It’s not as if there were that many rocky, rutty, fun descents in the Dales in the first place, but one of the better ones has had the joy sanitised out of it.

Rode the Nidderdale loop this morning, and the drop to Scar House reservoir from the Middlesmoor track has been flattened with all the big boulders removed, the bedrock steps and deep channels filled in with gravel. It’s only a slight exaggeration to say you could probably get a family car down it now.

Not quite as bad as some of the DCC efforts in the Peak, but not far off it.

Hopefully the 4x4s will trash it properly in the next six months so that the winter weather can cause some havoc. 🙁

That’s likely to be the estate isn’t it? They concreted the bottom bit of the drop into Woo Gill last year – though that’s now like riding on ball bearings with all the gravel on the concrete.

That or LARA desperately trying to keep NYCC from shutting the Deadman’s Hill thru-route because of the damage – I noticed there was some patching on the start of that on the other side of the dam.

It’s been done since late January when I last rode it.

Got halfway up the concrete/ball bearing combo at Woo Gill this time before all traction front and rear was lost and I nearly ended up on my arse. Would not want to ride that in the other direction.

That’s a shame that was a fun descent.

Aw that sucks, that was a highlight of that route!

Probably better in the other direction now – fairly straightforward climb.

Woo Gill is, err, fun as a descent now 😳

I thought NYCC had shut Deadman’s Hill to 4×4 traffic? I remember a notice to that effect just over a year ago when we bivied up there. Some 4x4s went past during the night from S-N despite there being a voluntary ban on travel in that direction at the time.

Temporary closure until October, I think. Wouldn’t be surprised if they made it permanent though. Could explain why they are making ‘repairs’. Though only very minor tweaks would have been needed to the Scar House descent.