TWW January Rant by Mike "Eagle Scout" Gin Trail maintenance. It is a very important aspect of mountain biking. Without it, we'd probably have no singletrack open to us. Local clubs everywhere spend countless hours to improve trail conditions - often times on trails not even open to mountain bikes. How's that for some goodwill towards man? Many, many thanks to these organizations who continue to fight this uphill battle. However, there is a dilemma out there faced by true mountain bikers who maintain trails ("true mountain biker" defined as one who thinks that riding a fire road is as exciting as watching paint dry or who thinks a pace line is the line that the husband of an expectant mother is walking in the hospital waiting room). Just how smooth and easy do you make a trail? For many of us, the technical challenge is the majority of the fun. Make a trail super easy and really, really smooth - well, might as well road bike. Really, what is the point? Yup, a lot of the times it is nice to ride smooth rolling singletrack. But if the existing trail has some technical sections in it, don't sanitize those sections. LEAVE THEM ALONE!!! Do not pass go. Do not collect $200. And yes, THAT IS YOUR FINAL ANSWER!!! I'm not talking about 4 foot drops and big double jumps (yeah, like we'd ever see those anyhow). I'm talking about the rocky, rooted sections of trails. The sections that require skill to navigate (you know, those places that roadies typically dismount). Remember, the more skills you have, the more fun mountain biking is - that's a no brainer, isn't it? By trying to ride these sections, you build your skills. Get it? Duh. And not only are these sections good challenges, they help to slow cyclists down so they're not haulin' ass on the trail and plow into hikers. Consider them natural speed bumps (or oblivious pedestrians). Strike that last comment. One example that I recently encountered was at all places - Rockville - a place that I figured no sections would ever be sanitized. Well, I was wrong. One of the infamous chutes, or as TWW likes to call it, "Eve's Chute" was totally sanitized. This was a solid rock chute. Really tough at the top and then kinda pick the correct line type of riding at the bottom. On a ride there, we noticed someone had broken up a big section of rock at the top section. Now it's easy as freakin' pie. Shoot, I've seen unskilled roadies almost clean it. Jeez, very, very disappointing. That took some major effort (and/or a really big sledgehammer) to break up that rock. And those sections of rock can never ever be replaced. Is Manzanita next? OH THE HUMANITY! What's the freakin' deal here? Are land managers worried about lawsuits? Do they think that the majority of users don't want this stuff? If I'm not mistaken, mountain biking has been classified as an "inherently dangerous sport". This is critical in that persons have much less to stand on in a lawsuit if they were injured while mountain biking. So leave the technical stuff in. Hikers can navigate these sections much easier than a mountain biker. That shouldn't be an issue. Horses will amaze you at what they can navigate. I don't think Devil's Staircase would have been a difficult ride for a horse. Shoot, maybe it's not the land managers at all. Maybe it is the people organizing trail maintenance days. Perhaps these folks have a vision of how the trail should be. Perhaps they're not as technically inclined when it comes to mountain biking and think "smooth is better." Well, we have to help educate these people if this is the case. Often, removing these technical sections requires the most work - so why not spend the time on other critical areas of the trail (i.e. drainage, slope stabilization, etc.). If you're a technical rider, you ABSOLUTELY MUST get out to trail maintenance days to help ensure this stuff stays in there. Your input may be critical in saving a favorite section of trail. I know TWW will make their best effort to get out to Rockville's trail maintenance days before it's too late. You should too. This is Mike "Eagle Scout" Gin signing off. Good night America. You can contact Mike Gin at ginmtb@hooked.net. Please, no firebombs or tee-peeing the house. Thanks!

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