Volunteer Project in Llangollen Area 2nd & 3 October

[Drift]

From GRAG

You may have seen in the recent newsletter that Treadlightly & CRAG in association with GLASS & TRF have agreed to undertake a heather replanting project on Llantysilio Mountain just off the Conquering Hero Green Lane near Llangollen over the weekend of 2nd and 3rd October and we are keen to try and get as many volunteers as possible involved in the project.

We have access to free camping with basic facilities close to the local pub and volunteers will be welcome to stay over on the Friday and Saturday nights.

If you can come along even if it?s just for a few hours on either or both days then please do so. It will be helpful if you can email info@treadlightly-uk.org to confirm your attendance ? this will help us to get an idea of numbers to expect and also provide location details for the project site and also camping area.

This will be an ideal opportunity to meet other CRAG & TL Volunteers and find out more about the project and how you can get more involved in protecting greenlanes.

Please give serious consideration to helping out with this project as it will demonstrate a serious commitment from users to protecting the RoW Network.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Best Regards

Mark Margetts

Project Manager

[BoxCleva]

I'll be going. Are they OK with non Crag or TL members turning up ?

EDIT: I have emailed them.

[Drift]

Yes, you dont have to be a member

[BoxCleva]

Woaaaaaaaaahhhhh! What a day , totally and utterly knackered

I know it's a bit lame to do a review of a repair day, but I'm doing one anyway, LOL.

I hadn't really understood what was involved before I got there, but I went because I thought I should 'put something back', and try and appease the authorities and landowners. Basically some idiot 4x4er's and Moto X'ers have repeatedly gone 'off piste' hundreds of times and created a lane where there shouldn't be one. Not ideal when there is already a farmer who is a very anti off road vehicles anyway.

After 20 mins looking for the lane itself (well signposted my bum!) I found it and met the Series II Ambulance half way up. He'd managed to slide out of the tracks with the rear end perilously hanging over the edge of a sheer drop To make matters worse whilst the vehicle was at an angle his fuel pick up pump stopped and it cut out. So after he was towed up the hill I could pass. Some nice angles here and a sheer drop which is pretty cool. The fronty breezed it.

I was the only Fronty there, with the aforementioned Series II Ambulance /Lifted Disco/lifted Landcruiser/ heavily modded RRC/and Denbighsire councils L200 that couldn't make it up any of the lane at all and parked at the bottom





Please accept my appologies for the photo quality, they were from my phone

The gravel looking track you see below shouldn't be there, it should be continuous heather all the way across



To sort this we had to rake over the entire area and spread seed , then fertiliser and then finally unroll huge bales of heather and lay it on top

This pic shows us starting at the bottom of the very large hill , and yes we did make it to the top by the time we finished.



The lane itself (Conquering Hero) was a cool lane to navigate. There is a water section 1/2 way up it. As I understand it it's not usually an issue, but major rainfall over the last couple of days mean't a very very rapid drop down from 2nd to 1st low range and flooring it to get out . Doesn't look much in the pic, but as you go round the corner the ground under the water just drops away. Water lapping up to the windscreen with no snorkel was a bit worrying, but no harm done



As Drifty had previously warned me one of gates is a bit of a pig to get through as it almost turns back on itself. The Series II landy ambulance that was with us took a good 7 attempts to get through it and managed to pick up a couple of battle scars on the gate posts.




Pretty chuffed as the council bod said that he had never achieved so much in one day with volunteers, so that was a result.

Oh and before I forget, If I see anyone going 'off piste' on this lane I will find you and cause you to suffer

Just some other pics on the way home

[andysd1]

[Drift]

well done that man

Was Paul Humphreys there in the Land Cruiser ?

[BoxCleva]

Thanks fella's. No Steve, it was a guy called Mark (not Mark Margetts) a Treadlightly bod, but as I understand it he and Paul are best buddies and go laning everywhere together. A cracking bloke to be fair, as was the guy from Denbighshire council. It was very interesting to speak to the council guy, I had no idea how hard he works to appease the farmers/land owners and how hard he works to keep these lanes open. I'm not saying all council bods are as pro 4x4 as he was , but he clearly works very hard on our behalf. He was a good contact to make.

[andysd1]

so what have they got planed for tomorrow

[BoxCleva]

so what have they got planed for tomorrow

Not a lot to be honest.

A tiny bit at the top for re-seeding. But what we started (purely as a favour to the council guy) was filling in a large excavation made by an archaeological team looking for medieval stuff (I know 'stuff' aint the right word but you know what I mean).

So a few hours tomorrow AM will see the job done

[Sir-Doris]

Nice job Simon!

[V6POWER]

Only just seen this. top job fella....