You can help the John Muir Trust campaign to protect the UK’s remaining tracts of wild land by signing two petitions.

The JMT has launched the  petitions to urge the UK and Scottish governments to give greater protection to the country’s last remaining wild land.

The petition in Scotland calls for wild land to be protected by a new environmental designation. The petition for the UK calls for National Park areas to be expanded and created to cover the best areas of wild land.

Helen McDade, head of policy, said: “We aim to use these petitions to send a clear signal to the government that many thousands of people care passionately about wild land and want to see it given greater protection. Thousands have expressed concerns about proposed major developments in much-loved wild areas such as the Cairngorms and Snowdonia National Parks, as well as the Western Isles and Shetland.

“It is vitally important that everyone who cares about our landscape adds their voice to our campaign through signing this petition.”

The petitions are part of the Trust’s Wild Land Campaign, which aims to achieve greater protection for wild land from inappropriate development.

Scottish Natural Heritage figures show that the amount of land in Scotland unaffected by visual intrusion fell from 41% to 31% between 2002 and 2008. Wind turbines, electricity pylons, tracks and housing were major factors in this decline. Whilst there is less wild land in England, Northern Ireland and Wales, that makes it particularly valuable as a refuge from the stress of modern life.

You can sign the online petitions at www.jmt.org/wildland-petition.asp

Please take time to support this important initiative, and please encourage all your friends to support it too. Our wild land needs all the help it can get.

JUST had a couple of great days in the Lakes based at Sykeside in the Eastern Fells. I’ve always been pretty passionate about the Lake District, although I normally tend to restrict visits to late Autumn or winter, when the fells are a bit quieter. Despite that I love the unique atmosphere of the Lakeland fells, the old slate cottages and the farmed fields lapping their way onto the skirts of the fells. Maybe I’m just an ageing romantic but I do rather like the notion of the Lake District villages being “preserved in aspic.”

Maybe that’s why I’m particularly fond of Hartsop near Patterdale. It’s a tiny village, more of a hamlet really, and it just appears to be so unspoilt, tucked away out of the main drag under the shadow of the Eastern Fells. It’s particularly beautiful and atmospheric at this time of the year with all the flowers in bloom.

Anyway, I digress, I want to talk about footpaths. It’s a subject we covered in TGO recently when my old friend Bill Birkett made a rather hard-hitting attack on Fix the Fells, the organisation that seems to be doing a lot of work on the footpaths in the Lake District area. We also gave Fix the Fells an opportunity to reply and they certainly came across as pretty reasonable. However, as I wandered down towards Boredale Hause from Angle Tarn yesterday I was pretty shocked to see a yellow, manicured footpath run up the south ridge of Place Fell. You could see it from a long way off, the surface is smooth and unspoilt by stones or boulders and it’s very wide. I couldn’t help think that this is footpath maintenance gone mad. What had been created is unaesthetic and completely out of keeping with the rough and wild nature of the high fells.

Now I don’t know who was responsible for this footpath. It might have been Fix the Fells, it might not have been, but it made me wonder who these footpaths are being made for? Are we pandering to those who demand easy access to the high tops? Is there a fear of litigation should someone stumble over a boulder and hurt themselves? Is this another example of the nanny state the last Government created - design everything to the lowest common denominator so that everyone, even the old and infirm, can walk or be pushed up the fellside?

I’ve been a supporter of footpath maintenance work for a long, long time. I think such work is necessary to “heal” the mountain from the effects of erosion, but such work has to be done with sensitivity; in a way that the footpath blends in with the landscape. This can be difficult to achieve but it can be done. People like the late Ray MacHaffie did some tremendous work in the Lake District and I shudder to think what his comments would have been about this new path up Place Fell. I’m also aware that mistakes can be made and some contractors can be overly zealous. We had a situation in the Nevis Partnership recently with a path that was created in such a way that it was obtrusive, a path that will have to be re-laid to make it more sensitive to the needs of users, and to the surrounding landscape.

There is a danger that the Lake District could turn into a network of highly intrusive, manicured walkways. The National Trust and the National Park Authority have done a pretty good job in preserving much of the Lakeland atmosphere and cultural identity - Hartsop is a great example. It just seems a great pity that some of the work being carried out on the mountain footpaths is over the top and unnecessary. I agree that erosion creates some terrible scarring on the fells and we need to do something about it, but these new scars are almost as bad, they’re just a tad tidier. So come on Lakeland authorities - can’t you narrow these footpaths a bit, put in some boulders here and there, make the edges a bit more ragged. Nature doesn’t work in straight, smooth lines. Neither does she try and pander to everyone.

Having been invited to be official starter for this year’s Scottish Bikeathon in Kingussie I thought the least I could do was enter and take part too, but having hauled myself round the 26-mile course on my road bike I suspect I’m not as bike-fit as I should be.

Imagining myself as a cross between Mark Beaumont and Lance Armstrong there I was , dressed in lycra with a go-fast helmet, pumping the legs and lungs until I dissolved into a heap of trembling flesh and bone. My fancy  watch-cum-computer kindly informed me that marathon runners go faster!

Like most folk of my generation I cycled everywhere as a youngster but an infatuation with mountains and wild places separated me from bikes for most of my life. An unfortunate experience with one of the early so-called mountain bikes almost put me off cycling for life. I stupidly thought mountain bikes were designed to cycle up and down mountains – a fair assumption, so I took one to Ben Macdui - with near fatal consequences!

When I say I “took” one rather than “cycled” one to Ben Macdui what I mean is this - I virtually carried one to the UK’s second highest mountain. It was a crash on the descent that really spoiled the day. I slid down a long snow chute, with the bike in tow, and screeched to a halt on a band of black Cairn Gorm gravel. My bum still bears the scars…

I bought a road bike last year from Mike’s Bikes in Aviemore and I’ve loved it so much I’m even contemplating taking part in one of these cycling ‘sportives’ that seem to be growing in popularity. But maybe I should test myself in the Bikeathon first?.

The event’s being held this coming Sunday (June 20), starting in Kingussie at 10.30, and it’s not too late to enter. You might be able might be to raise a few quid for a good cause into the bargain – Leukaemia and Lymphona Research. My late step-father Walter died from leukaemia a number of years ago so I’ll be thinking of him as I enjoy the scenic course through Insh, Kincraig and Rothiemurchus, all places he loved.

You can enter online at www.bikeathonbritain.co.uk or get an entry form at the Post Office in Kingussie. It only costs a fiver to enter and it promises to be a day of great fun. Hope to see you there - do come and say hello!

Wow, I’ve just realised it’s been about a month since I wrote anything here, and a busy month it’s been. Catching up after my Jordan trip, in which I had to spend a huge amount of time chasing up airlines and insurance companies after getting caught up in the volcanic ash fiasco, hiking the TGO Challenge, and changing my lifestyle.

First of all the Challenge. It was my first crossing and I enjoyed it. The good weather certainly helped. Along with Gina, we walked with my brother-in-law Raymond Bainbridge, a keen hillwalker who was also on his first Challenge. I think he enjoyed the experience too. I’m not going to write too much about the event here as I’ll be writing something for TGO later in the year, but suffice to say it was a great sign-off as editor of TGO for the past 20 years. I guess the TGO Challenge was my final official duty as editor, and that brings me to my change in lifestyle.

I always said I would step down as editor of TGO when I was 60 and that’s exactly what I’ve done. You can read the details in this month’s TGO Magazine, but rather than leave the mag completely I’ve taken on a role as editor-at-large, which essentially means I can get out and about, climbing hills and mountains, walking trails, testing gear, all for the magazine.

The change also gives me more time to concentrate on other aspects of my so-called career, like television work, DVD’s and books. I’m currently trying to finish my book on the Skye Trail, which will be published later this year and I have quite a lot of TV work scheduled for this year too.

As well as my Wild Walks on the BBC’s Adventure Show I’ll be travelling the length of the Outer Hebrides, from Barra to the Butt of Lewis, for an hour long Christmas documentary, following up previous programmes on the Sutherland Trail and the Skye Trail. I’ll also be part of the commentary team for the BBC’s Big Climb, a several hour long live extravaganza from Stron Ulladale on Harris, featuring Dave MacLeod and Tim Emmett. We tried this type of live climb a couple of years ago in the Cairngorms but it was cancelled because of rain but we’ve been working on a format this time that will allow several hours of programming even if the weather gods turn against us again. Fingers crossed for sun and few midges. I’m told miracles can happen…

I’m also hoping that the new lifestyle will allow me to update this diary a bit more regularly and maybe even run a few gear tests from time to time. Meanwhile, I wish Emily and her new team the very best wishes on TGO and I look forward to contributing to the mag’s ongoing success, albeit from a rather different perspective.

My good friend Chris Townsend is off shortly on another of his epic backpacking trips. This time he’s off to hike the fledgling Pacific North West Trail in the USA - a mere 1200 mile long. I asked him what gear he was thinking of taking with him?

 

 Podcast Video: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download