Scottish Paths - Maintenance / Repair / Upgrade?

[Richpips]

As we headed up Devil's Staircase the other day I was amazed to see that the old path was having any character, ie the rocky spiky bits removed and was being flattened and widened.

I understand that the path is used by walkers in the main and that the upgrade will serve them well.

My question is do local mountain bikers have a word in what is being done?

It looks from the markers that they are doing the whole climb from the Kinlochleven side.

[rudedog]

That's a shame - it was probably the only real techy descent on the whw, was a good challenge when loaded up with bike packing gear.

Would have preferred them to spend the money on the north eastern section of loch Lomond :D

[ScotRoutes]

The Devil's Staircase road was built by the British Army in the 1700s and parts of it have Scheduled Ancient Monument status. Often, the best way of protecting it is to cover up what's left of the track/bed with another surface. A similar exercise was carried out on the Corrieyairack a few years ago.

In general though, I'd say that there's less "fuss" about path mainitenance/sanitation in Scotland than I read about south of the border. Maybe it's because bikers aren't restricted in the same way, or because many who mountain bike are also walkers/runners and appreciate that the paths have to be suitable for everyone. The WHW is a very popular route so it's clear that those millions of footsteps are going to have an impact.

FWIW there's a similar level of "acceptance" when felling is going on and unofficial tracks are lost. It's just something that has to happen and new trails spring up again.

[Ray Young]

I really don't understand why they do this and I'm not talking from a biking point of view. Surely the nature of the trail is part of the enjoyment of walking it.

[Moder-dye]

Depends on the location and I don't know this one.

Sometimes its just long over due maintenance. Sometimes its to prevent erosion worsening as trails widen and widen. Sometime just to encourage people to keep to a defined route for other conservation reasons such as breeding sites or rare flora. Sometimes for easier access to the country for all, there's a big narional push for encouraging walking for health reasons, physical and mental and short of dragging people of their sofas it got be made as easy as possible for them, wouldn't want their trainers getting wet of muddy...

I no fan of sanitising the countryside. we're looking at major funding for a mile of plastic boardwalk on a NNR here to control peat erosion and steer people away from sensitive breeding sites. It'll look awful, I'd prefer an aggregate floating path (something definitely needs doing) , but SNH are insistent that its the way for them on their reserve. Still people will be able to walk to see the little birdies and cliffs in their flip-flops from the car regardless of the weather...

For all I'm not really in favour of upland path construction generally it can certainly have a worth while role in certain locations. If people want technical rides mtb specific then they should go to a trail centres or find other routes really.

[whitestone]

I'm not sure what the surfacing is that's being used on the Devil's Staircase but a year or so ago Rich Munro posted about some "sanitisation" on the Jenkin's Crag track near Ambleside. It was a short, maybe 100 metre, section, the bottom bit of the technical section. When I rode down there on the JennRide a couple of weeks ago it was already eroding away with water channels forming.

The Glencoe side of the Devil's Staircase was "improved" some years ago, no-one seems to complain about that these days. Maybe its current state suits mountain bikers?

[Jurassic]

The Glencoe side of the Devil's Staircase was "improved" some years ago, no-one seems to complain about that these days. Maybe its current state suits mountain bikers?

Yes and the Kinlochleven side was done (at a guess mid to late nineties) as well. I remember riding it in the early nineties and it was far more challenging than it is now although it is well on it's way to reverting to that state again. I think if you look at some sections just before it joins the pipeline track it's now getting to be a twenty foot wide swamp again as people take a wider and wider line to avoid the mud. It's hard to argue against limiting that sort of damage and erosion no matter how much it'll reduce the fun factor for bikers.

[NewRetroTom]

I do get a bit upset when a favourite technical challenge gets ironed out. I saw one formerly nice rooty bit this morning on the Petit Balcon Nord in Chamonix which has been flattened since Sunday evening.

It is all a cycle though. Water and thousands of tyres and boots will make it "interesting" again quickly enough.

[fatbikephil]

Good question. It appears that the Cairngorm Outdoor access Trust (path managers around the Cairngorms NP; formerly the Upper Deeside Access Trust; are now the Scottish Outdoor Access Trust.. They are apparently going to be working across Scotland fundraising and procuring upland path works. The deal with upland paths (I could talk for hours about the 'differences' between upland and lowland paths but I won't bore you to death) is that you are managing erosion, not facilitating access. Hence gargantuan waterbars, cavernous cross drains and stone pitching that can make a nice stone descent unrideable. Of course if you are turning a path that is 20 yds wide of knee deep peat bog into a nice wee gravel path, then you are facilitating access so its not black and white....

The WHW is maintained mostly by the Cooncil (Highland and Stirling - I nearly got a job recently which amongst other things would have put me in charge of the Stirling section, thank f*** I body swerved that one..). Most of the path work done over the years follows Upland path practice as stated in the Upland Path Construction and management guides but the fact is that such techniques can't cope with the volume of walkers on the WHW. Also take a look at your average WHW walker. They aint hardened hill walkers, but mainly people wearing Macmillian cancer research T shirts, doing it for charity or 'normal' people who use the WHW as a way to see the Scottish Highlands. Many parts of the route are truly horrible to walk and the eroded mess that the path has become makes it even worse (Crianlarich to Tyndrum is particularly bad in this regard - 3 massive climbs and descents for no reason and a horrible rocky, boulder strewn path guaranteed to destroy anybodies feet. As for Loch Lomondside )

So bring it on - the whole route should be a nice smooth gravel surface so that normal people can walk (or bike) the route and see lots of nice hills without destroying themselves. If you want gnarly hardcore single track, I can point you in that direction!

Sorry I bored you all to death after all.....