Ride Sheffield have joined up with Cotic Women of Steel to put on a women-only trail maintenance day on Blacka Moor on 16 October.
The event is aimed at encouraging more women to learn about trail maintenance requirements and techniques and will hopefully (if we get enough interest / don’t scare everyone off on the first session!) be the first in a series.
For this session, we will be working on Blacka Moor bridleways, repairing trails and improving drainage before the winter. We will also be looking at how bikes, horses and walkers use the trails to try to understand the best way to make the repairs work for everyone (so no, we won’t be building any gap jumps or kickers…)
Spaces are limited on this session, so if you’re interested, please contact info@ridesheffield.org.uk for details, or check out the Cotic Women of Steel Facebook for further details too
We will provide tools as well as some snacks too. But if you can bring your own drinks and dress appropriately for the work that would be great.
One of our favourite local land managers has recently contacted us about trail building in a very sensitive area on a local nature reserve. Ride Sheffield understands that there is a serious urge to increase the number of trails in the Peak District but we ask everyone to think very carefully before they start creating a new run.
Are people aware of the different conservation designations ? Does everyone realise how crucial our nature reserves and Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) are? There are places locally that are even more important than SSSI’s, such as Special Areas of Conservation and Special Protection Areas. Could we do more to alert people to the importance of these conservation areas? Ride Sheffield is all about mountain biking, it’s in our DNA but we also love the places we ride.
Be Nice, say Ey Oop….
Nature is under threat and one of the joys of being in the great outdoors is engaging with the natural world. Lots of places within the Peak District and Sheffield City region are important habitats. Many are being carefully managed in order to encourage threatened species to thrive. Even outside those areas that have a conservation designation, we still need to be careful because habitats are constantly under threat from urbanisation and overuse. If we’re riding on existing trails, our impact on wildlife is minimal, in fact, much less than some other user groups.
Have fun, save the fungi!
However, if we stray into those areas that are being managed in a very specific way, we can have a negative effect. Over the years, Ride Sheffield has built a great relationship with numerous local land managers who take a very positive view of mountain biking. They’ve grown to respect the mountain bike community and dealt with contentious issues like Sheepskulls in an even-handed way. With the help of our supporters, we’ve maintained trails allowing the land managers to concentrate on the important stuff, nature conservation.
We dig digging….
So it’s important, and generally a given, that mountain bikers understand the importance of nature conservation. We know that the vast majority of mountain bikers care about where they ride and we’d urge them to chat whenever possible to fellow riders and spread the word. We’re lucky to live in such a wonderful place and it needs looking after.
If you want to know more, the following two links are a good place to start –
It’s never good news to start the day with news that someone has been out to try and trash your trails. When you dig fun little trails hidden from view (or permission) this is often part of the game. Gutting, but part of the game. But it is pretty unusual to have sanctioned trails damaged. But that’s what happened up in Greno Woods the Sunday before last.
“Walkers, horse riders, cyclists, however you get around, we all enjoy the beauty and serenity of our wild areas for the same reasons – stunning landscape, wonderful wildlife and fantastic flora. So Be Nice, Say Hi to everyone you meet!”
If you have ever flipped over a Be Nice Say Hi beermat and perused the back of it while you were waiting for your mate to return from the bar, that is what you would have read. It sums up not only how we feel about it, but its supported by the Sheffield Ramblers and Hallam Horse riders (not to mention the Outdoor City and Peak District National Park)
With the help of local riders and businesses, Ride Sheffield have raised all the money required to build a red graded trail in Redmires plantation in the Peak District. Enormous effort has gone into satisfying the various demands placed on us by the Peak District National Park and other user groups. The first attempt at gaining planning permission has, however, been placed on hold. Here’s the story….
