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 –
This month for our trail day we will be teaming up with Sheffield Wildlife Trust to help with some of their work on Blacka.
We may also have a couple of impromptu evening trails sessions, which we will post up on the Facebook.
Full details below….
The next volunteer work day is on Saturday 4th June and we will be installing some of the new Finger and Waymarker posts and carrying out some maintenance work on the cross drains on the Bridleway going down to Strawberry Lee Lane car park.
We will bring gloves, tools and refreshments as usual but please remember to wear rough clothes, sturdy footwear and bring waterproofs, sun cream, lunch and water. I’ve haven’t spotted any midges yet but you might want to bring some repellent just in case.
I will be running the session so please can you meet me at in the usual place, Stony Ridge Car Park car park (SK 29581 80251) at 10am. Please ring me on 07964745451 if you arrive after 10am and need to find me.
Thanks Hannah
Please not that we will not be providing lunch for this one. But please email us if you attend so we can update the incentive scheme, as a lot of people have been to quite a few days so far!
I went for a restorative ride recently. I’d had one of those days, trying to get a straight answer from some overworked public official, getting abuse on Farcebook, generally having a bit of a mare. So I went for a ride, to clear my head, get away from the virtual coalface of the computer screen and reboot my brain. (more…)
Another Steel City downhill and, crikey, The Force was strong in this one. The Dark Lord Himself, Darth Peaty had issued an ultimatum to the weather gods and, intimidated, they’d capitulated with a month of dry weather prior to the race. Day after day, racers practiced, interrupted occasionally by the Ride Sheffield trail fairies a’fettling and a’shaping, beautifying the berms and tidying the transitions. Come the day, the pessimists of the Met Office were proved wrong yet again as the sun shone and the track stayed snuff dry all day.
Yes, it’s been the worst summer since Noah shouted “Land Ahoy!” and, yes, many Peak District trails are still wetter than an otter’s pocket but there is one ray of sunshine and that, bizarrely given its reputation for sogginess, is Grenoside Woods. Thanks to the efforts of the Sheffield Wildlife Trust, Bike Tracks trail builders and a willing band of volunteers, the Greno trails are in top condition.
This month for our trail day we will be teaming up with Sheffield Wildlife Trust to help with some of their work on Blacka.
