Viewing 14 posts - 41 through 54 (of 54 total)
  • If you come across an open gate…
  • GEDA
    Free Member

    If it’s open then it is obviously not needed so take it off the gate crooks and sell it for scrap or use it as fire wood.

    christhetall
    Free Member

    OK, I’ll put my hands up. Rode through it on Saturday evening, the gate was open and I left it that way. Didn’t see any sheep in the vicinity.

    Normally I stick to the “leave it as you find it” maxim, but the exceptions are when I’ve seen a gate shut earlier it the day and now its open, for no apparent reason. Oh, and last weekend at Wenslydale I saw a sign saying “Please shut this gate even if you find it open”, so I did.

    I’ve only ridden the beast 3 times in the past and on a least one of those times the gate was open.

    Did strava influence me ? No. Did the fact that stopping and getting off would break up my rhythm, flow, ability to do a clean descent etc etc ? Guilty as charged.

    wordnumb
    Free Member

    d) Set it on fire then dance.

    maxtorque
    Full Member

    I’d go with the following handy “Gate Status” checklist

    You approach gate:

    Priority 1: A sign is present that says “Please close gate”.
    This overrules everything, unless gate has been rendered “physically un-close-able” by means of string,wire,bales,old tractor/plough parts etc

    Priority 2: No sign.
    If gate is closed: Close it after your immediate party has passed. The person who opens gate is responsible for closing it.

    If gate is open: Leave open only if obvious to do so. This includes being told to do so by farmer in field, the gate being physically secured open prior to your arrival, or by the obvious presence of other indicators (ie a gate between two grazing fields, with stock in both fields etc.)

    timmys
    Full Member

    Thank god for trail centres where I’d not have to make this very difficult decision.

    Make sure you steer clear of the Summit trail at Nant Yr Arian

    br
    Free Member

    shut it of course – common sense

    What if you trap lambs on the wrong side?

    Leave all gates as you find them; but then we’re pretty rural and sometimes see no one on rides.

    Pook
    Full Member

    Let’s quote the most educated take on this one more shall we?

    As a farmer…….. SHUT THE GATE. I know we have been told for years to leave it as you found it. That was OK when there were only a few people out walking. Nowadays the numbers we get are staggering. It is nothing to see a coach load of ramblers out. Being such socially minded sorts the first will prop the gate open for the rest, they being strung out for miles, The last will find it open and leave it so, assuming it was open all along. I waste an average of about 5 days a year sorting out sheep that have mixed or escaped. Luckily my gates don’t tend to go to open hill or to a main road (though the potential is there for both). You cannot imagine how angry it would make a farmer to have to get sheep back off the open mountain if they are not meant to be there. IF the farmer wanted that gate left open in such a busy area on such a popular path I can GUARANTEE, 100% that he will have made it clear by tying it open with 6 miles of string or sticking up a big hand painted sign saying “please don’t close the gate”. If he really wants it open then there is a very good reason (gathering stock or some other ground) and he really does not want the risk of someone shutting it in the meantime.
    If you find and open gate on a path and close it when it should be left open, I will be mildly annoyed but it will not be the end of the world.
    If you prop a gate open and then fail to close it afterwards I will be like Liam Neeson in “Taken”… I will find you, and I will kill you lol

    mikewsmith
    Free Member

    hora – Member
    Its not rocket science, Farmers who prop open gates tend to be within eyesight of you. IF they aren’t then some lazy **** or Strava muppet is on the lose.

    Thanking you for the agricultural insight there Hora, coming from a farming background gates are held open with a device called “Whateverthe****comestohand” it’s a very technical bit of kit that a lot of people would struggle to comprehend. Normally we used to prop gates open because we were not around and wanted them to stay open.

    As said many times before Strava didn’t invent pricks they have been there cutting corners, running people off trails and generally being pricks since time began.

    It would all save a lot of time if farmers could just shoot people on sight for getting on their land like they used to!

    Ecky-Thump
    Free Member

    I held the gate at the top of Beast (fluffy kitten) for our group on Sunday afternoon.
    It was shut when we arrived… so it was shut when we left.

    brakes
    Free Member

    those spring-loaded gates are good – at least with them you know it’s been propped open for a reason rather than left open.

    cfinnimore
    Free Member

    I’ve always seen myself as a “gates open” kinda guy… (,) (.) but more often than not i’ll close one if I can’t see a reason for it to be open.

    welshfarmer
    Full Member

    May I expand a little. My comments above were based on footpaths/bridleways/byways within national parks or in very well used touristy type areas. If out in a part of the country which rarely sees traffic then the old caveat of “leave it as you find it” would still apply since most farmers would simply leave a gate open if it needed to be left open on the assumption that no bugger ever walks/rides there anyway. However, within the touristy areas (where I guess 99% of us ride regularly as we are herd animals), I will always maintain it is better to alwyas shut a gate on the footpath unless there is a very good reason not to. This would include a sign saying DO NOT CLOSE, lots of string/wire etc, tying it open, or a farmer working in the near distance who is obviously about to use the gate. I would far rather find a gate I left open shut than one I left shut having been left open. The wind will often do the first for me anyway. And lambs certainly DO NOT need a gate left open to be on the wrong side of a fence so any farmer worth his salt will be checking on where they have got to on a daily basis anyway.

    welshfarmer
    Full Member

    Loc al to us over near Talybont there a gate half way down a long Strava segment. We take it in turns to be the one who drops down first and does the gate, thus sacrificing his time on that occasion. Next time out someone else has to do it. It all goes around in the end. and the gate is always left shut.

    banks
    Free Member

    by walkers (after I’ve passed them on the way down).

    Swoon.

Viewing 14 posts - 41 through 54 (of 54 total)

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