The truth about mountain biking in a nutshell

Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2008 20:02:25 -0700
Subject: The truth about mountain biking in a nutshell

The best recommended comment from the story about Kelowna's illegal
mtb courses. The truth. It happens here, too -- not just in the USA
and California, etc., like the Mayor likes to remind me. This guy,
"Joe Public", could not have stated it better:
 
"I was the live-in caretaker on Knox Mountain for two years. This is a
city park and not a mountain bike course and the problem lies
completely with the mentality of the mountain bikers. The city parks
department went to great lengths to allow and accomodate mountain
bikers within the park by discussing needs with mountain bikers and by
creating authorised trails for them to use. 
 
The problem is that most mountain bikers want to do what they want and
go where they want to go. They do not like to follow trails or remain
is selected areas, they like to create trails and jumps, and they are
destroying the park in the process. 
 
I have personally spoken to several "leaders" of local mountain bike
clubs and several owners of local mountain bike stores. Up front they
claim to be sup****tive of the park rules, yet when they think that no
one is watching, they lead groups of riders down pristine park fields,
creating new trails which will continue to erode for decades, or they
sneak into the park after hours to ride with headlamps. 
 
When approached on unauthorised trails, university educated riders
claim to have not seen the signs and curiously, the next time you
catch them on the same unauthorised trails, the signs have all been
knocked down. These same "leaders" were asked to form work crews to
repair the destruction of the city parks, yet not one rider cared
enough to show up. The rampant lack of respect for Kelowna's parks by
the mountain biking community is the main reason why I did not renew
my contract within the park. 

Over the course of 6 years, the mountain biking community of Kelowna
has shown no concern for the park itself, and as such and for the sake
of the park, should be banned completely. It will take 20 years to
repair the damage of their unauthorised rides. 
-- 
I am working on creating wildlife habitat that is off-limits to
humans ("pure habitat"). Want to help? (I spent the previous 8 
years fighting auto dependence and road construction.)

Please don't put a cell phone next to any part of your body that you are
fond of!

http://home.pacbell.net/mjvande