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...which has a 'stock grazing, please close the gate' sign on it, do you
A) close it as per the sign, or
B) leave it open as per the countryside code of 'leave all gates as you find them'?
Just interested in the consensus after seeing a debate on that there twitter. Me and hora rode past the gate in question this afternoon and it was shut, incidentally.
I'd shut it.
What you going to do. It's a gate. Gates are meant to be shut.
C) wipe it off of course
I'd have closed it and taken a picture of the sign as proof if what I'd done and why.
The owner, farmer, who put the sign there has to take responsibility even if they had forgotten to remove the sign.
If it is just open and flapping about, I'd close it. if propped open, leave it open.
The sign's a Peak District National Park one, screwed to the fence post.
Leave it as you find it.
Left it as it was as per the cc, the farmer may be happy for the livestock to pass between the two fields.
Jamie - Member
I'd shut it.
Whoa there Rambo. The lad only asked!
If it were the gate half way down the beast...?
shut it of course - common sense
Leave as was
Whoa there Rambo. The lad only asked!
Shaaaat it!
That one, I'd shut. Others I'd exercise my own judgement as to whether or not it was intended to be open.
The propped open answer was a good one.
Look around - what is the gate between? A field and a road? Probably best shut, similarly a grass field and one with standing crops, ploughed or with long grass.
Between two grazed fields, probably best left.
What you going to do. It's a gate. Gates are meant to be shut.
Only if it was onto a road and livestock could get onto road.
Gate between fields or farm, no the farmer would regularly want and need livestock to access more grazing or water supply or shelter.
Generally, leave as you find.
If there's a sign saying to close it then do so. Otherwise, leave it as you find it. Why assume that the farmer/landowner is so thick as to not cover up or remove a sign that's wrong?
I'd assume local signs overrule general advice.
If it were the gate half way down the beast...?
Leave it.
Then push back up and smash out a Strava PB!
Only time gates are left open on the Quantocks is to round up/ count they ponies.
I'd shut it otherwise.
Shut it!
You shut it!
If in doubt that is. A shut gate may cause a bit of an inconvenience, whereas an open one can lead to a whole heap of trouble.
If in doubt, I'd shut it. Based on the rationale that the consequences of an incorrectly closed gate would be less bad than an incorrectly open gate.
So if a farmer has to keep re-opening a gate he'd left open to drive through in his tractor repeatedly during the day he'd probably be annoyed.
If all his sheep escaped and got run over I guess he'd be outraged.
Cos I work in a prison I'd shut it. You never get your arse kicked for shutting a gate & It's easier to shut/lock it than explain why you didn't.
If all his sheep escaped [s]and got run over [/s] [b]and run off over hundreds of acres of hillside that he spent an hour gathering them in from to herd them down the track to the lower pastures,[/b]I guess he'd be outraged.
Ftfy
As a farmer........ SHUT THE GATE. I know we have been told for years to leave it as you found it. That was OK when there were only a few people out walking. Nowadays the numbers we get are staggering. It is nothing to see a coach load of ramblers out. Being such socially minded sorts the first will prop the gate open for the rest, they being strung out for miles, The last will find it open and leave it so, assuming it was open all along. I waste an average of about 5 days a year sorting out sheep that have mixed or escaped. Luckily my gates don't tend to go to open hill or to a main road (though the potential is there for both). You cannot imagine how angry it would make a farmer to have to get sheep back off the open mountain if they are not meant to be there. IF the farmer wanted that gate left open in such a busy area on such a popular path I can GUARANTEE, 100% that he will have made it clear by tying it open with 6 miles of string or sticking up a big hand painted sign saying "please don't close the gate". If he really wants it open then there is a very good reason (gathering stock or some other ground) and he really does not want the risk of someone shutting it in the meantime.
If you find and open gate on a path and close it when it should be left open, I will be mildly annoyed but it will not be the end of the world.
If you prop a gate open and then fail to close it afterwards I will be like Liam Neeson in "Taken"... I will find you, and I will kill you lol
I think the 'well it was open' brigade see it as a easy cop out (hey I don't have to get off my bike now/not my problem).
I don't see why "groups" prop gates open for the rest, then carry on. If you're fit/fast enough to get there first, hold the gate, count your group through, close the gate, then use your god like riding or walking skills to make your way back to the front ready for the next gate.
Way back when, I used to leave them as I found them. Now with so many people in the great outdoors who just don't seem to "get it" (you know, the ones who look miserable as sin), I'm erring on the side of close it anyway.
If there's a blatant sign asking me to close it, it's a no brainer. Most places we ride are actually a workplace for someone else. I hate it when some pillock has been messing about with my work space.
Am I just getting old or are people now incapable of sparing a thought about anyone else at all?
Oh OK then....
Use a bit of judgement and common sense?
That one on the Beast I'd definately shut as it's sepeprating pasture from the woods. And there's slim to no chance the farmer is working/driving on the track, why would they, it'd be nearly impossible to get up on a 'farming' quad, and there's a road up from the farm at the other end of the field.
A big gate between two fields, and the farmer coming toward you hearding 200 sheep, probably leave that one open. If it's not obvious why it's been left open then close it. It's far less annoying having to re open a gate than having to heard up livestock.
Thank god for trail centres where I'd not have to make this very difficult decision.
Its not always cyclists who don't shut gates. I've come across gates left ajar by walkers (after I've passed them on the way down).
I was going to say 'leave as you find', but now we've had an answer from a farmer (I.e. someone who actually knows what they're talking about, a rare thing on here), I shall close them in future.
IHN - MemberI was going to say 'leave as you find', but now we've had an answer from a farmer (I.e. someone who actually knows what they're talking about, a rare thing on here), I shall close them in future.
This
The police knocked on our door the other night- "Do you realise you have 10 cows in your garden"? Er.... No !!!!! Some **** had left the bridle way gate open, cows down the lane, in our garden etc. A motorist had called the police after newly hitting one apparently. So, yes close the gate!
Ah yes, there was a Police programme recently where the Police attended a driver fatality due to two horses escaping a field.
Wouldn't be great to drive down Snake Pass/NSL and find a motorist swerving to yourside of the road to avoid a sheep etc.
Its not rocket science, Farmers who prop open gates tend to be within eyesight of you. IF they aren't then some lazy **** or Strava muppet is on the lose.
The gate in question is a bit pathetic, though. Does it even have a closing mechanism? A sheep could fart it open.
It has a pretty robust hook and latch now.
If I ever hear someone shout Strava I'll block the **** 😆
If it's open then it is obviously not needed so take it off the gate crooks and sell it for scrap or use it as fire wood.
OK, I'll put my hands up. Rode through it on Saturday evening, the gate was open and I left it that way. Didn't see any sheep in the vicinity.
Normally I stick to the "leave it as you find it" maxim, but the exceptions are when I've seen a gate shut earlier it the day and now its open, for no apparent reason. Oh, and last weekend at Wenslydale I saw a sign saying "Please shut this gate even if you find it open", so I did.
I've only ridden the beast 3 times in the past and on a least one of those times the gate was open.
Did strava influence me ? No. Did the fact that stopping and getting off would break up my rhythm, flow, ability to do a clean descent etc etc ? Guilty as charged.
d) Set it on fire then dance.
I'd go with the following handy "Gate Status" checklist
You approach gate:
Priority 1: A sign is present that says "Please close gate".
This overrules everything, unless gate has been rendered "physically un-close-able" by means of string,wire,bales,old tractor/plough parts etc
Priority 2: No sign.
If gate is closed: Close it after your immediate party has passed. The person who opens gate is responsible for closing it.
If gate is open: Leave open only if obvious to do so. This includes being told to do so by farmer in field, the gate being physically secured open prior to your arrival, or by the obvious presence of other indicators (ie a gate between two grazing fields, with stock in both fields etc.)
Thank god for trail centres where I'd not have to make this very difficult decision.
Make sure you steer clear of the Summit trail at Nant Yr Arian
[i]shut it of course - common sense [/i]
What if you trap lambs on the wrong side?
Leave all gates as you find them; but then we're pretty rural and sometimes see no one on rides.
Let's quote the most educated take on this one more shall we?
As a farmer........ SHUT THE GATE. I know we have been told for years to leave it as you found it. That was OK when there were only a few people out walking. Nowadays the numbers we get are staggering. It is nothing to see a coach load of ramblers out. Being such socially minded sorts the first will prop the gate open for the rest, they being strung out for miles, The last will find it open and leave it so, assuming it was open all along. I waste an average of about 5 days a year sorting out sheep that have mixed or escaped. Luckily my gates don't tend to go to open hill or to a main road (though the potential is there for both). You cannot imagine how angry it would make a farmer to have to get sheep back off the open mountain if they are not meant to be there. IF the farmer wanted that gate left open in such a busy area on such a popular path I can GUARANTEE, 100% that he will have made it clear by tying it open with 6 miles of string or sticking up a big hand painted sign saying "please don't close the gate". If he really wants it open then there is a very good reason (gathering stock or some other ground) and he really does not want the risk of someone shutting it in the meantime.
If you find and open gate on a path and close it when it should be left open, I will be mildly annoyed but it will not be the end of the world.
If you prop a gate open and then fail to close it afterwards I will be like Liam Neeson in "Taken"... I will find you, and I will kill you lol
hora - Member
Its not rocket science, Farmers who prop open gates tend to be within eyesight of you. IF they aren't then some lazy * or Strava muppet is on the lose.
Thanking you for the agricultural insight there Hora, coming from a farming background gates are held open with a device called "Whateverthe*comestohand" it's a very technical bit of kit that a lot of people would struggle to comprehend. Normally we used to prop gates open because we were not around and wanted them to stay open.
As said many times before Strava didn't invent pricks they have been there cutting corners, running people off trails and generally being pricks since time began.
It would all save a lot of time if farmers could just shoot people on sight for getting on their land like they used to!
I held the gate at the top of Beast (fluffy kitten) for our group on Sunday afternoon.
It was shut when we arrived... so it was shut when we left.
those spring-loaded gates are good - at least with them you know it's been propped open for a reason rather than left open.
I've always seen myself as a "gates open" kinda guy... (,) (.) but more often than not i'll close one if I can't see a reason for it to be open.
May I expand a little. My comments above were based on footpaths/bridleways/byways within national parks or in very well used touristy type areas. If out in a part of the country which rarely sees traffic then the old caveat of "leave it as you find it" would still apply since most farmers would simply leave a gate open if it needed to be left open on the assumption that no bugger ever walks/rides there anyway. However, within the touristy areas (where I guess 99% of us ride regularly as we are herd animals), I will always maintain it is better to alwyas shut a gate on the footpath unless there is a very good reason not to. This would include a sign saying DO NOT CLOSE, lots of string/wire etc, tying it open, or a farmer working in the near distance who is obviously about to use the gate. I would far rather find a gate I left open shut than one I left shut having been left open. The wind will often do the first for me anyway. And lambs certainly DO NOT need a gate left open to be on the wrong side of a fence so any farmer worth his salt will be checking on where they have got to on a daily basis anyway.
Loc al to us over near Talybont there a gate half way down a long Strava segment. We take it in turns to be the one who drops down first and does the gate, thus sacrificing his time on that occasion. Next time out someone else has to do it. It all goes around in the end. and the gate is always left shut.
by walkers (after I've passed them on the way down).
Swoon.