Djouce Mountain biking

dario28

Anyone got any trail info on djouce , its supposed to be better than ballinastoe but there is nothing obvious online for it ?

May give it a crack tomorrow

Tenzor07

dario28 wrote: »

Anyone got any trail info on djouce , its supposed to be better than ballinastoe but there is nothing obvious online for it ?

Trail info? Sure.... here you go: www.coillteoutdoors.ie/?id=53&rec_site=59

dario28

Tenzor07 wrote: »

Trail info? Sure.... here you go: www.coillteoutdoors.ie/?id=53&rec_site=59

Cheers , thats more the walking trail I've heard theres move specific mtb ones

Tenzor07

dario28 wrote: »

Cheers , thats more the walking trail I've heard theres move specific mtb ones

Not being smart but you won't find any "MTB Specific" trail maps for Djouce online..

Pigeon Reaper

Parts of the trail up djouce is severly erroded. Try to avoid cycling on these parts as the parks services are trying to restore them. Unfortunately a few mountain bikers tore it up a couple of weeks ago just as some was recovering. We don't need more damage done otherwise bikes will be banned from more areas and it will be harder to setup offical mountain bike trails.

Tenzor07

Pigeon Reaper wrote: »

Parts of the trail up djouce is severly erroded. Try to avoid cycling on these parts as the parks services are trying to restore them. Unfortunately a few mountain bikers tore it up a couple of weeks ago just as some was recovering.

Hello, to which section of trail in Djouce are you refering?

Pigeon Reaper

The Wicklow Way halfway up the hill from where is diverges from the woods at powerscourt up to the sleepers. It's also very bad from the fork at the Wicklow Way to the summit on both sides. It's pretty obvious when you see it.

Tenzor07

I have a rough idea of where you mean...

I agree there is a certain section of trail alongside the fence that is erroded to sh1te, and hardly a tyre track to be seen!
It looks as if a coachbus load of walking boots trampled over it. At first I thought it was hooves from escaped sheep, but its definetly from walking boots digging into the trail. Also further up as you walk towards the summit the local sheep have the trails tore up.

Bikerbhoy

dario28 wrote: »

Anyone got any trail info on djouce , its supposed to be better than ballinastoe but there is nothing obvious online for it ?

May give it a crack tomorrow

The Thinkbike.ie crew are meeting at Ballinastoe @ 8.30 am in the morning Sat and I believe they intend to take in Djouce aswell so you are more than welcome to join them if you want.

Pigeon Reaper

The one by the fence was due to the flooding in October. It washed away the trail. The other parts are bad and walkers do cause a bit of damage but a few weeks back it was certainly someone on bikes tearing up the place doing what looked like rear wheel skids for a laugh. It's very easy for the parks service and collite to just use a blanket ban to prevent damage. They won't do it for walkers becasue they're too big a lobby group but unfortunately mountain bikers aren't big on the political radar most of the time. I'm not saying don't go up just try to keep the impact to a minimum.

C3PO

Pigeon Reaper wrote: »

Unfortunately a few mountain bikers tore it up a couple of weeks ago just as some was recovering. We don't need more damage done otherwise bikes will be banned from more areas and it will be harder to setup offical mountain bike trails.

It is extremely unlikely a "few mountain bikers" tore up any trails in Djouce or indeed anywhere else! Most trail damage I have seen has been caused by severe weather or hordes of walkers - suggesting that it has been caused by mountain bikers is extremely unhelpful unless you have real proof that that is how the damage was caused! It would take a lot of mountain bikes doing "rear wheel skids" to cause the damage that I've seen up on the Wicklow Way recently!

The fact is that mountain bikes are actually banned from all Coillte and National Park lands with the exception of the designated trails in Ballinastoe, Ticknock etc! Any trails in other areas are unofficial and you will find it hard to get any information on a public forum!

Pigeon Reaper

Looks like a got a friday debate going.

I'm not saying that mountain bikers tore up all the damaged trails but unfortunately when tyre tracks are visible with skid marks on parts where damage is bad people will jump to conclusions. The majority of damage over the years is due to walkers couple with paths then acting as drainage. However banning walkers will not happen instead the few mountain biker will be banned as a knee jerk reaction. The trails where originally setup for walkers and access and as relative new comers mtb will have to be seen to avoid damaging areas more than any other groups. I was up on the trail three weeks ago and encountered a number of hostile walkers due to a previous group of bikers acting ignorenately. All it takes is the actions of a few idiots to tar everyone with the same brush. It's extremely easy for bans to be put in place for environmental or safety reasons. Lets not give them an excuse to do this. I may have had the audacity to ask someone heading up the trails to try and avoid an area of bad erosion to try and avoid this situation occuring. am I being vilified for doing this and trying to explain my stance. If this is indicative of anything other than a very small minority MTB community I think our future is looking bleak with regards to access to trails.

Tenzor07

Your statements directly suggest that mountainbikers are responsible for the errosion near Djouce woods, you have asked that people on bikes stay away so as to implicate them as being exclusively responsible for the errosion.
As RPL1 says, there is a lot of damage cause by bad weather and large walking groups, as well as the local sheep!

Pigeon Reaper wrote: »

I'm not saying that mountain bikers tore up all the damaged trails

Pigeon Reaper wrote: »

Unfortunately a few mountain bikers tore it up a couple of weeks ago just as some was recovering.

C3PO

Pigeon Reaper, I'm repeating myself here but mountain bikes are already banned from all areas of Coillte and National Park land with the exception of the few designated trails! We are not permitted to ride in the area that we are discussing here - we can't be banned twice! I would agree entirely that we should avoid causing damage to trails but coming on a public forum and accusing mountain bikers of causing damage, without proper proof, is extremely unhelpful in our efforts to gain access to these areas!

Pigeon Reaper

It may be unhelpful to ask someone to try and avoid further damage but then we must beg the to ask the question why was a map of tails posted here after someone asked about MTB up djouce? Also within the same thread there has been a suggestion of a large organised group going up these same trails yet there's been no reaction? Both of these points should be treated in the same manner as mine as they both hurt the cause to get/maintain access. I did see damage caused to the trail and this is public knowledge, I wasn't the only person on the mountain that day. These problems need to be openly discussed and rectified in public so that the general perception of us is that we're not flagrantly ignoring the issue of a few rogue bikers and that this type of behaviour isn't acceptable. Burying our heads in the sand and keeping the status quo of ignoring this will only worsen the current situation.

Tenzor07

My posting of the official Coillte trail/fireroad map was intended to be facetious, as we all know Mountain biking is not permitted in Djouce woods. And it was to highlight this fact to the OP that there are no MTB trail maps either.

Your claims that mountain bikers are responsible for large and noticable damage to the trails is very unhelpful to the trail access advocacy.

You more or less ignored the fact that the majority of trail errosion surrounding the Djouce area is caused by severe weather. So stating that " it was certainly someone on bikes tearing up the place doing what looked like rear wheel skids for a laugh" does not help in anyway "the general perception of us is that we're not flagrantly ignoring the issue"

No offence but if you think you are helping, your not! However everyone has there opinions, but in future if you want to raise such issue then it would be good to see actual facts presented here..

ThisRegard

RPL1 wrote: »

It is extremely unlikely a "few mountain bikers" tore up any trails in Djouce or indeed anywhere else! Most trail damage I have seen has been caused by severe weather or hordes of walkers - suggesting that it has been caused by mountain bikers is extremely unhelpful unless you have real proof that that is how the damage was caused!

He's making a similar point to what I was making the last time this came up. When someone slides a long distance on their brakes down a hill somewhere like Djouce it's very easy to pin point it as being due to someone on a bike, you can't really deny that you can't. Hence it's easy for the parks, coilte, OPW or whoever to come along and say, jaysus look at the mess the bikers are causing around here, ban them.

Lawdie

Your also missing a larger issue in Djouce - ravers. They caused more damage than any mountain bike crew. I believe it was mountain bikers from EPIC/MAD/IMBRC that cleared up after a recent event. I've done some cleaning in Cloon, after a similar event, was left in a mess.
Yes mountain bikers do care!
I would not like to see any trail eroded but find it difficult to allow anyone point a big finger at MTBs being public enemy number 1.

"hostile walkers due to a previous group of bikers acting ignorantly"
On this note I have not respect for any MTBer who treats any other user in a negative manner. Any biker abusing another mountain user should be individually banned. However I've found most walkers excellent company to meet on trails. We often stop and talk to groups of walkers with no issues. Any biker I've gone out with greats and thank the walkers they come across for allowing room on trails.

I must also point out you had one side of the story. The "hostile walkers" may of had this disposition before coming across he bikers, hostility is often met by hostility even MTBers are somewhat human and thats life.