Fools II: The Sequel

Trail poaching has been a hot topic in the Anchorage mountain biking community for the past week or so. I had hoped the incidents on Rover’s Run were isolated, but a few nights ago, I got another reminder of how some riders are self-indulgent jackasses.

A couple of friends and I went out to ride one of the new trails being built by Singletrack Advocates. Only one section has been opened for riding, while a couple of nearby sections are still being roughed in. Those trails aren’t ready for riding. Besides still having fragile surfaces, they’re under construction and not yet safe.

Just as we stopped at the top of the open trail, two riders came out of the woods nearby as they finished poaching the new advanced trail. As they ducked under the “trail closed” signs that cover each end of the trail, I tried to be polite as I said hello and told them why it’s important to be patient and stay off the trail until it opens.

They mumbled a couple of things like, “OK,” and “Sorry,” but I could tell they didn’t give a damn what I was saying.

Is it really so hard to be patient for a few more weeks? A tiny handful of their fellow mountain bikers have worked to build everyone the first true mountain bike trails in Anchorage—at great expense—and these guys are willing to risk fucking it up just because they demand instant gratification?

Maybe they’re some of the same people who have already started sneaking in with their own tools to make their own easy modifications of the newly opened section of trail. Dirt ramps are already being built against some of the rocks that were incorporated into the trail design.

It’s easy to risk getting a blister from five minutes with a shovel after others have spent three years building relationships with land managers, wading through the permit and grant processes, and raising hundreds of thousands of dollars to build you new trails. But it sure doesn’t show any gratitude or respect.

I hate it when mountain bikers suck.

Fools

I often call mountain bikers the coolest people on the planet. In most cases, I’m right.

That’s why I hate to be reminded that even the people in our sport can behave like selfish assholes.

A few weeks ago, city officials declared Rover’s Run closed until further notice. Not everyone agreed with the decision, but it was a reasonable one under the circumstances. Two people had been mauled by bears on that trail, with the incidents occurring only a short distance and a few weeks apart. The bear, or bears, were still out there, feeding on salmon from the stream next to the trail.

Biologists set up cameras to capture images of bears using the trail so that they could identify individual animals and learn their habits. Unfortunately, they also got to see something else: bicyclists poaching the closed trail.

It was no accident. These riders chose to do this. The trail was clearly marked and the closure was widely publicized. It was also public knowledge that cameras had been installed. These guys didn't just thumb their noses at the closure, they did it when the whole city was watching, and soon after the mountain-biking community had endured public criticism because the first mauling occurred during a bike race.

One person was photographed riding the trail on more than one occasion during the closure. This is a guy who bragged about riding an off-limits trail a few months ago, then responded to criticism by promising to be more careful. He said he believed in efforts to improve the image of mountain bikers, and vowed he would help that cause.

Apparently, he didn’t mean a word of it.

A lot of mountain bikers in Anchorage have worked hard in recent years to improve relations with land managers and other user groups. Symbolically, these trail poachers have taken a big, fat, steaming dump on those efforts. Because when the non-cycling public picks up the newspaper and reads that bike riders are ignoring the trail closure, they lump us all together.

They don’t read that this guy or that guy ignored the rules; they read that mountain bikers ignored the rules.

When I think of mountain bikers and cool people, these guys don’t fit the bill.

As far as I’m concerned they aren’t even real mountain bikers. They aren’t worthy of the trails.