Canoes, ATV and Bikes.

It has been another busy week during which the North Lakes team hosted a Ranger Day, a day when many of the Rangers in the Lakes and North West region get together.  More than 50 Rangers attended. The day was based around Barrow house hostel with presentations in the morning followed by afternoon working groups and finally a session canoeing on Derwentwater.  A brilliant day was had by all and the feedback has all been positive.

Thoughts have now turned to our winter work programme including hedge-laying.  My first steps will be to see Tom at High Snab Farm to agree which hedges need cutting back this year and also to discuss with the estate managers which other hedges in Borrowdale need attention.  Hopefully we can get started on that this Autumn and then finish off in early Spring before the hedges begin growing and birds begin to nest.

In preparation for another big job, I helped Joe (upland footpath Ranger) to transport 10 large bags of grass seed as high up Sail as possible.  

We have a six wheel drive Polaris all-terrain vehicle which is brilliant at taking heavy loads up incredibly steep hills.  Joe has a volunteer group coming this weekend to help him sow the seed along the edges of a path that the team has been working on. This will help the recovery of the path by blending in the edges. The grass seed mix we use was put together after consulting with our advisers and Natural England.

Then we also have the task of putting in place the new handrail at Friars Crag.  That will use riven oak that has now arrived so we are ready to go with that job.

Over the weekend I cycled Coast to Coast again with a friend who couldn’t come last time.  We rode the same route from Gretna via Keilder and Morpeth to the east coast.  These are some very quiet roads with little traffic.  We camped at Bellingham and treated ourselves to a few beers with our meal. 

It did all fit into one week somehow!