Another gravel path… Courtesy of MEC and NSMBA http://bb.nsmb.com/showthread.php?t=154312
riding uphill on established trails http://bb.nsmb.com/showthread.php?t=154442
Looks like both threads have come to a head on collision at the recent trail work on the Catherine's Climb portion of the High School loop on Lower Seymour
I would like to say "nice" trail work or "great" trail work such as with recent developments along Bridle Path and in the Richard Juryn area. BUT Catherine's Climb has been decomissioned to build a new trail with a series of double jumps and steep berms
I ride or run on this portion of trail most weeks of the winter and have observed that Catherine's Climb has primarily been used as a technical climbing line and as a dog walker area (especially for those dogs that have yet to be socialized and need to get away from the crowds quickly). Now the berms are too steep and narrow to walk comfortably up, trap small dogs in the gutter, and the whoop de doos are constructed such that as in the words of the riders who went down it the other evening "begging to be doubled".
Is the District in cahoots with the anti-mountain bike wing? Trails like this new jump track are just going to give more ammunition to the anti-bikers when collisions occur between dirt jumpers, and dogs or walkers. The new trail would have been OK if built separately to the old climbing line. Yes portions of Catherines Climb were boggy and rooty like Will's Way, but the majority of it was up on the ridge and well drained. This new trail is also a bad location for a jump track since it doesn't have a quick route back to the top without going up the same track you just came down, and the trail dumps out into a highly conjested multi-use area. The ideal place for this type of jump track would have been in Canyon Creek Park between Berkely Ave and Riverside Drive or near one of the neighbouring schools. Loutet Park is an example of good planning.
Was any survey conducted by the District of the main users of Catherine's Climb? Where is the long range plan for the types of trails on Lower Seymour? It looks like the only consideration in the District's plan is to meet the needs of tricycles/baby strollers at one end and dirt jumpers at the other extreme. If more people were aware of the plans for this trail, I'm sure they would have become politically active to alter the plan. People are not going to volunteer their labour to build something they don't approve of.
Most of us (trail runners, dog walkers, hikers, xc riders, trail riders, AM riders, horse riders) are between the tricycle or dirt-jumper extremes and can get along with each other well if the trails are maintained to original intent, or in the case of new trails are designed properly:
- allow two way traffic
- provide/keep lots of natural features for aesthetic, technical challenge and speed reduction purposes
- build and/or maintain with minimal foreign material or with minimal movement of materials from one area to another (especially consider less use of motorized equipment/vehicles and the associated greenhouse gas production)