Over the last several month's MORE has received a number of concerning communications from officials regarding mountain biking in the watershed. In chronological order, these include:
- MORE was emailed concerns from high level officials within DNR regarding mountain biking in the Watershed and potential impact to the land being managed as a wildlife management area. This was in response to internal DNR inquiries about mountain biking in the watershed prompted by DNR's trail coordinator.
- Subsequently, as part of a response on our next trail reroute project for the Catoctin Trail we received detailed comments and concerns from DNR about mountain biking in general (i.e. not project related) which included comments about illegal trail building, concerns about protected species such as rattlesnakes and concerns about habitat destruction. As a result of these concerns, our current epic loop project is on hold. We are working to get this back on track.
- Most recently, the City recently received a complaint from a citizen who came across users building trails. When this person talked to them they claimed to be with MORE. This person was not doing official MORE trail work and it is unknown if they were even a member. The citizen complained "riders are ripping rocks and trees up to construct miles of trail/ jumps/bridges" and users are posting directions to "local bike shops and website blogs".
The real point is that this could easily happen in the beloved Meeshow.
http://www.more-mtb.org/forum/showthread.php?p=233238#post233238
Don't assume from the 3rd bullet that the problem is jumps. Read the whole thread if you want to understand the whole problem.
3 comments:
I'm not sure what you're getting at. Are you saying someone might catalog michaux and put it on trail wiki?
Not so much as a Wiki, catalog, or map, just in a general sense the Shed is the same as the Chaux. Places that are Don't Ask Don't Tell have problems nowadays with Garmin and Strava and blogs and Facebooks. I'm as guilty as any with posting photos and stories.
Both places have seen a huge increase in the amount of deer trails found in the past few years. We shouldn't be surprised if this happens here.
I think the worst part of the Shed saga is that Joe/DKeg/MORE/FBC have been so close to getting that one big epic loop blazed and official. That would pull in many of the fun deer trails.
I guess the upside is Garman,Strava,Wiki etc. can be used as proof of how many deer trail users there are.
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