Earlier this afternoon, with my renewed Stowe Trail pass in my hydration pack, I set out on a ride, heading on up to Martha’s, and planning to go over to the Mel Brooks trails, totaling a couple hours of mountain biking. It was going very well, having not seen any humans. As I worked my way up the “front” of Mel Brooks, I thought: I love this trail.
Which one? Do some research and go find it!
Up top, I stopped to get an update on what looked like a cleaned-up beer exchange.
There’s a lot of deep shade there, with a pretty nice view. I decided to have some electrolytes, taking it all in.
I wandered on a bit more and then decided to turn back around and enjoy the rollicking ride back down the way I came. It’s fun, plain and simple.
As I was nearing the very end of it, I heard and saw some riders on the slight ridge that sits between the upper ridge, you know, where there is the two-track/dirt road. They saw me, as well, which I know because they were looking right in my direction (and less than 5 minutes later, I confirmed the sight lines by standing where they were and watching them go up the trail, but hold on, there’s more …)
I’m at the very end of the descent, dropping off that big boulder face and making the turn when lo’ and behold, I nearly run into the group of four. They decided to start up as I was less than 30 seconds from being done.
Some words were exchanged.
Up on the slight ridge with the two-track, I stopped and watched them. Yep, they clearly saw and heard me coming down. Had to. No doubt about it, at all. I watched as they cruised up on what is obviously a motorized vehicle of some kind, but not a bicycle, clearly.
When I heard what the one rider said, I got a little raged.
Riding back down on Blazing Saddles, the following ran through my head: e-bikers need to educate each other on trail etiquette, but it won’t matter. The mountain biking days of old are gone.
Then I thought: well, maybe I should say something. Hmm? I’ll write something on MTBeer and tell people to share it and maybe it’ll get back to the group of four. Then I thought of what the one rider said and I again got all up in a rage. I needed to channel some Zach de la Rocha.
Back at the trailhead, I got out a pen and paper. I left this note on the windshield under the wiper of what very likely was the automobile of one of the group of 4.
Yep, a suggestion was made to cut out a “tree.”
Why?
To make it easier. To make it easier for them to ascend on their e-bikes.
I signed it. Of course, I did.
And apologies to the person who read it, if they were not one of the group of 4.
Cheers, and have an angry weekend!
Fully Rigid is a monthly column by James Murren about Mountain Biking Issues within the Mountain Biking Community.
I just attended our local, fund raising ride here a couple weeks ago and lost track of the number of e-bikes. They definitely appear to be gaining in popularity. I've often wondered how much that extra weight changes the descending characteristics.
Trail sanitizing is a battle we face here as well. Blue trails outnumber black 10 to 1 but people still cut out log features and add rocks to smooth out difficult lines.
My concern with the explosion of e-bikes is twofold.
#1 - battery fires that have the potential to start a wildfire here in San Diego. These battery fires can shoot battery debris up to 60'. These fires/explosions are difficult to put out w/out a powder based extinguisher.
#2 - extra wear and tear on trails due to extra weight + being able to ride 3x's as long or more, and lack of skills of many new riders.
I hope SDMBA and others outfits address these concerns in addition to teaching trail etiquette to new riders and the importance of giving back to the trails.
Just my 2C
Steve