quick update, went out to the rat trap last night and a field mouse was running around inside, so looks like it’s field mice rather than rats, which is a big relief. Although I’m finding it difficult to believe such tiny animals can make so much noise!

Seemed lengthy at the time but how long can something that small stink for…

apparently a long, long time :-)

Could be Glis Glis

1100ft up on the pennines?? Only the hardiest animals survive up here :-)

Other than the noise is there any other evidence its rats. I live in a similar vintage house thats stud-walled inside in more or less the same way.

Same noise as you describe, but its bats not rats. No evidence I’ve seen of droppings etc, but the noises are very clear. I’ve stood right next to the wall and you can hear the rat on the other side of the plasterboard scratching and gnawling whilst splintering wood. They also make a scuttling noise as they run along the length of the void, which surely can only be a rat.

teasel – have used an airgun before on rats with good effect, but these are in the walls, inside the building. I’ve never seen one outside this house.

Thanks TheDTs, I’d really like to avoid using poison if possible, as once outside there are dogs, cats, etc around. Also the risk of them dying in wall cavity with the resulting smell.

I’ll call a professional in next week if no progress, but would like to see if a DIY approach can work first.

Napalm… or nuke from orbit

would love to, but the bike shed would take the full force too

Borrowdale bash is a good route to that’s reasonably easy to navigate and holds up well in the wet

+1 good starting point

One of the best day’s mountain biking I’ve had in terms of sheer fun. For me this was an even better event than Ard Rock (and that’s saying something).

Stage 1 was a ‘slide and survive’ ride for me, with a comedy crash just next to the padded gatepost on the muddy chute up at the top section, which resulted in a particularly painful crush injury, as the back of my saddle made sharp contact with my ‘old man’…ouch, f&ck it hurt.

Stages 2 and 5 were just…well…amazing. Long, flowing and soooo much fun – I had such a great time riding them.

I don’t know if it was the amazing weather, but everyone was so damn friendly. I met loads of riders on the transitions and had some really great banter. The venue and the organisation were spot on. Music and beers on Sat PM were all good.

Thanks to all the people who put the hard work in to make this happen. Can’t wait until next year!!

I hadn’t seen too much on the forums about this event, so guess it wasn’t on most peoples radar. Hopefully it won’t get too busy next year.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/08/19/young-boy-killed-after-being-attacked-by-pet-dog-in-essex/

Tragic, absolutely tragic. Makes me so **** angry that this can happen in 2016 in UK.

I listened to a radio report about the incident whilst out in the car and a woman being interviewed said she heard screams that sounded ‘like an animal being tortured’ (I guess she didn’t realise at the time that’s what a three year old human sounds like when being torn to bits by a dog).

Again, very different circumstances, but another human killed by a dog in UK.

interesting to see the graph in the article below showing the increase in hospital admissions in UK due to dog bites, over recent years.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-37129134

Too much priority is given to dogs in our public spaces

+1

and too much leeway is given to dog owners who can’t or won’t control their dog.

First world problems, when people start regarding their pets as having equal rights to other people and in tandem the government are wary of upsetting those voters who are dog lovers.

Bump for the early evening crowd. Loads of life left in this one yet.

Thanks for the feedback and advice guys!

A man was killed by a dog yesterday, whilst out walking locally.

Different circumstances, but it highlights the risk.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-37094526

buy a midge hood :-)

(joking aside, I’m also interested in responses to the best trails there)

it would be a shame to ruin it for folks if it was dumbed down

Agreed Andy. Hopefully the multi-event format will mean that the main event won’t be in any way, but that there can perhaps be an easier sub-event for those who want a different level of riding challenge.

I don’t think they’ll make the main Enduro event any easier. But I believe the Sprint/Sport event may have easier (less-technical) stages for next year. Hopefully that keeps everyone happy :-) Anyway, lets see what the organisers deem best.

None of them were harder than Black trail centre level, and the steep parts didn’t last long, mainly chutes.

I disagree, perhaps my perception was clouded by racing and being knackered but I found stage 2 especially tough compared to anything I’ve ridden** I’d say 20% of stages 1,2 and 3 were way harder than a trail centre black.

As above, I don’t claim to be a good rider. But my point is, if you took the average trail centre rider who was very comfortable on reds and could do blacks, I think they’d really struggle on many sections of this years course. Not that they couldn’t ride them, but they’d really struggle.

** Sierra Nevadas, Calderdale local trails, Lakes, Peaks, BPW Reds and odd black, Llandegla, Gisburn, etc, blah, blah

Since the stages aren’t accessible outside the event could anyone give me an idea of steepness/technicality of them, basically a comparison to other bridleways or descents.

example – Blue Pig in Hebden is relatively easy and not very steep, compared to parts of stages 1,2 and 3

I too hope the organisers don’t feel compelled to make the stages a little less extreme. I do wonder if the Ard Rock is a victim of its own success, and is attracting riders without the requisite skills to stay safe. Lots of riders seem to be discussing getting caught up behind people walking technical parts of the stages, and the amount of injuries seems high.

Perhaps the organisers should think about filtering race entries by requiring previous race results from a recognised series such as PMBA to enter the race proper, otherwise as a first year entrant you have to ride the sportive.

Unless I’m wrong all of the events over the weekend used the first three stages, so the sprint or sport event didn’t get any easier technically, when compared to the main Saturday event.

I’m sure the organisers will be analysing what worked well and didn’t this year and they have a lot of experience to draw on, to make any adjustments needed for next year.

I think perhaps one of the things that attracted a fair number of riders to the Ard Rock weekend is that the course last year wasn’t as full-on or raw as perhaps some series-based Enduro’s such as PMBA etc. So it was seen by some riders perhaps as more of a ‘Funduro’ with tough transitions, rather than a mega-gnar event which would be way beyond their skills/capabilities, or beyond the level of risk they are prepared to take .

I’m sure the faster riders will not want the course dumbing down for the main event, so perhaps a suggestion for next year would be to have some hard(er) stages for the main event (as per stage 2 was), but also have a few easier stages just for a sport event, aimed at mincers like me :-)

I’m not saying that Ard Rock should be turned into some type of XC marathon event, but I’d guess that there are a lot of riders from this years event who will never ride a mainstream Enduro event, but would like to see a technically easier Ard Rock course aimed at the lesser-skilled rider for next year.

Either way the organisers will ultimately decide, but it would be a shame for this particular event to become more and more technical and therefore beyond the skill (or risk) level of many. There are plenty of events already catering for the top guys.

I posted some routes starting from dales bike centre in this thread:
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/any-swaledale-locals-able-to-offer-some-good-mtb-routes-1

+1

This route in link above is a really good one, three really nice long descents, plus a very techy one in a gully coming off Melbecks Moor. Great day out, with options for adding more on if this isn’t enough (about 24 miles)

see http://s1028.photobucket.com/user/syko89/media/Edge_Gill_Lowlane%20-%2023.2m_zpsudjgcdlr.png.html

Strava route (should be able to get GPX from this) https://www.strava.com/activities/593243006

Thanks for the feedback, time for some Gym work!!

(will also try and get over to pump track and spend more time out of the saddle when riding)

they’re upped the tech over last year

+1

I did last years’ event and this year’s one was definitely far more techy, especially stage 2. Not complaining – but one of the reasons I did the event again this year, was that the course last year was (comparatively to other Enduros) not mega-techy and a fun ride for those of us of lesser skills :-)

Minced my way round, happy to finish still feeling ok. Found my fitness was ok, but I really need to get better leg strength and body position for next year, as my legs were giving out on me half way down some of the stages and sitting down ain’t an option.

Kudos to those who did well, many thanks to Marshals and organisers. Great event, fabby atmosphere, lots of friendly people having a great time. Hope to be back in 2017!

You will always get dogs running up to you at some point

Agreed, but there is no reason that should be acceptable or tolerated.

Forgetting my other half to one side for moment, I don’t want somebodies muddy mutt running up to me and jumping up. It’s totally unacceptable.

If a dog owner allows this, then how can it not be a confrontation? I’m not going to stand there and smile, accepting the situation.

Very different topic, but related I guess in terms of dog ownership. I live on a bridleway and looked out the other morning to see a Labrador coiling a big-un on the grass outside my front door. The owner was about 20yds away and waited till the dog had finished and then walks on, without cleaning up. Funnily enough I went outside, caught up with him and he we had a ‘confrontation’ :-)

Agreed, Dark side, what is both amazing and frustrating at the same time, is how some people think that a animal should be allowed to negatively impact a person’s activities as though it has a right to.

As dog ownership grows in UK and with it the amount of irresponsible owners, I guess we’ll see more and more problems.

What the dog thinks, or how it interprets the actions of a human is irrelevant. It’s a dog. The dogs owner should have it under control in a public place, end of story.

agree 100%

OP – It may be an idea to run with her or follow her on the bike to see what’s going on

I have seen previously what happens. It’s quite simple – occasionally a dog will run up to her and jump up at her barking. fwiw The same has happened to me occasionally.

Are the memories of her being bitten before clouding her judgement?

I don’t think so

Btw if your Mrs strikes a dog she may be in for a world of pain…

agreed, there is no suggestion that she will do that.

a more constructive way than pepper spray is for her to feel more comforatble in a dog’s presence

I disagree

Just to be clear – she doesn’t want dogs bounding up to her and jumping up at her (even if there intentions aren’t aggressive) I appreciate some dog owners seem to think that’s ok and they can let their dogs run about and jump up at strangers, but it isn’t. Dogs should be kept under control.

It’s not just a case of being fearful of being bitten again, it’s a case that she’d like to be able to go out for a run in a public place without being harassed by a dog.

We’ve established a pepper spray isn’t a good idea. Lets move on.

Since the dog owner can’t be relied on to control their dog, is there another way of deterring the dog as it approaches? Perhaps as mentioned above an ultrasonic repeller will be worth trying.

Not sure I would have wanted my wife having those arguments alone. Time to take up running?

Next few times out, I’ll go out with her, so it will probably be me dealing with the dog (and owner), but it would be good to get a solution.

ok, so we all seem to agree using Pepper Spay isn’t going to solve the problem in a constructive way.

Let’s now presume she doesn’t use it.

What can she do?

I like the idea of a sound/sonic repeller but don’t know if they work?

Has anyone tried using an ultrasonic dog repeller like this https://www.primrose.co.uk/advanced-portable-sonic-dog-repeller-p-1271.html

Do they work?

f it’s that bad, she’ll have to run somewhere else.

I disagree, the dogs will have to move on.

Stop overreacting to dogs???

Stop trolling, she’s not over-reacting, read the post, she’s been bitten.

I agree, it’s probably not going to end well when she uses it, hence asking if there are any constructive ideas.

The local dog warden has been contacted last the past few incidents, but they don’t seem to be able to do anything, given the owners are unknown.

If she’s carrying pepper spray around with her then I hope she gets caught and locked up.

Have you a constructive suggestion to what she should do then?

I did part of that route a few weeks back for the first time and found the Nan Bield descent really disappointing, I imagine peddling up it wouldn’t be much fun at all, unless you have pretty good trials riding skills and want a really technical challenge.

Probably due to my lack of skills, but I found Nan Bield nothing like the flowing ribbon of lovely singletrack the magazines would have you think. I found it so rocky, muddy and rutted it was hard to get any flow. I know the whole point is it isn’t a groomed trail centre, but I wonder how many people ride it expecting a nice fast flowy descent only to be stop/start for the next few miles.

There are better (more fun) routes round Kentmere imho.

Thanks Blarc70 but I don’t think that would work, there is no exposed lip for the removal tool to grip onto

Thanks unsponsored, I can see the notch you mean….sounds a bit heath-robinson compared to Hope’s normal standards of special tools etc.

My great grandfather was there at the start of The Somme battles, serving in the Royal Field Artillery. He’d already been fighting in France and made it to September 1916 before he was killed.

A few years back I did some research to try and find out more about him. I then visited his grave in France along with my mum and went to the actual location where he finally died. His story is probably not dissimilar to tens (hundreds?) of thousands of others, but some of the story is perhaps interesting in terms of what I managed to find out and see.

My Grandfather had asked me before he died to visit his Dad’s grave in France, so years later with that goal in mind, I visited the Public RecordsOffice in Kew and from looking at some of his service records and his units war diary, I managed to piece the following together.

David was born in Carlisle, Cumbria in 1883 and after a spell working in one of the local cotton mills and living at 24 Bridge Terrace in Denton Holme, Carlisle, he joined the army as a soldier in 1901, well before the Great War. It appears he may have served in Ireland during the early 1900’s and met his wife Nancy there, but there is no way of knowing for sure. He joined The Royal Field Artillery (service number 14213) and at the outbreak of war was 32 years of age. Unfortunately, many service records from WW1 were destroyed during the blitz of London in WW2, so it’s not possible to trace David’s complete service record in WW1. However we have a clipping from the Cumberland News, where his brother gives a report on David’s travels and exploits and notes some of the battles he had taken part in, in France. He comments that David had taken part in fighting near Arras in France where ‘His unit’s artillery guns had been fired continuously for 4 days solid without a break’. What we do know for sure from his records, is that by the late summer of 1916, after serving for several years in France, David was serving with The Royal Field Artllery as a Bombadier. He was in the 35th brigade, 25th Battery of the RFA. 25th Battery was an artillery unit consisting of 3 or 4 horse drawn gun carriages, a train of ammunition limbers, tradesmen, blacksmith, gunners and officers necessary to operate the battery and keep horses, men and guns in working order. The battery worked alongside several other batteries, thus forming a brigade unit. The main purpose of the RFA units was to serve as a cover for infantry in battle. In essence they would lay down sustained artillery fire on a target, village or trench system, so that infantry could then advance on the position, minutes after the barrage had stopped. By September 1916 the war had been a slow stalemate of battle for both sides for several years. It was decided that a major offensive would be carried out by the British Army on September 15th 1916, along a long stretch of the British lines near Albert in France. As well as being a huge advance, this was to be the first day in history that armoured tanks were ever to be used in battle. David’s battery was ordered to advance and wait to the south of a small villlage called Longueval. This area had a horrific reputation as next to the village is Deville woods, where in July that summer, seven thousand South African commonwealth troops entered the woods and were ordered to hold ‘at all costs’. After only one week’s fighting The commanding officer marched out of the wood to the pipes of the Black Watch leading two officers (both of whom were wounded) and just 140 other ranks remaining, they being the entire remnant of the South African Brigade, with over six thousand troops lost. My Mum and I visited the South African monument at Deville wood where there is a huge bronze frieze depecting the march out of the woods and where you can walk around Deville woods which have been preserved as a living memorial to those who died. A very moving experience. I can only imagine that by September 1916, the area was a wasteland of bodies, shell craters and tree stumps and must have been Hell on Earth.

On the evening of 14th Sept the battery was in position and resting to the south of Longueval. Near the men on the road to Flers, armoured tanks had been lined up by the roadside and were due to be deployed for the very first time. On the next day, David’s battery were due to advance to a position just to the north of Deville wood and the village of Longueval and start an artillery barrage which would then provide some cover for the thousands of infantry who would advance accross the open ground in an effort to take the village of Flers a few miles to the north and the surrounding trench systems.

The Battery’s war diary for 15th Sept 1916 reads; 25th Battery began to advance about 08.00 but were held up South of Longueval by order of The Officer Commanding 35th Brigade, who had gone forward to reconoitre the positions, seeing very heavy barrage on the selected position (T7a31) (Note – This is the map reference of the position where the guns were due to move to and start their artillery barrage) At 11.00 25th Battery (David’s unit) received orders to contimue the advance, the Battery eventually arriving in action about 12 noon. The Ground they traversed was a mess of intersecting shell craters and the guns were only dragged into position with the greatest difficulty and under still considerable fire. During this action the Battery suffered numerous casualties of men and horses and Lt. Benningfield was wounded. The 12th and 58th batteries (The other batteries in David’s brigade) followed and came into action on each side of 25th at about 3/4 hour interval. The 31st battery (A heavy howitzer battery in David’s brigade) came into action soon afterwards under a bank about S12 b65 (map reference) All Batteries suffered casualties both from shelling in the Longueval-Flers road and also in the valley itself. Battery commenders were soon able to engage several excellent targets including batteries and infantry in the open. Fire was observed from switch trench T1d12.

David was wounded that day and died the next day of ‘wounds’. He is buried in Grove Town cemetry, Meaulte, France. I managed to get a copy of a WW1 trench map from Sept 1916 and by using the grid references and a modern map, pinpoint the exact positions described. Visiting the field in France with my mum, the area described in the war diary is very small. The road from Longueval to Flers is only a mile long and the bank described in the war diary is still there to this day. It is possible to see where the three gun batteries were positioned at ‘on the selected position (T7a31)’ and also where the heavy howitzer battery was positioned by the earth bank. The field is now a farmers field full of wheat and other crops. We visited on a lovely summers day. With the sun beating down I re-traced on foot the route the battery would have taken, out of the village on the Flers road, alongside Deville wood and then over the field to a shallow valley where David’s battery was finally deployed. The walk is only 400 yards or so, yet it took an hour that day. Kicking the sandy soil, I saw the surface was littered with debris including dozens of small lead shrapnel balls scattered around, perhaps some of them left over from that day’s fighting. Later, talking with my mum we tried to imagine what it must have been like that day. With horses dead and dying and the ground in the state it was, the guns would have been disassembled then dragged by hand and using rope, block and tackle to cover the distance and then re-assembled for firing, all whilst under heavy fire from both troops and enemy artillery. Did he suffer his fate on the way accross the field or did he live until later in the day?

The next day I bought a book in a local bookstore and by a wierd co-incidence it had the following text which partially answered our question. — A Sergeant Carmichael (from an infantry unit) lay wounded by a rifle shot to his leg on the morning of Sept 15th 1916. He had sought shelter under the same earthen bank described in David’s unit’s war diary at S12 b65 (map reference) (called Rideau des Filoires by the locals) next to the Flers road and witnessed that morning’s events unfold before him. This is an extract from his diary that day. —- And now the stage was set for as thrilling a sight as I ever witnessed in the war. On the crest of the ridge appeared a team of cantering horses, dragging the first gun, followed at regular intervals by the others. the enemy was now fully alive as to what was going on and redoubled it’s shelling. Still the leading gun drew rapidly nearer, seeming to be miraculously immune. But it was on the crossing of the trench that the Boche had concentrated his barrage of grey-bursting H.E. mixed with shrapnel. When they came to where the roadmending had finished the horses were put to a gallop and the gun and limber bumped and tossed over the shell holes. Once or twice it appeared as if the force of the explosion had blown the whole lot over, but by some miracle the gun wheeled round beside us in the shelter of the bank – that is shelter from H.E. not from shrapnel. The other guns were not so fortunate. One had it’s limber hit, but somehow the gun was brought on. The four pieces were pushed round, the limbers unloaded of their shells and the horses spurred on for a hell for leather gallop back through the barrage up the road to Longueval. As one of the teams was just starting off, a shrapnel burst a few feet overhead. The front four horses fell and the remaining driver reeled in his sadle and came tumbling to the ground. To our suprise he scrambled to his feet, unhitched his two horses, remounted and went tearing off towards safety. Then the ammunition limbers began to arrive with their loads of shells. they suffered more than the guns had done. One team was knocked completely out of action at that fateful corner and the wreckage had to be rounded by those following. But wonderfully the guns were supplied with their stacks of shells and the empty limbers were off again, bouncing about like made things, with artillery men clinging like limpets to their precarious perches….Later on in the war I have seen field artillery going into action in the open and iin much greater numbers,…but never have I been so thrilled as I was on that memorable day in front of Deville wood.

Another thing that had puzzled me was how David had been fatally wounded north of Deville wood and yet arrived at a casualty clearing station at ‘Grove Town’ near Meaulte, some 5 miles away. A bit more study revealed that the army in fact had built a light railway in 1916 in a loop circuit to take ammunition and tanks to the battle and the dead and dying back behind the lines.

Skydragon for PM

Thanks for your vote of confidence, but I’m not trustworthy enough to fill the boots of what’s needed. I’d be off fiddling my expenses, getting back-handers from the bankers and blowing it all on coke and hookers.

Did you really think the majority of people in UK are happy with the current status of our society and political leadership?

Our political class lacks vision and integrity as well as any real leadership qualities. Big business and the banks proved their self-serving greed in the last financial downturn. Add to that a real sense of North/South divide in some areas – Something had to change.

Perhaps this referendum wasn’t the right way of indicating and driving that change, but it appears now that is what it has become.

Our challenge now is to pull together, unite, get some fresh real leadership in this country and make some real positive changes. The short term will be a rocky ride, but I’m optimistic we will get there.

Rather than bitching about what’s happened, perhaps it’d be better to look for the win out of this?

I used to keep bees, so hopefully can offer some helpful advice.

Although it may be a case of a bee colony having taken up residence some time ago in the chimney. It sounfs like you have had a honey bee swarm arrive. It’s the right time of year and typically they are non-agressive and docile when having just swarmed.

You took the right course of action by contacting your local bee keepers association, keep on contacting them and I’m sure someone will come round asap and capture the swarm and use it to form a new colony.

I’d suggest leaing them well alone for the moment. Vacate the room and wait for the local bee keepers association,

Please don’t try and smoke or poison them. You may well get stung (very badly) in the process :-). Plus there is no need to panic. Hopefully you will get them re-homed soon!!

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.