Another gravel path... Courtesy of MEC and NSMBA

The hard line is too hard. The easy line is too easy.

I want someone to go build a trail to exactly suit my needs while I go skiing all winter.

Did someone say gravel path?

….Although,if you DO put your shovel where your mouth is,you must adhere to the vision of the chosen one.

Exactly why I moved onto another local mtn to work on. ;)

I am all for trail work and adding soil where needed to improve drainage. I do question the removal of obsticals and such though. IE the little "A frame" over the log at the bottom of neds… I loved that thing it was a great spot to get beginners comfortable with small features. Now its been cut out? It was not rotten. It was not unsafe, and even if it were 30 min of work and it could have been rebuilt. This is just one example, (not bitching, just an example)

I do however think this is where a lot of the "dumbing down" threads are coming from. The fact that are enough such threads to get "oh no not another one" type of responses means that maybe it IS in fact an issue. The problem is the second somebody brings it up, the comments are immediately taken in negative connotation and people get very much defensive. Whether or not these people are out helping on the trail is honestly irrelevant in my opinion (which really is quite worthless). Everybody has a voice and its only right that all voices are taken with the same amount of weight.

Lets look at the other way around though, if a group of well meaning trail builders went out to do some work on a green run and added a bunch of black diamond features to it… there would be some serious upset and the features would probably be removed. So why is it so different if we go in the other direction? Taking a black run or a challenging section and removing the items that made it a challenge. Sure maybe some people don't want to or are incapable of doing a small feature… but isn't that all part of the challenge of mtn biking? Learning to over come things and become a better rider?

I myself am a trail builder on Eagle. Currently I am rebuilding a drop that has given way to mother nature. I don't plan on riding it… and it would have been far easier to remove it. However it was there and others enjoyed it at one time. So its being replaced with a new one and we are adding an alt route for those who do not want to do the drop. Extra work and $ out of my pocket? Sure… but this trail is for everybody to enjoy. Not just for people who agree with my vision of a what a trail should be.

I rode it last night from twin bridges to old buck and back
there is still plenty of chundered out bullshit for all to enjoy….

Once again, I encourage all to go to other areas of BC and ride and see that chundered out crap is not the norm.

I'll chime in as another big supporter of the NSMBA for the work on Bridle and all the other projects they've undertaken. Lower Seymour has never been better.

Sure, these "dumbing down the shore" haters are entitled to their opinion, but they always come off as the worst fist shaking, wanna-be hardcore whiners I have trouble trying to listen to what points they might have.

I'm going to break the following caffiene fueled rant into point form…

- It's not gravel - blowing it out of proportion doesn't help me want to see things from your POV.

- It's friggin BRAND NEW trailwork. Give it some time to get worn in/ shitkicked and maybe another tree will fall on it for you ride over - I hear that happens from time to time in a coastal rainforest.

- Sticks and Stones a bunch of other tech shit is right in that zone for you if that's what you're looking for in that area.

- If it was a challenge for you in it's shitkicked state, I can see how you might miss that, but for me and probably alot of other riders it wasn't challenging, just rutted out and poorly routed for drainage. Personally, I don't want a trail to be challenging because it's a shitty mess full of wheel eating mud pits. I prefer challenge from a technical line that's closer to it's natural state, not because it was poorly routed in the first place and then neglected for years.

- Every time I ride Dale's ( especially in the wet) I have to laugh thinking that people are whining about TAP d.d.t.s. Okay tough guy, let's see the Go Pro footy of you railing that whole thing and making it looked dumbed down.

- There's environmental impact and sustainability issues the NSMBA's trailwork is addressing that you probably aren't aware of or have considered. Drainage, root system protection, etc. These guys are on some next level trail building shit. Are you a world class trained and educated trail builder? Just curious…

- The NSMBA as also made efforts to keep the old lines on the other sections of Bridle where they've put new, buff climbing routes in.

Keep up the good work TAP, NSMBA and volunteers. THANKS!

[QUOTE=barnz0rz;2745631 Once again, I encourage all to go to other areas of BC and ride and see that chundered out crap is not the norm.

Agreed. My last three rides have been in Vernon, Kelowna and Squamish. Sustainability doesn't seem to be a dirty word in any of those place.

The hard line is too hard. The easy line is too easy.

650b? 8)

I didn't realize it was a biking only trail. My wife and dawg had a pleasant walk along it yesterday.

If you find it too easy, get a "smarter bike" i.e. a hardtail with a short travel fork. For the record, I had Bridle Path and Cardiac pretty much dialed both directions. The only exception was that one bit near S n S. I do hear what your saying though but I think the renovations are for the greater good. And in the same way that I avoid trails like Boogieman, one can avoid Bridle.

Keep up the good work NSMBA and volunteers!

I haven't had a problem understanding the "convoluted spaghetti mess of rules and regulation on how to ride my bike" on Bridle. But that's just me. As one of the people who can ride the techie bits that have been replaced by golden spaghetti, I have to ask myself - why don't I ride those any more?

Sure I enjoyed the challenge of cleaning them because they weren't always do-able for me. And maybe a little bit of superiority when my riding buddies couldn't do them (I'm so gnarly brah). So why don't I ride them? Oh, because they sucked.

I'll take the ribbon of gold, thanks. Especially since we're talking about Bridle - a major collector trail used by multiple user groups and skill levels. IMHO, the whole trail (including Cardiac Bypass) should be easily navigable by intermediates with good fitness. And furthermore, it should be a showcase of good environmental trail design given its high profile nature.

I will concede that I don't want to see a true gravel path (a la Old Buck), either. But this work doesn't represent that.

I just got off Bridle after not being on it for the past few months (skiing etc). Wow is one word that came to mind as I tried to understand the convoluted spaghetti mess of rules and regulation on how to ride my bike.

why weren't you at the trail day to make your voice heard about something so important to you? your opinion doesnt matter at all until you make it matter

Exactly why I moved onto another local mtn to work on. ;)

I am all for trail work and adding soil where needed to improve drainage. I do question the removal of obsticals and such though. IE the little "A frame" over the log at the bottom of neds… I loved that thing it was a great spot to get beginners comfortable with small features. Now its been cut out? It was not rotten. It was not unsafe, and even if it were 30 min of work and it could have been rebuilt. This is just one example, (not bitching, just an example)

I do however think this is where a lot of the "dumbing down" threads are coming from. The fact that are enough such threads to get "oh no not another one" type of responses means that maybe it IS in fact an issue. The problem is the second somebody brings it up, the comments are immediately taken in negative connotation and people get very much defensive. Whether or not these people are out helping on the trail is honestly irrelevant in my opinion (which really is quite worthless). Everybody has a voice and its only right that all voices are taken with the same amount of weight.

Lets look at the other way around though, if a group of well meaning trail builders went out to do some work on a green run and added a bunch of black diamond features to it… there would be some serious upset and the features would probably be removed. So why is it so different if we go in the other direction? Taking a black run or a challenging section and removing the items that made it a challenge. Sure maybe some people don't want to or are incapable of doing a small feature… but isn't that all part of the challenge of mtn biking? Learning to over come things and become a better rider?

I myself am a trail builder on Eagle. Currently I am rebuilding a drop that has given way to mother nature. I don't plan on riding it… and it would have been far easier to remove it. However it was there and others enjoyed it at one time. So its being replaced with a new one and we are adding an alt route for those who do not want to do the drop. Extra work and $ out of my pocket? Sure… but this trail is for everybody to enjoy. Not just for people who agree with my vision of a what a trail should be.

I think you have some valid points but a lot of people lose credibility when they complain about the 'dumbing down' as they don't acknowledge the issues with land managers, increased use and better environmental awareness. Specifically calling out the NSMBA and their partners will never go across well if you don't have an understanding of the process they have to go through to get to where they are. They do a lot of work to keep the trails open (people seem to remember the more tech trails but quickly forget a lot of the associated chainsaw massacres). Some of the biking areas South of the border would kill for relationships like those the NSMBA has been able to build.

If you can't comfortably ride a cx bike on it then it's just too damn tech for me. I welcome ye olde new gravel path. The op is probably riding some sort of all mountain or freeride bike or something. What a fucking pussy.

regarding the convoluted spaghetti. Perhaps you haven't noticed the signs that say 'uphill only'. Perhaps you haven't noticed where it crosses the original trail. Thats all I have to say about that.

Regarding the argument that the trail is now a path. Did you not see the two bridges at one point that are each at least 4 feet wide? Two bridges? Really?

My chief argument is this.
The premise of all this work was to mitigate the traffic on the trail. How did cutting out trail features that have been in place for a decade mitigate this on a section that already splits the traffic? I just don't understand why this was done. It would be great to hear from one of the people that actually handled the chainsaw to understand what he was thinking at the time.

I am glad to see that there are people out there that are happy with the fact that all the trail features on this section have been removed. Just remember this when one of your favourite trails gets chopped to hell to a dirt path in the interest of riders who might find that section tough.

Out of curiosity… when this trail becomes all dirt path (sorry… not gravel), and all the scary slippery roots get filled with dirt, and the bridges become a nice safe wide 4 feet and there are no more tough little climbs is that when people are allowed to become a little upset? Or is that when we celebrate taming the shore and ensuring access for all? I'm upset. I am allowed to be upset. Other people are upset.

Oh and to AussieDreamZ,the guy that posted the image of riverside.. you tell me how different the new section of the bypass is?