This has been brewing in my mind for years now, but being out yesterday in the Peak after Saturdays rain really brought it home.
Why will SOOOO many walkers do nearly anything to avoid walking through water?
Last time I looked, any walking boot worthy of the name is waterproof, or near as dammit. Add gaiters and you’ve got short term waterproofing up to your knees. And even if your boots are a bit old and past it, damp feet are far from the end of the world (I was out on the bike for ~4hrs and spent maybe 3.5 of them with my feet swimming in my shoes – I’m not dead yet!).
Yet I saw no end of walkers climbing over or under fences, traversing along steep heathery banks, slip-sliding along muddy paths above or below the main trail, all to avoid walking through a couple of inches of clear running water over hard pack!
It’s not even as if most of the water was deep – as always – 4×4 tracks may have deep ruts, but the central section is rarely more than tyre depth, and avoiding crossing a stream through the obvious shallow, but wide ford, but instead hacking a path through the heather to cross at a narrower, but deeper, faster flowing point, just brings an increased risk of an early bath. The streams running down Jacob’s Ladder and similar were barely sole deep yesterday, just fast moving, yet they were avoided completely. (on the plus side – clear line for me 🙂 )
So what gives…? Stopping trails widening is a perennial problem (and I spend a lot of time working on local trails to try and prevent it), but I can’t help feeling its going to be a losing battle unless the ramblers are prepared to do a bit of paddling!