Was out round Hayfield today and had a small run-in with a Peak Park ranger on a trail that just happened to not be a bridleway. He appeared from nowhere and barred the path of two of our group and was somewhat over-zealous in his jobsworth duties, giving them a stern telling off and ordering them to dismount and walk the rest of the trail.

Where do they come from? It’s not the first time it’s happened, yet they always seem to pop up out of nowhere. I’m beginning to think they deliberately hide like they’re on a stakeout waiting for rebellious MTBers to come past 🙂 Have they nothing better to do? I’d have thought their time would be much better spent showing lost walkers the correct way back to their cars.

I’m curious, cycling on a footpath is a civil offence, not a criminal one. The land owner or their representatives can ask you to leave. PDNP do not own the Peak District. So, do they have the power to tell you to walk your bike.

I have no idea of what powers they have, but this is the first time one has gone as far as telling us to get off our bikes. Normally they just ask if you’re lost and if you know it’s a footpath, and then tell you how to get back to the bridleway. The irony was that this particular trail was dry as a bone and in great condition, unlike the Middle Moor BW a little later which was a cut-up, eroded, boggy mess.

Onzadog they may have the power of landowners agent, who would be allowed to tell you to get off and walk (though obstructing the highway is also an offence).

You are easier to catch the motorcyclists tearing the place to pieces.

I know some of the local ones personally, and have bumped into others when I’ve been misbehaving.

Powers, not much really.

Just doing their job.

Ha ha. We had something similar local to is at the end of the summer. They actually staked out a path, land rover parked away from the path in a field, ranger behind a hedge.

He popped out, gave us a telling off and some bullshit horror story about someone being injured and alone overnight in the holy park we are not allowed to ride.

He was disappointed when no one rose to the bait. We just got off and walked. He spoilt about five minutes of our evening. He had to sit on his own in a land rover in a field for god knows how long to do it.

Who sounds like the idiot?

Motorbikes tearing the tracks up!!Most are graded now hardly worth riding anymore.

The criminal offence of assault is far more serious than the civil offence of trespass…

Did he actually physically restrain you or just stand in the way??
My money is on volunteer ranger with nothing better to do.

Get off, push past then when just out of range jump back on and ride away happy!

The day was just ending as I was descending
By Grindsbrook, just by Upper Tor
When a voice cried, ‘Eh you’ in the way ramblers do
He’d the worst face that ever I saw
The things that he said were unpleasant
In the teeth of his fury I said
Sooner than get off my cycle
I think I would rather be dead

I’m a cyclist, a cyclist from Manchester way, I get all my pleasure the hard moorland way
I may be a wage slave on Monday, but I am a free man on Sunday

He called me a knob and said, ‘Think of my dog’
Well I thought but I still couldn’t see
Why old Kinder Scout and the moors round about
Couldn’t take both the ramblers and me
He said that this trail is a footpath
At that I stood shaking my head
I pointed out the history of rambling
And that Benny Rothman cycled as well

I’m a cyclist etc…

No physical contact, he just stood in the way with his arm out. I was off ahead so didn’t see it but apparently he ran from wherever he was hiding to get into position, before delivering his ‘I am the authority’ speech 🙂 Anyway the two who he stopped did exactly as you suggest and just walked past then got back on their bikes a bit further down the trail. It’s not a big deal, but really you should be able to go and have a day in the countryside without being treated like naughty school children.

Justified or not, you were technically in the wrong. Smile nicely, do as you are asked till you are out of sight, then carry on.

Good quote, ninfan 😀
I wonder if that ranger knew why the National Park was created 🙄
Kinder trespass 1932

Justified or not, you were technically in the wrong. Smile nicely, do as you are asked till you are out of sight, then carry on.

Spot on. The trouble with jumped up little Hitlers is that they like nothing more than a confrontation, something to justify their narrow-mindedness.

Justified or not, you were technically in the wrong.

Technically yes, but in all other ways not (not that I really need to say that here). I’m curious as to what they actually think of this daft law? Most of the one’s I’ve come across seem not to be overly bothered about errant bikers and are just going through the motions of telling you what you already know. Next time I’ll have to make sure to ask them. I just need to find a way of doing that without starting a disagreement.

I think that my favoured response may have been from here

‘Oi, you’re not allowed to ride bikes here!’
‘Yes, I know, silly isn’t it?’

Works an absolute treat!

Next time I’ll have to make sure to ask them. I just need to find a way of doing that without starting a disagreement.

You could, but you’d probably be wasting your time. You don’t give them a pay cheque at the end of the month.

My best one to date was the Peak Park Ranger who told me I shouldn’t be on the Packhorse trail coming off Stanage. When I did the dim female “But I thought this line on the map meant it was a bridleway” and showed him an OS map with it clearly marked as a bridleway, he tried to tell me it must have been changed in the last couple of years…
I didn’t point out that it’s a packHORSE trail; I thought I’d probably showed him up in front of his friends enough for one day!

Equally, I met one when I was on another footpath nearby, and as I got of the bike to open the gate, he told me that unofficially, they reckon that track is a concession bridleway as long as riders are sensible around the walkers.

Try and be nice to them, we are trying to get them on our side by going out repairing drainage with them.

Some can be a bit officious but when they have to deal with moans about riders such as the two descending Mam Tor last weekend like it was the Steel City Downhill, slaloming through dozens of walkers at full chat and kicking off every bump & rock on the footpath from the summit to Hollins Cross, you can see why they get a bit prescious.

If you are going to ride footpaths on a busy and sunny Sunday then a bit of consideration may help us all.

Don’t worry Roger, I’m always nice to them, and like I said they are usually too. Could do without the keystone cops stakeouts and schoolmaster-ish dressing downs though 🙂

Interesting point on the ‘busy sunny Sunday’ and the Mam Tor incident. It’s a perfect example of the craziness of the FP/BW division. The FP we were on was quite out of the way, and not one of the fleshpot walking routes (we met two walkers on it) in that area, and like I said was bone dry and in great condition and we get a boll*cking for riding on it. Yet the Mam Tor – Hollins Cross path is a BW and fair game as far as the law is concerned even though it’s one of the busiest Sunday walking routes in the Peak.

It’s much better in France. Walkers are friendly and even encouraging. The space is there for everyone to enjoy in their own way, so long as they are reasonable. It’s a breath of fresh air.

TBh if I’m caught on a footpath I now keep my mouth nailed shut, smile and leave. Even when I was shoved and pushed*

* http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/hebden-wednesday-nightriders-youve-pissed-someone-off

A while ago on some really nice cheeky at 9am on a Sunday morning I was manhandling a fair-sized tree gradually from across a footpath. A woman stopped and harangued me for a good 10mins and I stayed silent as I moved the tree. Not once did she offer to help. At the end said ‘my husband rides bikes too and although what you are doing right now is noble you are a criminal’.

I replied ‘good day’/smiled and rode off.

Who cares if it made her feel important and she’d owned me?

^ ^^^you were alone in the woods with a woman and that is all that happened
STW is disappointed

a person in uniform wont act violent

Only ever challenged [ he did have authority] once and he was ok after a bit of banter – it was a road*- literally tarmacced- that is technically a footpath only

My favourite walker heckle one started like this

” I know its not very christian of me but ……
.

* rivvy up to the mast.

Yet the Mam Tor – Hollins Cross path is a BW and fair game as far as the law is concerned even though it’s one of the busiest Sunday walking routes in the Peak.

The one from the summit isn’t, that’s a very busy footpath there isn’t a BW to the summit, the one round the back of Mam Tor from Mam Nick that follows the gulley is a bridleway which joins the main route halfway to Hollins Cross.

But the point I was making was more about riding style in an inappropriate place at a silly time.

Which fp was it?

Summit to Hollins Cross

I was meaning the one where the OP was ambushed by the SAS – my local riding, I’m just intrigued though I can maybe guess.

I once had a chat with some Peak Park Rangers near the campsite descent above Hayfield and pointed out that the warning sign partway down is actually impossible to read while you’re riding at the sort of pace it’s warning against you riding at and it would make more sense to site it at the top gate where people might actually see it. They seemed unimpressed.

my Dad’s a volunteer Peak Park Ranger.
I’ll tell him to take his shotgun next time and give the STW keyboard warriors something decent to whinge about.

Next time, put your hand on his shoulder and ask him if he’d like to go for a drink somewhere romantic

We were riding up the tarmac drive back to our tents at the Hayfield campsite, when the Ranger popped up from behind the hedge and shouted at us to get off our bikes…apparently the drive is marked on the map as a footpath. He didn’t seemed fussed about the queue of cars that were also using the “footpath” to enter the campsite.

That’s idiotic. If you were staying on the camp site you would have the landowner’s permission to be there!

I was meaning the one where the OP was ambushed by the SAS – my local riding, I’m just intrigued though I can maybe guess.

Cracken Edge from Peep o’ Day farm to Chinley. Most of it is a landrover track anyway and it goes through an old industrial quarry so it’s hardly like going across the top of Kinder. And it’s in miles better condition than most of the bridleways round there which are horrific bogs at this time of year.

As for the FP down from Mam Tor, fair enough that’s a bit stupid, I though you meant the BW in the gully, but even then I can think of bridleways round there that are as busy with walkers. Cavedale’s a good example, although anyone who rides down that is more than likely to get a round of applause from the walkers than get abuse 🙂

I’ll tell him to take his shotgun next time and give the STW keyboard warriors something decent to whinge about.

So what’s his view then? Like I said I’m curious as to whether they actually agree with this daft law or whether they’re just ‘doing their job’.

Cracken Edge from Peep o’ Day farm to Chinley.

Awhile back I heard from one of the Chinley contingent that the locals were hacked off with mountain bikers riding there.

Odd really, as you rarely encounter folk either on or off a bike there.

locals were hacked off with mountain bikers riding there.

Sadly I think that’s the case pretty much everywhere these days. The Peak does seem to have more than it’s fair share of angry walkers though. It’s the only place where I’ve had walkers actually run across a path to block my way so that they can deliver a lecture on ROW legislation. I once had the pleasure of a walker angrily telling me how he likes to enjoy the countryside in peace whilst standing next to the road below Rushup Edge and Mam Tor where all the boy racers tank along it at 90mph.

The Peak does seem to have more than it’s fair share of angry walkers though.

Ime even if you play nice and legal there are miserable gits who for some reason feel the need to try and spoil your day.

So what’s his view then? Like I said I’m curious as to whether they actually agree with this daft law or whether they’re just ‘doing their job’.

I think he’s a bit more relaxed about stuff like that and is more likely to tell you how to get to a trail you’re allowed to ride on than chastise you.
mind you, he’s on the Yorkshire side rather than the Lancashire side so he’s got a bit more sense and is more likely to ask you to pay a toll rather than tell you off.