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I get what yer saying cheese but theres so many people that disagree about"spoiling their environment" that its very hard to be decent. Ive been moaned at for raking up leaves - ruins the ground cover was the opinion. One mans vandal is another mans trailbuilder. I agree with you about sensible trails but please dont bring the word vandal into it. Thats for neds who scrawl on walls. How can they close off woods?
I see where your coming from there but in many cases theres a bit of a balance to be maintained, in my own local woods most if not all of the trails are technically "Cheeky" that is to say the OS doesn't seem to show any path of any sort, they're definately marched along by the Dog walkists as well as there being some examples of rather extensive Bike trails away from the main routes the trouble comes when people build Newer, highly visible features (that look pretty dangerous to non bikers no doubt) into trails which criss-cross the main paths...
I've only encountered one situation in these woods where I wound up rowing with some mid-life failure over the risks to his untethered Rat-Dog from bicyles.
Other than that Walkers and Bikers seem to co-exist relatively happily, the odd Tut or glare, but very few blocked or destroyed trails, my worry is that anything too extensive and Big being built too often, will draw the attention of the landowner who will probably be more sympathetic to any whiging walkers (it only takes a couple) and might go from tolerating MTBs to banning their access...
Ive a meeting with the ranger soon so hopefully will be able to make him see sense. His attitude towards logs/branches on trails was so be it. Bit of a humpty email or two exchanged with him and it transpires hes a rider as well! Wasnt gonna show him my trails due to his dark side work but then I thought why not? - Im proud of my trails and I want him to see how sensitive Ive been. Walkers and bikes can co exist and its also one of the best reasons to build trails - to seperate bikes and people. Just hope he will see sense. I dont expect it all my way but I do expect the same consideration as others. Fingers crossed. As for banning access - I just cant get my head round that. Dont think that can happen in Scotland.
Good luck dude.
Thanks man. Keep y'all posted.