I am currently carrying out some research for my Msc. I would be grateful if you could spare a few minutes to fill out my questionnaire. If so please email me: david@murray85.wanadoo.co.uk and I will send you a copy. I am happy to send you a copy of the final report. Thanks David
|
 |
 How about a web page for it. Save on paper?
|
|
 I am not going to admit walking off path to anyone, not even in the name of research. It would be OK if we were all actors, they're used to breaking a leg!
|
|
 I regularly walk "off-path". Are you suggesting that I should hide the fact? In fact, by spreading the load, I contribute LESS to footpath erosion.
|
|
I said hello to 2 purists yesterday descending the East side of Cribyn. They just glared at me as if I had insulted them. I wondered if I had turned green but then I noticed they were tenaciously sticking to the wrecked and dangerous paving and I, being fond of living, was descending off path. "Ah," I thought, "I am being a naughty boy." Then I was out for a couple of nights and carrying 15K and they had what looked like rucsack shaped purses on their backs and were probably doing their weekly circular.
|
|
 But now CROW is in place surely you weren't "being naughty" ? Umless it's not covered by the CROW act of course.
|
|
I don't think that even the people at defra would want people to seriously damage ankles, tibs and fibs or any other bones walking on seriously damaged and unsafe pitched paving.
There again, who knows?
|
|
 Bill brings up an interesting point there.
I don't think crow was ever intended to give people licence to wander all over a piece of land, merely to give people the right to enter land previously blocked off by the landowners.
I still think that even with Crow "we" are expected to act responsibly, for example by not trampling through a field of crops if there is an alternative and i believe that landowners have the right under crow to request that walkers stick to designated routes through "delicate" areas.
Anyway, we will all have to walk off path soon in South Wales at least, the paths will be too rutted by off road motorcyclists, judging by the excessive number I saw yesterday in the BBNP
|
|
I must admit to not being too familiar with the BBNP, but I thought part of CROW was that in access areas you could wander at will (obviously not trampling crops) and if people did wander randomly it would help to relieve damage to paths by spreaidng the load. Whether that works in practice is another matter though.
|
|
 I agree with Bill that fiding your own way up and hence spreading the load across an entire hillside does often help to reduce erosion. But I don't think that's really what people usually mean by walking off path in this context. What does the damage is people who (understandably) don't want to walk on the mud and rocks of the path itself, so walk along the grass on the very edge of the path instead. Result - the path gets wider and wider until, if it's a popular hill, you end up with a several meter wide scar which can be seen for miles around. Also people cutting corners on zig-zags, turning the path into a fast-flowing river which then gets even more eroded. So I think the message should be that we should either stick to the path, or else keep well away from it.
And yes, I know that most of us, me included, have found ourselves walking along the edge of the path now and then - sometimes there's just no alternative - so I'm not trying to throw stones at anyone - just suggesting that as people who care about the hills we should try not to do it more often than we have to.
On a more pedantic point, crops and other cultivated areas are excluded from CROW more or less by definition, so trampling over them is a very different issue. I'm restricting my comments to paths on hillsides here.
|
|
Ahh, that makes sense Iain, I interpreted what Macsen wrote as he was walking well away from the path. I agree with you entirely about not widening paths by walking on the edges. Can be very difficult to avoid temptation though when faced with a particularly nasty boggy bit.
|
|
It's not just boggy bits. Some of the 'paved' hill paths in the lakes are downright bloody dangerous. Loads of the 'staircases' they've created have downward sloping steps, which are particularly lethal when descending, especially if wet/icy. Some of them are not much more than a slightly 'stepped' slide. Consequently, I refuse to walk on them - for my own safety, not out of protest. Which means I invariably have to walk just to the side of the path (if I'm following the route of a path).
|
|
Michael - I agree completely, there are some pretty dreadful and dangerous "paved" paths out there. My own approach to them is to try to get a good number of yards from them onto obviously unfrequented groung and just follow the path in a very rough manner. Granted, the terrain doesn't always make that possible, and it's probably not a good idea in thick fog, so there's sometimes not much choice but to walk along the edges.
|
|
Absolutely Iain. If I'm walking beside a path, I'll try and get a healthy distance from it, rather than trudge through the 'troughs' at the side. But like you say, not always possible.
Ho-hum.
|
|
Bill Scarab said, "I interpreted what Macsen wrote as he was walking well away from the path."
Michael put it a little more clearly than me.
I find pitched paving OK if it is in good repair and I use it even if it is poor. However where it is downright dangerous on the descent, usually on the prevailing weatherside or rainshed of a hill, I follow a line several meters to the side of the path.
I will only stray well off path if I am looking for a suitable place to pitch my tent for the night and there is not one near to the path.
|
|
 No time to rant just now but the 3 peaks Brown Tongue route to Scafell Pike (or Hollow Stones at least) is the worst example of reconstructed paths.
The path was OK until recently when it was unpaved but now a lovely almost smmoth path has been laid and what has happened? There is now a parallel path of footsteps by the side of the path doubling the width of it and causing erosion that wasn't there to start with.
Have the path builders ever asked walkers about their paths? Most people find them hard on knees and ankles at the best of times but when they are made with small stones or even larger stones that slope downwards with the hill they are downright dangerous.
The best constructed paths are those made into steps with large stones laid flat or sloping into the hill with gaps for water to drain away.
Good job I don't have time to rant ;o)
|
|
