Читать книгу The Pennine Way - the Path, the People, the Journey онлайн

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Others have pointed out that the relatively small cost of repairing a stretch of worn footpath, when compared to the cost of building just a few yards of new road, for instance, is a price worth paying, especially when you factor in all the physical and mental benefits associated with taking exercise in the outdoors. A well-used and eroded path is evidence that people are walking it and want to walk it, so the argument goes.

However, 50 years on and attitudes have shifted. It might still be just as important to encourage young people onto the hills, but it’s no longer acceptable to sit by and allow such obvious environmental damage to take place. I suspect, too, that many outdoor users are increasingly aware of their individual impact and uncomfortable with the notion that their own feet are damaging the very same wild and beautiful landscapes that they come to enjoy. And such damage, too. A full condition survey of the Pennine Way in 1989 showed that for the trail south of the M62 (including all of the Peak District), the average worn or trampled width was found to be 40ft; but on the summit plateau of Kinder Scout the trample damage spread up to half a mile wide!