Pink Starfish

Here's the crux move when it comes to your position and the TAP program (which I,once again,support in principle)

Is the goal to make mountainbiking in your area more mainstream, or to maintain the trails to a standard?

Yes. The two are not mutually exclusive as some people here seem to be arguing.

The shore is a political mess because some people want to try and have a discussion on here about the future of a certain style of trail?

Is no discussion allowed any more?

Why does this subject cause so many to get their panties in a knot?

I'm not sure what "discussion" this thread is trying to accomplish. If we agree that we have been undergoing a change in the style of riding and trailbuilding over the past three to five years, then there seem to be a few opinions expressed in this thread:

• Bring on the flow, and let the "old, gnarly Shore" die its natural death.
• The Shore has always been gnarly, and it's time we had a balance of gnarly trails and flowy trails.
• The Shore has always been gnarly, keep it that way. Go somewhere else if you want flow.

The overwhelming majority of people that actually take the time to send me emails, give me a call, or talk to me personally express the second opinion. That is the direction the the NSMBA Board has heard from our members and the community, and that is the direction we are taking with trail maintenance and development.

This in no way excludes gnarly trails from our trail network. If I were to think about the entire North Shore trail network over the past ten years, and compare how "gnarly" it was, it might look something like this:

If you were born and raised on riding the North Shore over the past 15 years, you might not have the perspective that our trail network, when compared to trail networks around the world, is still at the extreme end of gnarlyness. Over the past 3-5 years, ongoing and active trail maintenance and construction has opened up a few opportunities for "flow", but overall, we're still really gnarly and will continue to be that way because of the natural terrain we have to work with.

So bringing this back to the topic at hand (which I thought was the status of Pink Starfish)

• There may be an opportunity to work on the trail.
• The trail could be a "gnarly, old-school trail."
• You and your buddies cannot hike up onto the trail and starting "fixing it up" (and expect it to make any lasting change to the status of the trail.)
• A formal plan would need to be created if work were to be done on this trail.
• Creating a formal plan will not guarantee that the trail will be re-opened.
• At this time, the NSMBA is not going to assign any of the resources that are currently available to us to create this plan. All our current resources are assigned to other projects of higher priority.
• If new resources became available to the NSMBA (say some individuals that were passionate about the trail and willing to have discussions and put together plans for the future of the trail), the NSMBA would most likely support the creation of this plan. I say most likely because I'm not going to speak on behalf of the board on a topic that has not yet come up for discussion.

If the above list does not clearly illustrate the current status of Pink Starfish, then I'm at a loss.

If you want to discuss the diagram I posted, and whether you want the Shore to be "gnarly", "flowy" or a bit of both, I'd suggest creating a separate thread and discussing it there. Keep this one specific to Pink Starfish.

Mathew

we still haven't had any volounteers to film the bike off..

Dizzy Cycles fires a shot at the forum dwellers.

Matt owning it as always, and the graph pretty much sums up my thoughts on the shore's trails…..and also, Dizzy killing it with that poster!

i like it! shows some spunk.

to be real here for a minute, like derhardtacklebox i'm not against TAP (despite what a few siginificant people seem to believe) and in fact have been singing a similar tune to their mandate since well before the TAP program came to be. however, i cry a bit inside for the loss of the "shore" sometimes when some particularly challenging sections of trail do get paved over. sometimes the erosion or trail degredation that happens delivers nasty little chutes and corners that are an absolute blast to ride. some of the best (imo) chunder sections of trail aren't natural, they've developed that way over time as the trail bed changes. it's sad to see those fun, nasty little pieces of "work" disappear.

all i've ever really argued for is leave those sections alone and if needed put in a smoother/buff re-route. like the other side says, the ridership will dictate which lines survive. if not enough people want the gnar, the forest will take it back, if they do it will survive. that way, most everyone wins.

all i've ever really argued for is leave those sections alone and if needed put in a smoother/buff re-route. like the other side says, the ridership will dictate which lines survive. if not enough people want the gnar, the forest will take it back, if they do it will survive. that way, most everyone wins.

Sound great on paper, but we both know the reality of what caused that fun section. Water running down the trail bed exposing roots and rocks. If you try to just leave that line and then add a second line around it then the erosion is just going to degrade further creating a deeper and deeper trench. More than likely that trail started life as a smooth duff topped loamer, it didn't account for water, nor the increased numbers of riders. Some sections can be fixed, some sections need re-route, and unless we get into the technical detail of a specific corner arguing generalities over the net is pointless. When you are on the ground looking at the options in dealing with the terrain sometimes the hard decision needs to be made to "loose some tech" but in the bigger picture it's the right choice.

Trail cannot be build by committee over the internet.

Sound great on paper, but we both know the reality of what caused that fun section. Water running down the trail bed exposing roots and rocks. If you try to just leave that line and then add a second line around it then the erosion is just going to degrade further creating a deeper and deeper trench. More than likely that trail started life as a smooth duff topped loamer, it didn't account for water, nor the increased numbers of riders. Some sections can be fixed, some sections need re-route, and unless we get into the technical detail of a specific corner arguing generalities over the net is pointless. When you are on the ground looking at the options in dealing with the terrain sometimes the hard decision needs to be made to "loose some tech" but in the bigger picture it's the right choice.

Trail cannot be build by committee over the internet.

preaching to the choir man, i know the drill as well as anyone else who builds to a proficient level. i'm not saying everything can be saved, but i have seen some things get "fixed" more than they needed to.

the thing with trail building is that there's a certain innate knowledge needed beyond having the right skills or training to make things work well. a lot of that simply comes from experience and spending enough time fixing other people's mistakes as well as your own. like you said, you really need to be on the ground to know whether something can be saved or needs to be completely re-done.

http://whimpsmtb.org/north-fork-anniversary-volunteer-day-april-21st/

I hope the North Fork riding community is able to work with the landowners like TAP is doing - I couldn't watch the chainsaw massacres of bridges and woodwork…we got a great thing going here.

Any Bellingham riders out there - what's the latest with North Fork?

Laughing out loud that poster is spot on

ill go up against wade if he still has a broken hand.
i think the challenge was that he would show you that the gnar is still available ,not that you had to keep up.lets be realistic, you could have a worse day than to have the godfather drag your sorry ass around the shore; he knows nooks and cranny's that would blow any riders mind.
maybe the grumpy people would benefit from some terrain exposure.

I hope the North Fork riding community is able to work with the landowners like TAP is doing - I couldn't watch the chainsaw massacres of bridges and woodwork…we got a great thing going here.

Any Bellingham riders out there - what's the latest with North Fork?

On April 2, 2012, the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) used $23,000 of State Discover Pass funds to close the user-built mountain bike trails on Slide Mountain, commonly known as the North Fork.

Whatcom Trails Co-op (WTC) met with local and state DNR officials to see if an amenable solution could be determined, but the DNR would not change their course. We then launched an advocacy effort to save our trails that spurred hundreds of concerned citizens to contact our public officials. We received an unanimous vote from the Whatcom County Council urging Commissioner Goldmark to work with stakeholders to find a solution. We met with with our legislators of the 40th and 42nd districts. Doug Ericksen went to bat for us, and immediately brought the DNR officials to a meeting to discuss an interim solution.

Since our initial advocacy push:
In a July 2012 meeting, then Acting Deputy Supervisor of Uplands, Art Tasker, gave the NW Region the autonomy to come up with a creative solution for trail access - describing it as a pilot project.

The NW Region Manager, Ben Cleveland, directed his staff to walk the trails with us to see which were appropriate for a re-opening for the pilot project. WTC and DNR’s Recreation staff walked two of the primary North Fork trails, Moto and Shake and Bake, to look at them from an environmental and liability standpoint. Both trails we walked had very few issues and we felt like we were heading in a positive direction.

Summertime, wild fires hit eastern washington hard, and several of the DNR folks had to deal with that, delaying things. Region Manager Cleveland retired.

December 2012 we heard back from DNR staff that Assistant NW Region Manager, Laurie Bergvall, stated there would be no interim solution. We contacted the new Deputy Supervisor of Uplands, Kyle Blum, to schedule a meeting for January. Matt Shelton (WTC) and Glenn Glover (Evergreen Mt. Bike Alliance) traveled to Olympia to meet with Mr. Blum and DNR’s head of Recreation, Mark Mauren, in late January 2013 to discuss this option again. A week later Mr. Blum said that the long-term planning process is the only option available to us and we are now back to square one.

Changes to Whatcom County Mountain Bike advocacy:
Last month, Whatcom Trails Co-op and the WHIMPS Mountain Bike Coalition merged to form the Whatcom Mountain Bike Coalition. In the past WTC had primarily worked with the DNR on Blanchard Mountain leading national trail days, attending DNR sustainable recreation meetings, and worked to legitimize the trails at the North Fork. The WMBC had worked to build and maintain the trail network on Galbraith Mountain, the Civic Dirt Jumps, along with projects for Whatcom County Parks and Larrabee State Park. Now all mountain bikers in Whatcom County are represented by one group with a stronger voice. The land managers we work with describe us as determined, knowledgeable, hardworking, and good stewards of the land. Local politicians see the tremendous value of low-cost recreation that drives tourism and creates a quality of life that attracts business and talented employees. With one group representing mountain bikers in Whatcom County, we have increased resources to achieve our goals, a broader pool of motivated advocates, and a unified voice.

Future Advocacy and NF Cleanup day:
On April 21th, the WMBC is hosting a North Fork Volunteer Day. We will be cleaning up the gravel pits at the bottom of the mountain that are full of garbage from illegal dumping and shooting. We will have a barbeque and beverages for volunteers and our goal is to fill our 40 yard dumpster to the brim. We will invite the neighbors and local community out for food and to show support for our community.

that's a drag that you have to dig so deep for acceptance. i hope you can win the fat asses over.
i have said it before and ill say it again.
we live in paradise.

that's a drag that you have to dig so deep for acceptance. i hope you can win the fat asses over.
i have said it before and ill say it again.
we live in paradise.

Don't forget the on going fight with BC Parks over the Singing Pass access.