[Closed] Rushup Edge. Pissed off is an understatement

Is Rushup Edge to become a smooth track all the way down ??

That will not only **** up this descent, but will make the entire Jacobs Ladder loop not worth it anymore ???

Looks nice and accessible. Might even get them round to do my patio.

Is it really worth riding up Hollins Cross / Mam Tor / Chapel Gate to ride down this ??

Also if you do Jacobs Ladder from Hayfield there will be no worthwhile return route now!!

This has really messed up the central area of the Dark Peak as far as mounting biking is concerned!

DCC don’t want mountain bikes in the Peak. Simple as.

Time to have a good look at where I park, where I spend money and make sure absolutely none of it finds its way to DCC.

There is still plenty of good riding to be had (and I’ll be less inclined to be careful about cheeky from now on), but must make sure not to give DCC a penny.

There may still be plenty of good riding to be had, but any route that links Edale with Hayfield and the West Peaks is no longer worth it as the only reasonable option was going down Rushup Edge! The climb to get up to this is a killer as well.

If only these Trail Repair organisations would concentrate on fixing crappy muddy/wet/boggy sections of trail instead of destroying great trails which don't need any work doing on them.

I live an hours drive from the nearest place you can park up and include this in a ride. I only do it a few times a year. But this has more than pissed me off. It's another couple of routes which I won't be bothering with anymore, and that means less variety in my MTB'ing and more boring repetition doing the same routes even more often.

Someone needs to go eff it up.

Won't be me. But I'll smile wholeheartely if an activist takes matters into his own hands.

Read an article in New Scientist a number of years back that confirmed what I'd always thought: Government ignores peaceful activism (2.5 million people on the Iraq war march should confirm that to anyone) - and only direct action makes them sit up and take notice.

Unless people start to do physical things, government takes the view that people aren't worked up enough about things to change their plans.

This comes at the same time as the news that the Marsden Moor descent has been ruined and turned into a load of paving slabs.

This news also comes on the same day as I've found out one of my local woodland DH's has been messed up by walkers. The Walkers have started putting big piles of branches across the trails to stop MTB's, and I've just spent half an hour today removing them, knowing that they will probably be back every time I try to ride down it now.

What would happen if someone kept moving the stones off to one side?  Would they keep sending someone to move them back?

Alternative view, perhaps it will encourage use by wheelchair users to be able to enjoy the trails and the outdoors, I’m sure there’s plenty other well worn trails in the area for the weekend warrior stormtrooper division to through themselves down.

Don't worry some MXers and a bad winter will mess it up again. Just be patient!

concreted crazy paving is in for the long haul.

Possibly. But talking with the disability groups as part of our active consultation, they specifically said there are higher priority places they'd want sorting.

Chapel Gate is not high on the list of wheelchair friendly routes ripe for upgrading, it's too steep in many sections. It's not even a popular footpath.

I've been going down it for 30 yrs on MTBs, motorbikes and in the old days, my Dad's Land Rover. They keep sanitising it but nature prevails. You need to remember that the council standards are poor so lots of bad weather will make it more interesting once again.

This has killed about 1/3rd of Deak Peak mountain biking as nearly every ride in the mid Peaks included Rushup Edge as a descent

That will not only **** up this descent, but will make the entire Jacobs Ladder loop not worth it anymore ???

Much as I agree DCC have either knifed everyone in the back/played a blinder (depending on your viewpoint), not sure I'd avoid the loop on the grounds of this one intervention. TBH Rushup is probably my least favourite descent on the loop - much prefer Roych and the blast down the other side of Mount Famine and then into Coldwell Clough. I know it's the thin end of the wedge and needs to be challenged but it doesn't kill MTB in the area.

If it wasn't for the increasing number of man-made MTB trails/trail centres being built elsewhere, the amount of options for mountain biking routes would be in serious decline.

The only positive thing I can think of is at least the singletrack on the left-hand side still survives so I'd just ride down this instead of the new gravel road. At least that would provide some entertainment.

It won't get decent Strava times though compared to those who go go straight down the smooth wide track.

Just start taking crossers up it, if every peaks mtber purchased a shit second hand 2 stroke we can blame the destruction of the new work on motorbikers and then sneakily start riding it again.

It won’t get decent Strava times though compared to those who go go straight down the smooth wide track.

Our MTB lives are over then...

😛

What happened to "the will of the people"?

I thought that was all politicians cared about now.

@grannyjone which woods do you mention that are being walker sabotaged, you sound to be over my way, maybe a concerted effort to remove branches and logs will help

Could the local government ombudsmen be of any help (with rushup I mean)?

What colour will "Wheelchair" access trails be on the OS maps?

DCC acting in bad faith. Who would have thought it?

Maybe gravel bikes are the future 😥

There may still be plenty of good riding to be had, but any route that links Edale with Hayfield and the West Peaks is no longer worth it as the only reasonable option was going down Rushup Edge! The climb to get up to this is a killer as well.

This is histrionic trolling, right? It's a one minute or less descent that was always good fun, but never more than a small part of a full loop.

More broadly, I can't believe the amount of effort DCC has gone to, seemingly just so they can piss people off. It makes you wonder whether it's deliberate policy or just some sort of disconnect between the people responsible for planning what happens and the actual implementation. All over a track that was perfectly good to start off with. Proper head in hands moment.

Is this the bridleway that has a Footpath that runs parallel with it? 🤔

I must say that this clearly pisses in the faces of the MTB advocacy groups. I'm in no way closely involved in either Peak MTB or Ride Sheffield, other than throwing them some money now and again. But ultimately it's a case of quid pro quo. If DCC don't play ball and stick to what was agreed then why should we as a community? Why don't we just say stuff it and start riding wherever we want in the Peak(s).

In fact it makes me want to get on the bike and ride from Mam Tor to Lose Hill.

I must say that this clearly pisses in the faces of the MTB advocacy groups. I’m in no way closely involved in either Peak MTB or Ride Sheffield, other than throwing them some money now and again. But ultimately it’s a case of quid pro quo. If DCC don’t play ball and stick to what was agreed then why should we as a community? Why don’t we just say stuff it and start riding wherever we want in the Peak(s).

In fact it makes me want to get on the bike and ride from Mam Tor to Lose Hill.

It's really hard to disagree with you.

Footpath smootpath. The only stopping you riding them is the bastard stiles. 😃

Don’t worry some MXers and a bad winter will mess it up again. Just be patient!

Hasn’t happened on Chapel Gate, though, has it? And that has a good gradient too. Making a load of fly-tipped (and that is what it basically is) railway ballast / road planings / shit stick to a hillside is not particularly difficult. A few built water bars and the vandalism will last for ages.

Is this the bridleway that has a Footpath that runs parallel with it? 🤔

You're probably thinking of the section further along.

Hasn’t happened on Chapel Gate, though, has it?

Actually it's started to happen there. A better example would be Roych Clough, which is disintegrating nicely apart from the pitched sections. Or the campsite descent above Hayfield, which has gone from sanitised to better than it was before it was restored. Admittedly it doesn't happen overnight, but it does happen particularly with really savage rain.

The thing about Rushup is that it's not very steep, so I guess stuff may stay put more readily than on a sharper-angled slope, but stuff tends to erode. The irony of course is that the original bedrock was doing quite nicely before all this happened.

Why don’t we just say stuff it and start riding wherever we want in the Peak(s).

Quite a lot of us do without without making a big song and dance about it. DCC doesn't care, they only have jurisdiction over Rushup Edge because technically that track is a road - it has a TRO on it so isn't open to motorised traffic anyway, but that doesn't seem to matter.

The Peak District National Park guys were pretty hacked off with the initial DCC 'work' on Rushup and are likely still unhappy. My impression is that mostly they're not overly bothered about mtbs, but riding on the Kinder plateau does annoy them because it's a friable, vulnerable surface, though of course there's a whole other discussion to be had about erosion caused by walkers compared to mountain bikes.

I guess what I'm saying is that although in your head riding on footpaths may have some sort of protest element, from the DCC and the PDNP point of view, any linkage is likely to seem tenuous. I'm not saying you shouldn't ride on footpaths, but I'm questioning whether it's likely to be an effective protest strategy. Organisations don't always react like people.

Edit: what I'm saying is that supporting groups like Peak District MTB is probably the most effective means of communicating with the PDNPA and the likes of DCC, but if an organisation is determined not to take notice, then just riding footpaths isn't likely to change anything. All imho, YMMV etc obviously,

I'm not sure anyone is suggesting that riding cheeky is a protest, more a case of, if the system isn't working as promised, why restrict yourself to the limitations of the system.

"don't be a dick" makes a lot more sense.

Up with pole. Smash. Repeat.

When DCC realises it's unpoliceable...

Absurd and depressing after so much effort has been put into this by you and others Pook.

Keep up the good work though.

🙂

Edit : cannot be arsed

To sum up

****ing disgusting waste of money

As said above you do wonder if it is to put of Mt bikers and in the past trail riders on motorbikes never go anywhere near that area on my trail bike anymore stay over three shires head way etc.

Surely by installing a track to that level, they should be lifting the TRO?  As any argument they had for preservation has beetn burried...

To seriously piss of DCC, make a proper effort to research all the footpaths in the county and submit DMMO applications for every one that turns out to be an old road. With some concerted effort it should be possible to clog up their RoW department with paperwork, while at the same time revealing that a large percentage of footpaths are really roads or bridleways and not “cheeky “ at all. Your local British Horse Society should already be on the case and has funding to do just this. Talk to them.

Neil the Wheel - our group Peak District MTB is on the case, see the attached link

http://peakdistrictmtb.org/project/recording-lost-rights-way-project-2026/

To seriously piss of DCC, make a proper effort to research all the footpaths in the county and submit DMMO applications for every one that turns out to be an old road.

Even better - get lots of you to put in slightly different FOI requests about old rights of way, rights of way that have been reclassified, lost routes, money spent on the Rushup surfacing, all correspondence relating to it etc.

They are legally obliged to deal with each one so you can really **** with them and make their lives difficult.

We did this with the planning division of our local council when they were up to something dodgy, and at a much later "community consultation" meeting, the head of the project at the council admitted we'd caused them a huge headache and stalled the whole thing meaning they missed out on some funding.

Play smart and use things like FOI against them and you can really hurt a local authority. Never forget they are public servants, the emphasis being servants.