Not making light of it, not at all, some eejit set fire to an area of SSI the other day, lots and lots of acres up in smoke, it’s nesting season and the area is home to some very rare ground nesting birds etc etc…
The packhorse trail runs right through the burned area – a thin stripe of green and brown in a sea of black…
Took a ride up there yesterday, checking access was ok with a couple of firemen as we passed them…

IMG_0418 by chris1968, on Flickr
edited again – worked it out, finally – DOH!!

Gratuitous ‘bikes leaning on post’ shot

IMG_0420 by chris1968, on Flickr

God it’s a right mess isn’t it? Took a look from the road on the way out last night, I’ve never seen as much of the hill burnt at once. How was the packhorse road, affected by the fire much?

****ing idiot quad-bikers suspected, incidentally.

Trail is fine – top pic, just below my eejit finger you can see the little ribbon of green / brown.
It was quite surreal riding down it – any ‘off’ would have resulted in a very sooty rider and bike!

Quad biker is blamed – pics in the local rag of a burned out quad in the middle of it all….!

It will do the ground good longterm.

i passed a ‘controlled burning’ sign on dartmoor the other day.

it didn’t look very controlled.

ultimately it does the moors good

any ‘off’ would have resulted in a very sooty rider and bike!

That’ll be me next time I come down it then, for some reason I’ve never cleared the rutty boggy bit near the bottom without going over the bars. Will make a change from coming home covered in peat I suppose…

It will do the ground good longterm.

Yep, agree.
On a visit to Oz once an aborigine guide told us his people used to do controlled burning – the whole continent in rotation, about a 7 year cycle!
The moors will be back green and lush after the next decent rain, it’s the wildlife that won’t all be there, sadly…

it’s the wildlife that won’t all be there, sadly…

They will return quicker than you think.

That’ll be me next time I come down it then, for some reason I’ve never cleared the rutty boggy bit near the bottom without going over the bars. Will make a change from coming home covered in peat I suppose…

LOL – same here – one too many tire sized and shaped ruts in the there section – i’ve done it all there from the ‘silly off’ to the full flight over the bars back flip!

are you sure they weren’t just burning the heather for the grouse? I can’t see from the pic if there was heather there, but lots of heather burning going on up here at the weekend.

are you sure they weren’t just burning the heather for the grouse?

Yes. Definitely not a controlled burn by any stretch of the definition. The keepers tend to burn a couple of acres at a time, not the entire hill. It’s all over the local papers, there were seven or eight fire engines out including two separate specialist wildfire teams, and the entire valley reeks of burnt peat.

ooh blimey. I helped put out a grassland fire last year and it was pretty scary how quickly it spreads and how hard it is to put out, wouldn’t want to get caught in it. It had been started by local kids, according to the ranger they have the fire brigage out several times a week in the summer. the little turds were hiding in the trees with tennis rackets firing stones at people, i guess they were waiting for the fire brigade.

The real problem comes later after a dry summer when the peat underneath catches fire and smoulders for days and days. Nobody can extinguish it and it creates dangerous voids in the peat.

The real problem comes later after a dry summer when the peat underneath catches fire and smoulders for days and days. Nobody can extinguish it and it creates dangerous voids in the peat.

They were still worried about that yesterday – any area that had a hint of ‘smouldering’ about it was subject to a delivery of water via helicopter….!

My neighbour quite often sets fire to areas of the Quantocks, it’s part of his job as a Quantock Ranger and this is one of the times of the year that he does it.

It was just lucky that helicopter was working close by although the fire fighting kit – 1500Litre water bucket – took some arranging to get into the area. Apparently its got some fancy valves on it to put everying form light mist to deluge.

I rode over the Pennine Way from Brunclough/Standedge Cutting on Saturday, intending to drop back into Marsden on the Packhorse Trail once I’d reached the main road. I thought it might still be very boggy, so chose to keep to the road and ride back over Buckstones instead. Rather bizarrely I’d no idea that there was a fire at all until I got close to the car park at the crest of the hill, despite being so near to it. To be honest, there wasn’t really that much to see during the daylight, but I drove home that way later on Saturday night and there were plenty of cars in the car park full of folk watching the scene below. It was quite a spectacular view, seeing vast swathes of the moor alight.

Interested to know how the area is now, planning to ride the Packhorse Trail on Monday on the way back to Penistone from Mankinholes. Any up to date info?

Pity it didn’t happen prior to the nesting season.

The trail is in mint condition. I rode it on Saturday and it’s in great nick. Plenty signs of the vegetation reappearing, though I’d echo GiantJaunt’s comments above. The descent at the Marsden end is as loose, dry and skittery as I’ve ever seen it, so I’d suggest a little respect would be prudent. Have fun.