Observations, Advocacy »
Keeping the trails running, or Are mountain bikers really as lazy as it seems?
This is going to sound like a rant and, for all I know, it could be a very localized one because even though I am immersed in the local ’scene’ sometimes it’s hard for people to get a glimpse of the big picture when they’re so involved.
I live, work, and ride in southwestern BC, about an hour away from mountain biking’s version of the North Shore, and I’ve seen the trails morph from sketchy, hardcore paths into well travelled, rocked-in tracks over the past decade. Local advocacy groups like the NSMBA and FVMBA do their best to raise awareness about the sensitivity of the trail network — many of our trails are on fall lines and are susceptible to erosion if ridden in adverse conditions — and how important it is for riders to put some time back into the resource that they use.
BUT — and you had to know this was coming — even though these groups have done a heck of a lot in the communities of which they’re a part, it doesn’t seem to me that mountain bikers, the constituent members of these groups, are actually getting off their asses and helping the core component of the sport.
So I guess one of my questions is this: Is this type of behaviour // attitude par for the course? Do most people only put out the twenty or thirty bucks to support their local advocacy group and then consider themselves free and clear when it comes to ensuring access to trails over the long term?
To provide a little more perspective, I’ve been actively involved in trail building for the past five years and have spent more time dragging rocks, shovelling dirt, and cutting wood than I’d care to figure out. When I first started building, you’d be lucky to see five people in the parking area for our local spot on a sunny Saturday. Now, however, it’s not uncommon to see ten times that many people out there, regardless of weather conditions. The vast majority of these people never raise a finger to help, even when we’re slogging through the sh*t on a rainy day.
I guess I’m just asking myself, “Is it worth it?” Originally, I built because I enjoyed it and I knew that I was putting something back into the sport. But now, with bike shops bringing hordes of kids up the mountain, guiding outfits bringing paying customers for tours, big-name film producers shooting on the trails (one of the newer trails was featured in a NSX whatever and NWD 7, and other lines have been filmed in the past), riders coming from all over the world to ride the trails that my friends and I have built, when does a tired, underfunded volunteer (ie. we bankroll most of the supplies on our own) say enough is enough? Should we just be grateful that we’re victims of our own success?
Again, my question isn’t really about awareness — almost all riders here know that people build and maintain the trails on which they ride — but more about the will to make something better, more sustainable, and, in the eyes of the general public, reputable and safe.
1. Posted by BearSquirrel | 8:11 am, 10 April 2007
You’re right. I also do trail maintenance. I have to admit that I enjoy it to some degree. But there comes a point when you start looking around and seeing all the people who ride but do not participate.
The WORST people are the people who RIDE when you are out doing a well advertised maintenance session. Those are the times when you want to charge a toll for passing.