It tuned out to be quite a pleasant day yesterday, in fact so much so that Mrs F and I walked up from Helwith Bridge to Dale Head to survey Long Lane for the Parish Council. The problem here is 4×4 off roaders and trail bikers who wish to see Long Lane registered as a BOAT (byway open to all traffic). For anyone who knows it this track is a tranquil green lane that presents a wonderful view of Pen y Ghent as you get towards Dale Head and provides a classic route up its eastern flank. It's heavily used as part of the Pennine Way and provides a super Sunday walk. What we were looking for was evidence as to why this route should remain a bridle way and not be trashed by the off road brigade. Its tranquillity so close to the main Horton road and the village itself is really the telling point and Sheila now has to write a submission to the National Park which can be considered at the forthcoming Public Enquiry. Fingers crossed.
Mike H had a good morning on the Tarn and stopped by to show me the 4lb plus rainbow he caught during the late morning session after the sun came out. A really nice fish, a bit ragged on the tail fin, but in very good condition.
Crayfish Paul stopped by in the evening after setting the canary trap up at Ling Gill and putting 14 traps in the Tarn ready for the crayfish monitoring programme this morning. We can now only wait and see whether the trap at Ling Gill returns a positive or negative response for plague. We are taking a group of 15 students to the Tarn this morning to check the traps and record the contents. Again fingers crossed that our population of these endangered crustaceans are still thriving at Horton.
I will report what we find tomorrow.
Ian