We had been briefed at Settle Police Station by PC Graham Wilson, the neighbourhood police officer. The mission, to educate off-roaders, catch any riding where they shouldn't be, or any using bikes or 4x4s which were illegal, untaxed, uninsured, unroadworthy, you name it.
We were in a shuttered room. It was quite relaxed. PC Andy Bradley, PC Wilson's oppo at Grassington, made tea and opened a packet of crunchy biscuits.
Graham Wilson read extracts from the 18-page Operational Order, a legal briefing, to his colleagues, and two men from the Yorkshire Dales National Park. These are Mark Allum, its access project officer, and Steve Hastie, the Ribblesdale area ranger. Also there: patrol car driver Andy Bell and community support officers Ian Cantlow and Dave Dixon.
News comes in that 11 bikes had been seen unloading at Gargrave earlier in the morning. Another eight had been seen setting off towards Penyghent from Horton in Ribblesdale, spotted by Robin Barker, operating a mobile police office, which is like a small motorhome, equipped with radio and computer links. He covers Harrogate, Craven and Richmondshire. Before retirement, he was inspector in charge at Knaresborough station.
The weather is unpleasant. It is chilly, drizzling, with mist obscuring the hills.
It is a day for the fireside or pub snug or the Penyghent Café at Horton, which is serving all-day breakfasts and bowls of wholesome lentil soup. Robin Barker takes a toastie back to his MPO.
Off-roading, whether legal or illegal, is a contentious issue from Bodmin Moor north. At risk: peace and quiet, rural bliss, sites of historic or scientific import, delicate terrain, field walls, public safety. Its supporters claim they are being levered off tracks which ought to be in use.
A Bill in the House of Lords at the moment is expected to be approved within months. It will give the National Park Authority the right to make "traffic regulation orders". Mostly, this will result in banning off-roading, and thus removing many of the "grey areas".
These "are they, aren't they legal" tracks are enjoyed by off-roaders. The Trail Riders' Federation is currently
asking the Park Authority to classify various tracks as byways open to all traffic. One of these runs from Horton. Called Harber Scar Lane, it skirts Penyghent and tracks four miles north to join a public road at the head of Wharfedale.
In the Yorkshire Dales National Park there are more than 250 miles of trails used by walkers, cyclists and motorised off-roaders.
"Some are used quite heavily," says Mark Allum. The mired high pastures
and rutted ancient drove roads are familiarly shown as evidence of the damage caused by trail bikes and 4x4 vehicles.
These routes are usually unsurfaced in the modern sense, and were used by pack horses carrying provisions between settlements. Their guardians say that the knobbly tyres of trail bikes are causing serious damage.
As far as the Park authority is concerned, only 20 miles or so of the 250 trail miles have legal vehicle access. These are Cam High Road, which runs from Bainbridge in Wensleydale to Fleet Moss, on the watershed with Wharfedale; tracks from near Semerwater and Carperly Green (Wensleydale) which join and proceed over Stake Pass to join the Buckden-Aysgarth road near Cray; Lady Anne's Highway, which goes from Cotterdale (near Hawes) and runs north and out of the Park's area at Hellgill Bridge.
Word comes through that a party of bikers are travelling towards Ribblehead, famous for its railway viaduct across Blea Moor Common. They have been spoken to and their bikes checked as road-legal. They say they will talk to the Press (us and Radio York).
We meet them in the car park of The Station Inn. They have changed their mind. "History says we will get misquoted...you will write what you want anyway," says the first. "The way it reads in the paper we get interpreted as a bunch of hooligans, which we are not," says a female rider.
"We are in the countryside enjoying ourselves legally," adds another.
They seem what you might call middle- class; all three are truculent.
Traffic officer Bell has checked their bikes and is happy. One is shod with
tyres marked Not For Highway Use, extremely knobbly things, which he doubts will give a secure grip on normal roads. He is minded to let it go.
frederic.manby@ypn.co.uk