Went down to Murphy, NC for the weekend to hang with Burrito Bob and then meet up with Swanson and Eddie for his birthday and to check out Tellico. For those of you that don’t know, Tellico is probably one of the most popular places in the country for four-wheeling. It’s located on National Forest Land and is approved and actually commercialized by the government. There is a whole town that pretty much depends on the four-wheeling community and the trials they have access to. Check out the pic on the right. This image popped some questions in my head. If the forest service allows guys to drive trucks up the side of this mountain and cause this kind of erosion, why can’t mountain bikers have somewhere to build trails legally instead of having this kind of mishap?
I don’t have anything against 4 wheeling, I’m just using this as a point that the forest service apparently has some mis-conceptions about mountain biking. If there is land set aside for this user group to have trails and pretty much reak-havoc on the environment why can’t there be a section of the forest set aside for mountain bikers to build SUSTAINABLE, challenging trails. Just doesn’t make much sense to me. Why are mountain bikers banned from certain trails in the forest? Is it user conflict? Or maybe some trails are too steep for bikes to be on according to someone? Think about some of our local trails out in Wilson Creek for example. School House Ridge Trail is a very popular trail for horseback riders. These horseback riders have provided us with a pretty awesome gnarly decent from the erosion their 1500 pound animals cause. Did bikes cause that erosion? Doubt it. Think about trails that get the most mountain bike traffic in Wilson’s. Greentown is an easy example. Can anyone think of any section of that trail that is becoming eroded? I can’t, and that trail gets probably the most use of any in Wilson’s.
My point is that, there has to be a good reason that mountain bikers aren’t allowed on certain trails, and the reason can’t be because mountain bikes have too much of an impact on the environment. There is no reason that we should have to tip-toe around trails that we aren’t sure if we can or can’t ride.
There are some pics from the weekend riding in the Photo Gallery I had a good time seeing some new stuff. Happy B-Day again Eddie, Thanks Swanson for the invite and thanks Charles for the hospitality. Good riding for sure.
- : 2.8
5 responses so far ↓
1 JohnBoy // Oct 3, 2007 at 2:35 pm
Brian, I think there is a simple answer to your question. WE DONT MAKE THEM ANY MONEY! They let the 4x people cause they bring money to there local economy, gas, food, hotels, I guess they think Mtn bikers wouldnt come in and spend the money. I really dont think that erosion is the real issue.
2 MoRon // Oct 4, 2007 at 7:25 am
hell yeah, its all about money. Everything is!
3 burt // Oct 11, 2007 at 10:08 pm
it’s because some rogue mtn biker scared some governors poodle one day.
-those damn mtn bikers!!
—the environment is just the excuse for the rule
4 MALONEY // Nov 9, 2007 at 12:16 am
Dude I swear I never even saw the poodle!! Lots of reasons , mostly NOT enough voices to be heard. I’m not talking about bitching about it with your friends either. Find the meetings and drag all your riding friends to them and be heard. Oh yeah I also know of a local area to build at. For a six pack I might tell you.
5 moron // Nov 9, 2007 at 8:09 am
yeah maloney, i agree….we can’t get anything done without being heard as a group. power is in numbers….and there seems to be more and more riders every day around here.
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