Idiots Blocking/Trapping trails – is there an sensible answer?

Put up signs saying “do you want bikes banned from X? Come to a public meeting at….blah blah.”
See who turns up, and give them all a presentation on why sabotage is stupid and dangerous…or Bombers.

Sod that. Show them the Apaches farmyard safety film and give them rat poison to drink.

Strava will be the death of tolerated trails imo as people strive for faster times at all costs.

Do we have to do this every time? People are dicks, some ride bikes, some drag logs.

About 5 years ago, some **** dragged a big log length ways to a bottom of a chute.

You only saw the bottom of this chute until you were just about committed.

Cue: Binned it to avoid the log (no way it was hoppable with my skill set), torn rotator cuff, massive gash in my elbow, arm in a sling for a month and a lot of physio. Good times!

I think we do need to start riding more selectively. I’ve had a couple of run ins recently, and if I’m totally honest they were probably caused by riding inappropriately. High speed runs down through the local woods on summer evening, whilst great fun, are very likely to come in to contact with other users and so cause distress. A lot of the local tracks don’t have great visibility in their entirety (which is what makes them fun…), again making it more possible to have an encounter. I have never heard of an incident of ANYONE being hurt by anyone on a bike though.

The vast majority of my riding is cheeky and my rule of thumb is before 9am on the weekend and after 7pm midweek, you’ll probably be fine. But I was out with the wife and kids for a walk at 2pm on a sunday afternoon where i sometime ride at off peak and some idiot decides to hoon down the hill towards us. Didn’t bother me, but it would bother some other folk who would be straight on the phone to park management. Not helpful at all when we’re asking for more legal access.

Started to notice a pattern of logs up on the Quantocks lately. Limited to the dog walkers routes, mostly going up the two routes from Hodders combe car park. There are rarely horsey types in those areas.

Mostly at approaches to trail pinch points and stream crossings. I’m making a point of moving them whenever i have to dismount, or am waiting for someone to catch up from now on.

Apaches farmyard safety film

whats that then?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1870326/

I’ve started making crude jumps out of the logs, scraping earth up at one side. Doesn’t really solve anything, but I’m sure it annoys the **** out of the ****.

The vast majority of my riding is cheeky and my rule of thumb is before 9am on the weekend and after 7pm midweek, you’ll probably be fine.

As is mine, my last 2 “incidents” with people have been at around 9pm on a Monday 🙁

You invite confrontation Jason 😉

I saw some evidence of it at Forrest Fawr 2 summers ago, logs across the trails, mostly on the floor which isn’t an obstacle really, a few more almost pathetic attempts at chest level which were very viable and not really on ‘the line’. It’s a worry though.

More recently I’ve seen a degree of ‘regulation’ of the trails, what tends to happen up there is a corner/trail will get water logged and turn into a bog, so riders will create a new bit by riding around it, this can evolve into a pretty wide bit of trail in parts – someone spends a lot of time and energy laying branches and stuff on the extremes of them to tighten them up again, in the same way NRW does at the centres all sensible stuff.

I have to say everyone seems to get on up there, there are very obvious surfaced walking paths and few people ride them and not for very long and I haven’t seen anyone ‘buzz’ anyone, wider softer horse trails and a decent web of mtb trails now – which if I was honest would say they’re probably getting a bit too frequent now and it might cause some disharmony, but for the most part I’ve seen very little ‘them and us’ dog walkers, walkers, runners, horse riders and of course riders all seem to get along – much exchanged greetings and stuff and from my point of view plenty of “no, no worries, it’s not a bike trail it’s for everyone” because the attitude of walkers seems to be they’re in the wrong if they meet a rider.

I take no credit for it, but it really seems to be a place where cheeky/naughty riding can happen in plain sight without much disharmony.

The exception of course are the doggers, they don’t like making eye contact and stick to their own salty soiled section of the woods.

@Woody2000- There was that horse incident too on Good Friday….. I think that was a BW though.

You trying to make me look bad Si 🙂

Yes, that was on a BW and it was a 50/50 incident for sure 😉

For sure, you and the horse both stopped pretty quickly. Shame the horse rider didn’t stop quite as fast as their horse did.

One of my local loops includes a Wood, quite a large Wood. I’ve been riding it for over 20 years, it’s well used by all sorts of folks too and a local MTB club uses it too.. There are large forest tracks. Single track and most recently because of the very wet Winter another track appeared alongside the forest track (the forest track was a quagmire and sodden mud for months) so what’s happened is this other track has appeared meandering through the Woods.. Created in the main by walkers.. Ok, we’ve adopted it too.

But since the more clement weathers appeared there has been a spate of logs been put across it, I guess to encourage us (and walkers) to use the fire track. I’ve cleared them off a few times, and will continue to do so.

I fully expect to encounter the person that’s placing these logs across the single track, and whilst not wanting confrontation I fully expect it’ll end up in a stand off/slag off situation,

I told him he was a quite identifiable-looking guy and a local chap was on the warpath after his lad got hurt on that trail recently so maybe he should be careful, rode off. Seem to have had minimal to no stickmen in that general area since, I guess he moved on for whatever reason.

Ashridge JamesO?

Please, no posters. The woods are generally a mess anyway nowadays without more litter. They will only end up blowing around. Also visual pollution is as bad as any.

Never had to deal with wire but I’ve got a local stickman, I unblock the trail, he reblocks it, it’s a tug of love. I don’t think he fully understands how smallminded I am.

Same round my local trails. Sadly it seems to be widespread I’ve cleared loads of things off several different tracks.

I just hope I catch one of them at it.

Those lovely people doing everyone a favour taking their dogs for a shit, seems for the most part to be them! Dog shitters are the only people thus far (sure it won’t stay that way) I’ve had problems with out riding, they seem to think every bit of public land is for their personal use.

Ashridge JamesO?

A couple of trails in that area yes. Forgot what he looked like now though : )

Sadly the only answer for the majority of trails (ROWs and cheeky) is to keep moving and dismantling the obstacles. Appealing to those in authority is more likely to result in them sorting the ‘problem’ by cracking down on us rather than the idiots who set traps.

I’m pretty sure who one of our local trappers is. To construct some of the traps I have seen, someone has to walk a few yards, find a log/stick, place it, and repeat. Some of the more substantial barriers I have seen must have taken 10-15 minutes to assemble. I merely have to stand in one place and launch the logs and sticks in all directions. It probably takes me two minutes to scatter something that took ten minutes to build. Given that ratio I think I will just keep dismantling and eventually the bastards will give up. I also try to break up some of the longer sticks so they can’t be re-used easily. It’s also amazing how far you can chuck quite big logs using the caber-toss technique. A bit of upper body work never hurts and it is quite satisfying to think I am reversing the effort of a petty tosser or two!

Keep clearing them. We won’t go away quietly.

e Mag about a very well-educated saboteur that was caught in California. Can’t seem to find anything online at the mo though.

I know exactly who that is..

He’s well known for being barking from way back in the day!

He also goes to great lengths to remove any signs of his nuttiness from the Internet as its so well documented!

His first name is Mike & I’ll say no more. He’s quite liable to google himself & see where he’s being mentioned.

If he turned up you’d end up thinking our trolls were a kindness…

Interestingly I was chatting with another rider who I was showing around about this on Sunday. A local area through woods which has been Bridleway and is permissive, has been marked up at the end of last FY by the LA as being part of a trail. Since the new markers have gone up, trees across the way have increased 10 fold, dog dirt has increased and sections of stream crossing have now been concreted over. I speak to horse riders I see around, and there are quite a few. There view is similar to mine; share the space, don’t be demanding.
I’ve not met a log layer yet, but would happily remind them on the quietness of the woods and that they’re there for all to enjoy.
There was a spate a while back of twine being stretched across the trails between trees, but that seems to have passed.

Right chaps/Chappesses

I am after a bit of advice.. I was on the Pennine bridleway last night at Piethorne reservoir, near Rochdale/Oldham last night. I reckon this area must be a mecca for mountain bikers in the area as there are loads of trails/routes that start/end/pass through Piethorne. its also a favourite spot for horse riders judging by the amount of poo on the trails and for families having walks (there are several 2-5 mile walks so good if you have youngish kids).

So last night (say 7.30pm ish) there were at least 2 motocross guys using the bridleway!! I had to stop one ascent I was doing as I didn’t want to get in their way and they scared the bejesus out of a dog.

I know this is totally illegal as there are several signs up on the bridleway saying “no unauthorized motor vehicles – max penalty is destruction of vehicle and/or £1000 fine)” I’ve been told previously that the only people with authorisation are the National trail people for maintenance and local farmers who in winter use quad bikes with trailers to get hay to the sheep in the fields.

So what to do… Should I tell the police or the local land owner (United Utilies) or the national trail people? My big concern is that they ride near a horse scaring it or they ride too fast near a family group who spread out (I had one last night) and cause injury to some kids.

cheers

ArnieB

Call the police. They’ll confiscate the bikes.

He also goes to great lengths to remove any signs of his nuttiness from the Internet as its so well documented!

That rings a bell and also makes sense. 🙂

I’ll have to check the throne reading collection and see whether it’s in one of the copies of Bike I still have.

I live in an area where most ‘open’ countryside is NT land so the trails and paths are all clearly marked. On any sunny day the world and their wives are out and about and happy smiley faces tend to win the day, avoiding peak times is the answer. Almost all of the permissives have trees etc across them and over the years the use of trees just seems to widen the track as everybody steps around them which seems a bit pointless tbh. Ive grown the habbit/hobby of seeking out deer trails, un-marked (as footpaths or bridleways) and usually good fun, some are short and not great, others are bang on. Walkers and horses tend to miss these as the trails often appear to pile into and through the undergrowth.

Ive met many vindictive golfer/dog walker types but not on these type of trails, using wire to block a track is mindlessly irresponsible, it could as easily break a deer or horses leg as tilt a MTB rider over the bars, un-believable

I’m pretty sure who one of our local trappers is. To construct some of the traps I have seen, someone has to walk a few yards, find a log/stick, place it, and repeat. Some of the more substantial barriers I have seen must have taken 10-15 minutes to assemble.

Sounds like me blocking Strava lines. 😈

Although – obviously – the idea here is to route riders back onto the original, twistier trail, and – also obviously – my blockages are obvious with sharp bits pointing away from the trail and will move freely if hit, and – even more obviously – I’m not stringing anything permanent and hard to see across the trail.

Beat This

Scabby horrible ditch crossing in the local woods at the bottom of a gully. The walkers over the years have just jumped across or thrown logs into the stream as stepping stones.
Anyway our separate MTB trail crosses about 10ft upsteam of the footpath and last year we built a really nice bridge using fallen logs and a gravel surface dug from the stream bed. (pics on application).

During the course of the winter, the walkers have started using our bridge, since the gravel means its pretty weather proof. So far,so good, happy to share..

But now some proper sh*t has started putting logs across the middle of the bridge in an attempt to cause crashes.

Tempted to dig the whole thing up and let em go back to getting wet feet

We had a big problem with this where we ride in South Lanarkshire,the guy was putting bigger and bigger logs across the trail at blind spots and at the bottom of steep descents. We put in wildlife cameras and eventually caught him with the cameras and also in the act,his grievances where one of the bikers had hit his dog causing a large cut on its back but the rider paid the vets bill £500. He still continued to do it even after we had reported him to the Police,it wasn’t until the Police had over 10 crime reports that they paid him a visit.
Thankfully it has now stopped but the guy in question has a busy Physiotherapy practice in the area doing work for the local junior football team and the SFA youth teams

Mauldslie?

That’s the one

I had heard about that from some of the WMBC guys – didn’t know that it had got as far as Plod though.

Every time their was a blockage on the path we would photograph it and phone the Police quoting the crime ref number.

I know exactly who that is..

He’s well known for being barking from way back in the day!

He also goes to great lengths to remove any signs of his nuttiness from the Internet as its so well documented!

His first name is Mike & I’ll say no more. He’s quite liable to google himself & see where he’s being mentioned.

If he turned up you’d end up thinking our trolls were a kindness…

I know who you speak of. Used to be a right PITA on alt-mountain-bike when newsgroups were the reddit of today. Anyone else on here an AMB regular?

Just spent a fun 20 minutes in the sunshine removing a big heap of stones dumped to block a bW where it crosses a stream. Whoever it was made a half-assed job of it over the winter, and obviously returned to complete the job.

Hopefully one day it will sink in that, no matter how much effort they put into blocking it, I’ll just shift it next time I’m along.

Incoming reports of someone suspending a rock from a tree at head height, on a Calderdale descent !!??

Don’t know the details, I’m guessing someone has hung a rock from a branch?

It’s silly season.

Somewhere in Tod I think skydragon. F’kin loonies 🙁

just to let you know calderdale council are possibly seeing the rocks in rastrick as criminal damage to the wall.