Blog

It’s been a beautiful day for riding. Sun out, not a cloud in the sky, yet still cool enough to keep you from boiling over.

There are many questions in my head & I guess I’ll never get around to answering them all, but the prominent one for today is about people’s appetite for destruction – in particular why, oh why would anyone want to try & block the downhill trails on our local mountain.

Who tried to block the runs did go through my head – kids, walkers (with or without dog), horse riders – but in reality that’s kind of irrelevant. The point is that, whether for some childish prank or because someone believes that mountain bikers do not belong on the trails, someone is thinking they’re spoiling our fun. I won’t deny that I can understand how the Trail Wrecking Society have grabbed the wrong end of the wrong stick – sure the mountain suffers with litter & the offending trash has historically been found in the same areas as the lovingly built trails, but the TWS are putting two & two together & making 100.

I’ve had the pleasure of hooking up with some of the local lads over the past couple of days, & they’ve taken me to some of the offending areas whilst showing me some new trails. Having spent time with the guys who have grafted to build these trailers over the last few years, & having seen how much the littering & associated trail wrecking revs them up, I’m telling you now that these guys are not the beer-swilling, fire-starting idiots people clearly think they are. They are responsible guys whose only remit is to have a safe laugh on their hard-earned bikes in their local area…that is all.

There’s a glorious irony in that the trails were built by mountain bikers & without said trails, the log moving, berm smashing loonies would not have discovered the beauty the mountain has to offer in the first place. More importantly than this, the actions of these people poses a serious safety risk – there are several routes to the trail starts & not everyone would see the obstructions during a 20mph run.

But here’s the real rub with all of this. Mountain Bikers have always tried to co-exist with other outdoorsy types. Whether is being slowing down for over-excited dogs or building sustainable safe trails that avoid pedestrian routes, we are a happy bunch of people in general. All that this does is drive a bigger wedge between users of the are & that just doesn’t make for a happy mountain.

We’re not going to stop though. Regardless of how many times they’re ripped down or blocked, remember this. We will build them back up again.