Illegal Off Road Riding: White Pike & the Walna Scar Road

The conditions in the Lakes are truly beautiful at the moment, snow on all the high fells, plenty of pictures of people having fun skiing, climbing, walking & of course playing on motorbikes.

Blencathra

Blencathra Summit

Unfortunately, there also seems to be a few arseholes out there who think it is OK to blat across the fells tearing up the hillsides nowhere near a legal lane, doing lots of damage at the same time.

White Pike, near Coniston

A friend of mine was out near White Pike in the South Lakes yesterday and sent me this today...

'Sadly I saw a group of seven trail riders cut up the hill near Coniston (White Pike) yesterday. They left the main track and made a right old mess of a hillside for well over a mile and frightened a lot of sheep in the process. Didn't look good.

Sorry to be the harbinger of bad news, didn't get a pic sadly. Initially they came up below us on the track (we were heading up to the summit of White Maiden). It was only after we heard them on the ridge and saw them shoot along it to join up with the Walna Scar road that we saw the mess they had made of a hillside. They didn't even try to follow each other but rather made their own scar up the steep hillside. I'm certainly not against trail bikes - each to their own - but it didn't endear me to these particular guys'

So not only did they tear up  the open fell land, they then rode a sensitive lane that is actually closed to all motor traffic at the moment.

Walna Scar Road, Closed to all motor traffic

If this is you or you know who it is, tell them to either sell their bikes or get a conscience, treat the Lakes with respect & follow the rules that pertain to all of us or don't come here to play!

And if you live here, you should know better!

Short sighted & crap behaviour hat impacts on everybody else in the long run.

For information about the legal lanes in Cumbria, go to the Hierachy of Trails pages on the Cumbria County Council website.