OT, for those of you interested in MTB read please

[Guest Anonymous]

Unfortunately, as with many things, the actions of a few ruin a good thing for the rest of us. Locally we have had problems with many renegade riders causing a lot of damage and even causing a couple trails to be closed. Through the efforts of a very active local interest group we have been able to not only keep a endangered trail open but also get a couple of previously closed trails legally re-opened. The key for us has been working with other groups who utilize the trails combined with building smarter and better-planed trails. No doubt there has been a lot of compromise and a hell of a lot of manual work but in the end, we still have plenty of places to ride. The problem with Senator Boxer’s lobby driven bill as I see it, is that it blindly closes access to a huge number of trails to mountain bikers with no room for compromise. Once it goes into effect, that’s it, no more trails for mountain bikers although for the most part the areas will be free to other groups, which hardly seems fair. If these areas are so pristine, let’s make them off limits to everyone! It’s ironic that many of the same groups who were key in getting some of our local trial systems closed (equestrian groups) are currently doing more damage to our newly built “mountain bike” trails and we are now having to fight to keep them off “our” trails.

[Guest Anonymous]

(nt)