Petition to stop unnecessary stone pitching in the Lakes

Having been a biker for years and a hill walker even longer I’m glad the do it. Yes I’ve not liked previous ones such as what they did to Walna Scar but they soon eroded down a little more.

That’s hellish looking.

Not being so familiar with Englandshire’s right of way laws, is there an issue that a bridleway is effectively being turned into a footpath by the back door?

It’s a difficult one, and I think those arguing for a different approach need to work out what that would be. From the photos, it looks like they have done a good job but if that was a rideable trail before I probably wouldn’t be going on it now.  “Waaah I don’t like that” is a rather weak argument whereas “look, you’ve done X which means Y but if you did Z instead then that would work for everyone” might get you somewhere.

I won’t be signing the petition,  in my opinion the stone pitching looks totally appropriate for the situation, in stark contrast that snaking hardcore path along Sail looks horrific, worse than the 20m devegetated scar that was there before they might as well have tarmacked it, has it blended in at all, are there any more recent photos ?

@ballsofcottonwool – Not really. Sail is still pretty ugly – it hasn’t really blended in at all over time – the path is raised above the ground so there’s no option for deviating at all.

All I can say is that looks like bloody hard work, placing all those rocks! I’m sure they’d be glad to have another method, wouldn’t they?

Those snaking paths generally blend in surprisingly quickly (or would, if walkers didn’t cut off the corners). They also make for some good riding – what do you think the Keppel Cove downhill zig zags from Helvellyn/Raise are?

I thought the ‘chopper up the digger, put in a load of loops’ approach had become the default approach to erosion control, so I’m quite surprised to see that 1980s stylee stone pitching. Maybe studies have found that it’s the most durable way to repair a track on steep ground after all. I rarely visit the Lakes these days, just too busy for me, but a dawn raid on Helvellyn a month ago left me surprised at how the Keppel Cove track had washed out since my last visit.

(A mate who worked within the LDNPA once assured me that stone pitching wasn’t a deliberate anti-mountain biking measure…).

God it’s great living in Scotland.

Says that’s where they got the idea from 😉

Path Repair Techniques

nickc

Before 2010.

There’s extensive stone pitching on the steeper sections of the Ben Lomond path, which hasn’t stopped it becoming an increasingly popular descent route for bikers.

Yup – and before that was done it was a wide eroded scar

Same with Skiddaw, back of Blencathra…it’s a numbers game. The Boredale descent is/was great, but when the public blindly obey the commands of Julia Bradbury and [insert C-list celeb of choice], what else can you (and the people repairing the paths) do? There’s a bunch of routes I’ve accepted I’ll never do again outside of dawn or dusk, if then. I fit myself into the cracks, seeking the flow and the solitude where I think I might find it. Which isn’t the Lakes…

Ben Rinnes was another that had a 20m wide scar caused by walkers, (mtb’s were banned until the land reform act). Thankfully the stone pitching is only in very short sections.

Signed. Good work OP

Signed.

Looks like I might have to buy some boingy things now. Tis a challenging descent and seem to change every 6 months because of erosion  we are probably all guilty of slamming the anchors on decent like this !! No one seems to complain about Dollywagon 🙂

@postierich – that’s cos most folk carry up it on their way to Sticks 🙂

I guess I don’t complain about it, because I’ve never known any different, although someone was telling me about what it used to be like!

Anyway, there’s been an update from the starter of the petition. You might want to check it out here: Update

After reading this last week we completely forgot about it and tried to get down it on Sat.

Currently both the FP and BW are covered in huge bags full on stone almost all the way down both trails.

I’m in agreement that the sheer scale of works on both trails is well over the top and not in keeping with the natural trails around the area.

The new water bars on the BW that have been put in are massive also.

After reading the update it appears that fix the fells consultation on this is similier to DCC’s on trails in the peak.

TBH it’s mainly the positioning and angling of the waterbars that annoys me. Some absolute beauties of wheelcatchers on some stretches I’ve ridden (unskilfully) this year.

Martin that was exactly the comments of all the other riders also.

They are mostly in positions at the bottum of steep angled turns making it difficult to raise the front wheel.