The trails I'm talking about are – this one – which is the bridleway running down from Rushup Edge to Mam Nick from the point where the footpath and bridleway intersect, that's the gravelled, levelled path that's going to disintegrate quite quickly I reckon.
The other one is this: it's the bridleway that runs below Mam Tor and up towards the ridge along to Hollins Cross. That's been flattened and slightly widened, just the climb section, the grassy downhill to the ridge is untouched.
I was at the meeting with NBT about the Hayfield trail behind the campsite, the original restored version was lethal – really open and fast with an off camber bend throwing you out towards a wall and a big drainage hump in just the wrong place to kick your rear wheel up. They really had trouble understanding that fast and open isn't necessarily good and safe. The new lefthand singletrack by-pass section was built as a direct result of that meeting and, I think, works really well. The top and bottom sections of that trail are still really good fun, the middle bit which is flat with the odd hump is somewhat less entertaining.
The Peak's interesting because it gets such heavy use and, is also quite susceptible to heavy rain damage. I guess you either accept erosion and leave things until they erode down to bedrock, which personally I have no objection to, or you accept that you need to maintain stuff. But if you do the latter, surely you have a moral responsibility to do it sympathetically.
Like I said earlier in the thread, 'the trail had to be destroyed so it could be saved' philosophy of path restoration has no real place in an area which derives a lot of income from outdoor recreational activity.
Oh, and as far as spending that £40k goes, how about the track directly down from Mam Nick to Edale, that could do with some sympathetic landscaping, he said, having struggled to ride up it yesterday 🙁
