Thursday, November 27

Who Knew Town Meetings Are Fun?

I went to my first town meeting on Tuesday to help make the mountain biking community's voice heard. The group showed up in mass. It was a cold night, and I know I would have rather been snug in my house. No one could dispute the local interest in the sport. Currently no bicycles are allowed on the trails in any county park, and we have big parks with amazing trails. Horses and hikers constitute the multi-use along with snowshoers and cross country skiers in the winter. These users' only experience with bikers are those that ride illegally, and you can imagine they haven't been good. We hope they will give us responsible and courteous riders a chance to change their views.

Currently the town is agreeing to giving us access to one section of the park that is too advanced for beginner riders and already run into the ground by illegal riding. Hopefully other areas will be opened as they get used to our presence.

I'd be curious to know what the situation is in your area.

2 comments:

Yankee Girl 1881 said...

Mtn biking is allowed on most trails out here. Most are good an polite people (myself included). not racing by at break neck speeds. but a lot do on the down hills. and of coarse.. they have the right of way so as you're hiking along you have to stop and stand aside a lot on some of the more popular trails. Corners get tore up on turns as they round the bend and throw the dirt. but in all honesty... I'd rather have them and the horses and the dogs (poop included!) than those darn ATV's and dirt bike and over sized tire 4x4's.

Ginger said...

That would be tough to share the trails with motorized things!