yes, but where’s the other end of the path, ya nobber

so why haven’t all the walkers in their nice clompy waterproof boots tamped the tyre grooves flat for us?

What tyres for the Tower Trail anyone?

druidh – I was up White hill behind Bonaly today and thought of you 😉

I’ve not been there for ages and was surprised how much of a mess the trails are getting in, I’m all for the kids riding their bikes and being constructive and there are some really nice bits of trail to ride, but its got to be getting to the point where non-bikers are going to be getting p!ssed off at the erosion and cutting of new trails? The bits that were there as ‘natural’ trails 5-6 years ago are now getting eroded into chutes and the main path is a slippery mess. Its pretty popular with families and dog walkers so I do wonder if it is going to become a sticking point if it isn’t already.

The rangers aren’t very happy about the newer lines that cut down onto the path that runs up the side of the valley… But I think mainly the way it looks a little rough just now is the weather, I was up a few weeks ago and the lower slope especially was as wet as I’ve ever seen it other than after snow. Hard to tell from your pics but it looks like it’s actually on the mend.

its just natural evolution everyone. Wats the issue anyway with new trails being made and ridden. What eventually happens is they become to hard to ide, so we make new trails and the old ones heal themselves, either that or every hillside in Britain would be a mess with trails.

We’ve only 1 life, and its short , so i say lets ride these trails and then dig new ones and ride them as well. Hills and mountains i’m sure will still be there in millions of years, hell i’m sure mother nature dont give a dam with its exploding volcanoes, tsunami’s, tornados and hurricanes ripping into our lovely protected countryside. Its juts the worlds natural cycle. Where old dies, new is born

Raddogair – they don’t heal once damaged beyond a certain amount. Have you seen black hill recently? Do you want these to erode down to bedrock? How do you think the northern english trails end up as eroded unstable rubble?

Those who say bikes don’t cause erosion – just look at those pics

We may only have one live but the hills are there for everyone for ever.

It looked worse in the flesh than in the photos, but there is a coating of pine needles over everything that you get at this time of year so I can imagine it looked worse a few weeks ago. The 3rd from bottom photo is freshly cut and runs out straight onto the walkers path in the bottom photo, via a huge skid by the looks of it.

raddogair – the issue I’m raising isn’t the idea of building new trails, its just the execution of it in this particular location, being a popular walking area with a very high level of visitors, and a lot of people who would take offence to the erosion being caused, and the impact this has on the rest of us bikers. sadly there isn’t any trail healing going on here either, the original trail which was there when the current trail builders were still at momma’s teat is now basically a rut. I don’t the trails can really ‘heal’ when the ground is peat in a pine forest, there is no natural vegetation that can regrow on the trail to hold it togehter, once its gone its gone. Basically, the concern is that it looks really messy and bad, and doesn’t make mountain bikers look good. Not sure what actions could end up being taken though.

Ground cover returns surprisingly fast, there are old trails up white hill that were ridden last year and almost completely gone now. It’s just grass and bracken after all, grows like weeds.

I don’t know if there’s new guys digging up there… I think there must be, some of hte building is just totally wrong (lots of organic crap used, I saw a new jump almost dissolving in a breeze). But also there’s lots of bits where there’s no one defined line so it ends up like the second pic, not just damage but spread out damage. If they’d cut in a single clear line then that contains the riding more.

But I do think a bit of realism is required on this scale of damage, the actual erosion is really pretty minimal- we’re talking inches here, in a manmade and fairly monocultural bit of woods, all fairly contained. The scars are ugly but they’re not deep nor permanent.