The camp brick trails were built by the equestriains so they do have a right to be there. Not to mention the fact that there's very few places horses can ride on the shore
We just rode through the area, while you can see damage from the horses and their deposits… the main damage and widening was caused by the mtb events held there last Month and in the previous 4 years.
Since the trail is so wide now I'm sure we can share…
That particular piece of trail was not built by the horse folk nor the one above it. There are some around there on the west side of the road which are horse trails. Wide and bark mulchy. Horse trails require a softer resiliant surface to stand up to shod hooves. Hikers need steps on steepest slopes and bike riders need armoured pave for the steep bits. All need bridges over marshes and creeks of any significance.
So much of this stuff is pretty straightforward and simple common sense. The problem is people make groundless arguments based on emotions. Then you need scientific studies, strategic alpine plans and crap like that. I meen come on, it's a god damn no brainer. People parking at the top of Mountain Hwy making asses of themselves and disturbing resisdents? Every one knows the only proper answer is a god damn parking area past the gate up to the water toxers. Make the road wide enough to accomodate angle parking and retain resident only status in front of residences and be done with it. All these studies and crap is mostly, not entirely but mostly a waste of time and resources.
Fact: mountain biking will not go away because a very small minority of frog huggers are displeased with it. There are too many of us, we pay taxes we support local businesses.
Fact: we share the space with the rest of the community so we do have to live with each other and 99% of all of us do. There are only a small number of cry babies who can't play with others.
Fact: parking in front of residences by non residents will always be an issue so there must be suitable parking for users of any damn public recreational facility, indeed stores and other working buildings like offices and hospitals need employee and visitor parking.
Fact: all trail users impact the trail surfaces and wear them out, some more than others. It's been shown in a number of studies that mountain bikes and hikers have very similar impacts. There's more of us so we riders cause more wear as a group. We also do considerable work to fix what we break. Hikers used to that stuff, but hikers have been replaced by riders to a large extent. If there were no mountainbikers, there would be more hikers but probably not close to the same numbers. Riding is simply much more fun than hiking in this day and age of extremeness.
Fact: the North Shore is NOT wilderness. It's at the margin a a very large City. And probably 95% second growth. I cringe evertime some stinkin hippy refers to it as pristeen. I have seen pristine first hand as a former geologist. That ain't pristine. You can hear and smell the city just about anywhere we ride regularly. The wildlife is pretty much used to us. Coyotes and Racoons, skunks and bears all frequent the city. Whether we ride there or not will not change that a bit.
Sorry. Three coffees and a really bad week at work will do this to a guy.
Debate? Bikes are made for riding not pushing.
