Build More Trails in the Mountains

Fully Rigid, 10/18/21

The other week I parked along the Sunrise Highway in the Lagunas of San Diego’s east county and decided to not ride a route I had planned, my bike taking off in the direction of Pioneer Mail. For no apparent reason, it seemed, other than some kind of energy/process taking over me, I thought: I’m gonna go ride across to Champagne Pass and then go down Indian Creek in the direction of Cuyamaca and then climb back up it and then descend Indian Creek the other way and connect into Noble and turn left, staying up top.

I didn’t see another human the entire time.

The sky was moody. I was not, until out there riding lines across the sky on rocky ridges with viewsheds that reminded me of the fact that, indeed, I was mountain biking in the mountains. I ventured off the beaten mind path of “we’re all mountain bikers” and onto the road less traveled by in the realization of: a mountain biker is a mountain biker is not a mountain biker.

We are not all the same.

Call it curmudgeonly, if you want. That makes sense. What doesn’t make sense, and speaks to what I’m getting at, as one example, is: why is a pump track, aka skate park for “mountain bikers,” considered a part of the definition, these days anyway, of mountain biking? I’m not saying they don’t have their place, and I get that they can be a gateway to getting more people on mountain bikes, but it’s not mountain biking.

What was the reason that what we do was called mountain biking in the first place? People rode “souped up” bikes in the mountains, e.g. Marin County and Crested Butte, is the reason. Example two, perhaps, is: There isn’t an early history of “mountain biking” that includes gravel bikes, is there? People did that, no doubt, and from what I understand, the Midwest of the USA has a long history around it, but we don’t point to that as mountain biking history, do we?

What’s my point? I’m a sorta older/aging curmudgeon looking around and noticing that we’re being told the old ways are gone, that technical trails and ones that go far off are not what mountain bikers want anymore, that we want what’s closer to town, what’s safer (whatever that means), what’s flow-ey-er, what’s navigable on varying wheels/frames, what’s … good … for … everyone (?)

Huh? Everyone? Hold on …

The old ways are not gone. I lived ‘em for a few hours the other week.

The real point here is: Keep mountain biking alive; build more trails in the mountains.

Fully Rigid is a monthly column by James Murren about Mountain Biking Issues within the Mountain Biking Community.