Now, I don't like the new trails for many reasons - I don't find them particularly engaging, I don't like the surface (especially the lack of roots) and I don't like the way the Rim Trail/Don't Look Down is now effectively a one-way access path (which, in turn, makes me think of that rubbish band 'One Direction') - oh, and berms & whoops are the antithesis of woodland riding, imo - [i]but[/i] these are just my own curmudgeonly prejudices, which are no more likely to change than my inability to do backflips. Whatever, I'll learn to live with it (and I greatly welcome the apparent increase in new mountain bikers). 😉
But what [b]does[/b] worry me is the number of walkers, runners, dogs etc that seem to be straying onto the new trails. Although trail exits/entrances are reasonably well-signed, it's now possible to hit the various sections at much greater speed than in ye olde days - to the probable surprise of anybody walking in the opposite direction. Much of LW isn't an 'open' environment like Ashton Court - it's a pretty tangled & potentially confusing network, used by all sorts, and especially at weekends (indeed, today we encountered a sealed-knot type dressed as Robin Hood, as the happy sounds of hand-to-hand combat indicated skirmishes elsewhere*). Anyway, somewhere near the Rice Bowl we met a guy with two kids & a dog walking up the new trail - and judging by the squeal of brakes and general shouting, they had already met mountain bikers coming the other way. Needless to say, I directed them towards the nearest forestry path. I don't know what the solution is (more signs...?), but - in the immortal words of the [i]Hill Street Blues[/i] - "Let's be careful out there..."
(*we also found one fancy-lookin' white hi-heel lady's shoe, discarded an improbable distance into the woods, and beside a trail - I am intrigued...)
today we encountered a sealed-knot type dressed as Robin Hood
Oh I hope you mocked him verily.
we also found one fancy-lookin' white hi-heel lady's shoe
Well there'e the knicker trail, now there's the stilletto trail
Oh I hope you mocked him verily.
I dared not, lest he slayed me. He was fully armed, longbow n' all 😯 - and I only had a multi-tool.
It's tricky in a suburban environment and I think it's really the cyclists who have to keep a sharp eye out for rambling families. I get the same thing on the Mendips when riding down the busy trails on a sunny Sunday.
I think it's really the cyclists who have to keep a sharp eye out
Indeed.
(One of my best Bristol->Mendip rides ever was on midsummer's a few years ago - perfect conditions, dry & dusty, blue sky, met [i]one[/i] other person on Blackdown... it was a weekday, though. 🙂 )
TBH the trail isn't open yet so people are entitled to walk up them. People don't seem to have any patience to wait for them to open though. I has been frustrating with the date being put back a couple times though. If people are on the trails whe they are open then they'll soon learn.