Footpath erosion and the line you choose
Paths widen when walkers step off the worn line. On zigzags, peat and soft grass, your feet are the maintenance.
A path is a scar that walkers have agreed to share. Kept to a single line, it can be repaired, drained and walked for years. Stepped off, braided and cut across, it becomes a band of mud and a hillside that sheds soil every time it rains. You do not need a work party to take part in the repair. You need to stay on the line that is already damaged, so that the ground beside it can stay whole.
Why the edge gives way
Feet compact soil and kill the plants that held it. Water then runs in the trod, deepens it, and walkers step onto the bank to avoid the wet. The bank dies too. On a hill the shortcut across a zigzag does the same thing in a more confident shape: a straight gutter where the designed path had been trying to shed water gently. The desire line, the path your laziness can see, is often the start of the scar.
Peat and soft grassland show this fastest. A few seasons of a wider line can leave a black wound that a lifetime of plants will not quickly hide. Upland moor is not a tough surface. It is a wet one that remembers every boot.
Where to put your feet
Walk the existing trod, even when it is stony or slightly wet, unless it is genuinely unsafe. Stepping on the vegetation at the side feels harmless and is the widening. On stone pitching or a built zigzag, use the steps. Cutting the corner saves a few metres and spends a season of someone else's repair. If a section is officially diverted with a sign, take the diversion. The old line is being rested on purpose.
Single file on a narrow path lets the person behind you stay on it too. A group abreast on a ridge creates three paths by lunch. The same manners as walking through a crop apply on a hill: one line, shared.
Poles, bikes and boots
Pole tips, planted at the side to spare the path, poke holes that collect water. Plant them in the trod. Bikes on a soft footpath, where they are not even allowed, rut the wet line faster than feet. If you are on a bike, be on a route that permits it, and still avoid skidding the corners into a fan.
Boots with a simple tread do less damage than a hesitant shuffle that breaks the bank. You do not need special shoes. You need the willingness to be briefly muddy. Gaiters are how you accept that mud without taking the field home in your socks.
Fragile places that are not obvious
Dune grass, blanket bog, a mossy woodland floor and the edge of a limestone pavement all wear faster than they look. Limestone grikes are a special case of the same idea: the worn rock is the path, the vegetated crack is not a stepping stone. If a sign asks you to keep off a restoration area, the sign is the path.
Photograph the view from the trod. A step sideways for a cleaner foreground is a small erosion with a large audience if everyone copies it.
What your choice adds up to
No single walker ruins a hill. The line you choose is a vote for the line other people will see and follow. A neat, muddy, single path is a success. A dry, wide, braided one is a bill. Rangers and volunteers can pitch stone and block shortcuts. They cannot walk the path for you on a Saturday.
Stay with the scar you have been given. It is the kindest place to put your weight.
Frequently asked questions
Should I walk in the mud or on the grass?
In the mud of the existing path, unless the mud is deep enough to be unsafe. The grass is the hillside trying to hold on.
What if the path has collapsed?
Follow a signed diversion. If there is none and the collapse is dangerous, go back rather than forging a wide new track around it. Report the damage with a grid reference.
Do walking poles make erosion worse?
Used in the trod, they are a small part of your impact. Used as a prod into vegetated banks, they add holes. Keep the tips in the line you are already walking.