Viewing 31 posts - 1 through 31 (of 31 total)
  • Trail Erosion
  • 2wheels1guy
    Free Member

    I was out & about in Edinburgh & the Pentlands today.
    Although it’s drying up nicely, there are still some areas of deep mud.
    I try not to ride through this, rather find a way round or carry my bike.
    I did notice lots of tyre treads through some of the worst areas. ( the nail trail is a mess!)
    Now, a mate says cycling through mud is just part of mountain biking, and that it is pretty wet and muddy for a large part of the year in Scotland.
    So, is big mud patches the responsibility of park rangers to provide better drainage etc or should we not ride in the wet/mud.

    TandemJeremy
    Free Member

    Avoid the mud. Too any pentland trails are getting trashed.

    mrmo
    Free Member

    Avoid the mud. Too any pentland trails are getting trashed.

    but don’t ride round the mud as all that happens is the trail gets wider,

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    2wheels1guy
    Free Member

    I’ve often wondered about the impact of riding off road, particularly years of riding the same trails.
    Is mountain bike riding not as environmentally friendly as perceived?
    Who is responsible for trails?
    Can riders maintain trails?

    PTR
    Free Member

    I plan local rides according to the conditions, if I know a track will be very muddy, I may give it a miss. But you should ride through the mud, going round only widens the track.
    Walkers with thier goretex boots always seem to go round, and remember, the mud was created by dozens of walking boots in the first place.
    As for tyre tracks in the mud, the human eye is great a spotting patterns even when there isn’t one, you will see the obvious straight bike track, but not the random jumble of hundreds of foot prints.

    TandemJeremy
    Free Member

    Aye – I meant avoid the muddy / fragile trails.

    The pentlands are a magnet for mountainbikers locally you can see clear erosion damage from tyres in many places such as going up maidens from the harlaw side where bikes have been going around the water bars – that is not walkers.

    Its all about being responsible. You right to use the trails is a qualified right – qualified by the need to be reasoable and to avoid creating eccessive erosion.

    I haven’t been up in the pentlands on my bike for months as its been so wet.

    stevenmenmuir
    Free Member

    Haven’t been in the Pentlands for months? Really.

    singlespeedstu
    Full Member

    You guys need to look at Larry.

    Much less impact on the ground. 🙂

    stevenmenmuir
    Free Member
    TandemJeremy
    Free Member

    20th jan and the only trip since before xmas – but I had forgotten that one 😳

    Must be getting senile

    I am usually riding there several times a month

    stevenmenmuir
    Free Member

    Let you off this time but don’t let it happen again, unless you are going senile, remember you owe me a fiver.

    TandemJeremy
    Free Member

    I don’t remember that – I must be senile

    stevenmenmuir
    Free Member

    Don’t worry I’ll remind you next time I see you. 😉

    Dair
    Free Member

    Did anything ever come of working with the rangers to maintain the trails for cyclists?

    druidh
    Free Member

    Much as TJ says. I’ve had one brief ride around and decided better of it. There was a group of 6 or so at the foot of the Nail Trail this afternoon. I can’t imagine it was a pleasant rid, but I can imagine the damage the’re causing.

    I used to have a nice map of (most of) the Pentland Trails online but took it down as some of the little known tracks were getting too much exposure. That’s also why there hasn’t been any TBC/STW Wed night rides for a while. Taking 12-20 bikes through these trails isn’t “responsible” access.

    However……… Scotland is a country with a very poor health record and one of the reasons we have the access we do is to encourage people to undertake outdoor exercise. In lieu of a GT-type facility with easy cycling distance of the main population centres, some of this has to be expected.

    druidh
    Free Member

    Dair – I’ve tried for around 3 years. There was another attempt by someone else last year. Either they are completely incompetent or they really don’t want to involves us (job protection?)

    TandemJeremy
    Free Member

    I am going to start some guerilla repairs I think. Just sorting drainage with an entrenching tool when I am about.

    Dair
    Free Member

    There seems to be a lot going on in and around Edinburgh – Vat Pack urban trails and pump track at South Queensferry; trails near Little France – I should imagine that, with the right backing, developing trails in the Pentlands has to be feasible.

    iainc
    Full Member

    we go through this every year around now with the trails at Mugdock. Some folks will try and avoid the soft/sensitive stuff, particularly the riverside, others just wade on through, week in week out. Not much can be done to ‘police the trails’ – nature seems to have it’s way – the soft stuff gets too hard to ride as it is so cut up, everyone avoids it, then a month or so later it’s ok again….

    btw – not done riverside since it was frozen 😆

    IdleJon
    Full Member

    mrmo – Member

    but don’t ride round the mud as all that happens is the trail gets wider,

    What if the act of riding around the mud moves the trail onto a drier route, rather than just widening it?

    And why are the Pentlands so special? Are they a protected habitat? Fragile?

    Btw, what is trail erosion? MTBers making trails wider and hillsides slipping? Or just a narrow sliver of trail becoming fractionally wider, or even diverting slightly from the original course? Are we talking about motorway sized damage here?

    (I’ve seen the Pentlands from a distance, never ridden there, so I’m genuinely interested.)

    edit:

    nature seems to have it’s way – the soft stuff gets too hard to ride as it is so cut up, everyone avoids it, then a month or so later it’s ok again….

    That sums up my experience of riding down here in Wales.

    stevenmenmuir
    Free Member

    A lot of trails in the Pentands that were inches wide are now feet wide.

    TandemJeremy
    Free Member

    idlejohn – the Pentlands get a huge amount of traffic some problems are exaggerated.

    I have seen trails there become 20+ m wide bogs ( harlaw side of maidens 15 yrs ago)

    What tends to happen as its a peaty spoil is either you get mud pools that gradually get bigger and bigger – or you get runoff that rips the soil down to bedrock

    Thre are trails that were nice singletrack a foot or two wide that are now 10 ft wide bogs.

    Its a lot of people pressure – trails are repaired and armoured gradually.

    Dair
    Free Member

    trails are repaired and armoured gradually.

    By whom, and on what basis?

    TandemJeremy
    Free Member

    Dunno? I’d guess the park rangers have a budget to do so and / or the council.

    There has been drainage works done on Phantoms this year. Not very bike friendly ones at that.

    Tends to be done well tho

    druidh
    Free Member

    There are a couple of voluntary organisations who undertake repairs under the guidance of PHRP Rangers. e.e. http://www.pentlandfriends.plus.com/

    IdleJon
    Full Member

    Sorry for the delayed reply!

    Thanks, TJ, so there is a real problem then? Is riding on the Pentlands actually worthwhile then, if it can only be ridden when pretty dry? (By the sound of it, anyway.)

    Down here most of the stuff we ride doesn’t change much year after year, and we certainly don’t seem to have problems with ever widening bogs! It helps that we don’t have such a big population within an easy pedal of the most fragile areas, I guess, and most of the best stuff is a remnant of the industrial revolution.

    TandemJeremy
    Free Member

    idlejohn.

    Its just something to be aware of and to take into account. When its wet don’t take big groups on the fragile trails, some trails are best avoided all together when wet, some are fine to ride all year round, some don’t carry much traffic some are getting mashed.

    Its a question of “being responsible” as in the access code.

    CaptJon
    Free Member

    TandemJeremy – Member
    I am going to start some guerilla repairs I think. Just sorting drainage with an entrenching tool when I am about.

    Digging a hole to try and stop trail damage?

    TandemJeremy
    Free Member

    If you divert water off the side of a trail then you stop the surface getting ripped off buy water runnof. Putting drainage in in puddles stops damage as well – a lot of time there are water bars / drainage that has got blocked – a few mins with a shovel will prevent damage

    CaptJon
    Free Member

    …you hope. You could end up doing more damage. In fact by some definitions you definitely would be.

    druidh
    Free Member

    A casual look around will identify lots of drainage which has become eroded or full of debris. Even just clearing this can make a massive improvement in some places. As a PHRP Ranger, one of the things we always encouraged folk to do was drag a heel along any stone water-bars to clear out gravel and soil to enable them to flow freely.

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