs nowt!
Just have to pity these people at the end of the day…

There is a lobby for getting wolves reintroduced into Scotland – I really hope it happens as the deer are vermin – far too many of them and they eat the entire countryside.

Deer are vermin? I always see them as lovely creatures.

I had a similar situation at Nant-y-Arian. Was riding up “Leg Burner” and approaching the place where the first bit of the loop joins onto it. A large group of riders who were waiting for their mates had just stopped in the middle of and blocked off the fire road I was coming up. Now, I wasnt moving very fast at this point so they had plenty of time to see me and react, but not one of them moved and I was forced to ride dowm into a gully to get round them.

Vocal ding dong? WTF?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtv2_-2mHck

Deer are vermin?

Well they probably did annoy TJ at some point.

he doesnt like dogs, but wolves are a-ok?

Sillyoldhector…as I said, you just have to pity them…

Barca – in Scotland the deer eat everything – no forest can regenerate because of them. They are worse than goats. They also cause erosion. the highlands have an unsustainable number of deer – in part but only in part because of the lack of predators.

A few deer are nice but massive herds are destructive.

You know that desolate bare scenery up north – while the deer did not destroy the woodlands they do prevent it regenerating. Hence you see the stups f the trees in bogs. a complex situation for sure – but overpopulation of deer is a big part in the denuding of the landscape.

I can sympathise Bunnyhop, people just don’t want to share trails with others when the sun comes out! Horse-riders are always OK, it’s families with Tesco treking poles and a yappy dog that are the worst. It’s just selfish to walk along a path 4 abreast and expect everyone else to move.

I just adopt the “attack” position and speed up – that normally scatters them 😀

BadlyWiredDog- come to think about it, you are right, I’ve never seen hunters out on Middlemoor, but I have heard them in the Peaks many times, anyway howyoudoin’?

XherbivoreX- the bit you’re talking about down from Mellor cross is rideable, I did it last week on the hardtail, but as you say only descending. I have only ever seen one mtber attempt it upwards. The bit where the berm is on the corner, always scares me, it’s really high up the wall now!

The thing I love about STW. is the way you can moan about something as mundane as Sunday strollers being selfish, ending up with a topic on wolves and deer. Who’d have thought.

Cinnamon_girl_ I’m going to plough through them at great speed next time, 10 points per person. Aiming for ten pin bowling style full strike.

BadlyWiredDog- come to think about it, you are right, I’ve never seen hunters out on Middlemoor, but I have heard them in the Peaks many times, anyway howyoudoin’?

I’m fully canine thanks and on a mission and with good reason 🙂 We pottered round the Roych / Jacob’s circuit today, which was ace in a sunny, breezy, bright and drying sort of way. Out on the road in a mix of hail and sunny spells yesterday, 49 miles, 7800 feet of climbing most it into a massive headwind. My legs hurt, but in a good way. You feeling any better?