Get off the road, get off the trails

Thankfully I'm going on vacation. I can't take it anymore. ex and would be politicians on the North Shore want mountain bikers off the trails. I hope it is a small NIMBY group that has little or no political clout, but you never know.

It's bad enough that these people want mountain bikers out of a "working" forest, the North Shore has been logged and the skidder trails are still easy to find all across Mount Fromme. In fact it is easier to find a skidder trail than it is to find a mountain bike trail! No mountain bikers must go, according to them. What is comical is that the commenters on the post don't seem to want bikes in any part of their lives -- they just get in the way. Take for instance these two comments:

Anonymous said...

You can get plenty of exercise riding your bike on the road. There are plenty of quiet streets to ride on -- flat, uphill, and downhill. There is no need to ride in the woods. Step gently into the woods on foot. Shhhh! Relax. Listen.

Thursday, August 02, 2007 3:17:00 PM

Anonymous said...

Oh stop! Roads are for cars - not bikes. Cars pay for the roads through their gas taxes - bikes don't pay a nickel. Bikes inhibit the smooth flow of traffic through their "I own the road" mentality, or riding 3' away from the curb, or riding 2-abreast, or arrogantly riding down the middle of a car lane.

If bikers want bike paths or trails, put a toll-path in and charge them an "infrastructure" tax on all new bikes. Leave the roads for cars.

Thursday, August 02, 2007 3:31:00 PM

Get a life. Find something important to worry about, like poverty, or education or the greed of developers that are eating away at our forests -- get off the mountain bikers backs.

Ah three weeks of no phone, no internet and no problems.

Peace

It's a dangerous road out there...

Last night I went for a ride with "the boys". This generally is a weekly event. Like most Wednesdays I rode home from work on my commuter bike and then did the quick change to my freeride bike. This week we were riding on Mt. Fromme so I can just hop on my bike and ride up Mountain Highway to the trails.

It was going to be a big night. We had planned on riding Upper Oil Can to Pink Starfish and then finishing off with upper and lower Digger. All the trails are challenging, I even brought armour for the event.

Usually I ride across the Baden Powell trail from my place to the top of Mountain highway, but because it was going to be a big night I decided to take the road. Riding up Mountain Highway can be a slow process. It was hot and I had already ridden home from work, I also knew that my friends would be late, so I was in no real rush, the hill was big and it was hot. I was riding slowly.

As i got to Chamberlain and Mountain Highway I noticed a car moving towards the stop sign that faced him, then, without stopping, he rolled through the stop sign. At this point I thought to myself "he must see me I am looking him right in the eyes". Apparently he didn't. He just kept rolling towards me, and not believing this was happening I continued to pedal towards him. Both of us were going really slowly, and as the gap between us closed, with me not believing this was happening and he oblivious to the whole thing, continued on our intersecting paths. And then it happened. I must have been doing 6 km/h he was probably doing the same. It was so slow in fact that I was able to get my pedal in position to do the least damage to my foot just prior to the collision. All I could think was "what the Hell!" I jumped from my bike onto his hood and then rolled off. I guess he saw me then.

Now I really don't want to make too much of this, my wife is probably reading this, and it really wasn't much of a collision. There was no damage to me or my bike and I suspect there was not much to his car. It was the message that it gave me that I want to get across.

We continued on and rode some of the most challenging trails on the Shore. I did most of the "stunts" with nary a scratch.

It seems that getting to the trail can be more dangerous than riding the trail. So I have to say to naysayers of mountain biking on Fromme get out of your cars, open your eyes go for a hike or a bike in the trails you'll have a great time. Just stay away from cars, they ARE dangerous.