PedalTrout

The Nova Scotia Mountain Bike Trails Association held it's first official International Trails Day event at Fitzpatrick Mountain today. A crew of 10. armed with leaf rakes, loppers, shovels and Pulaskis, headed onto the trail to fix trouble spots and prep the course for the upcoming Fitz of Fury Provincial Mountain Bike Championship Race.

What do you get when you cross 10 avid mountain bikers with a trail that needs some love? Well, for one thing, you get dirty. With the first swing of my Pulaski, I not only coated myself in goopy swamp mud, but I think I served a helping to most of the others who were helping me drain a horribly wet section of trail, as well. Nobody complained, even jokingly - everyone was far too intent on solving the problem of water that had nowhere to go.

Manual labour aimed at improving something you love doesn't seem difficult at all. While shoveling snow from a driveway is a task from hell, scooping muck from the earth with your bare hands and digging mildewy, mossy rocks from long-buried piles is almost zen-like. As we worked on draining and armouring that trail very little was said but everyone seemed content. There was no question or argument about how to proceed - we just latched onto some tools and made it happen.

After almost 3 hours of work, our group reunited with those who had gone to rake. Although rain had started to fall, the trail was mostly dry and it was time to ride.

The true test of repairs on the trail comes when rock meets rubber. Our major fix passed with flying colours and despite increasing amounts of wet stuff falling from the sky we made it to the top of the mountain and back down again in one piece, tired, but still smiling.

The day ended with beer (and food) at a Pictou pub. As we sat and ingested, discussing matters bicycle-related and not, it occured to me that of all the sports and interest groups I've known, mountain biking is unique. It's the only one where a group of strangers, united only by a common interest, can agree upon a task, complete it, socialize willingly afterwards, and do so without a single argument, dispute or mean-spirited competetive bribe.

To everyone who came out today, thanks! What a sincere and wonderful group of people you are. To everyone who missed out, I hope you'll have a chance to experience a day like this sometime soon.

Every time I volunteer for something a voice in the back of my head asks me "What the hell are you doing? You know you're going to regret this." Today's work session proved that voice wrong and I'm pretty certain that with fine folks like these throwing themselves into the mix, the Nova Scotia Mountain Bike Trails Association is going to be a force to be reckoned with.

The beginning of the NSMTBTA as captured by Sue Earle's laptop

Twenty passionate people gathered in Truro on December 5th to discuss the state of mountain bike trails in Nova Scotia. The public forum led by Garnet McLaughlin of the Cobequid Eco-Trails Society and Sherry Huybers started as an information and idea session and ended with the committment to organize a non-profit association with the mandate of advocating for mountain bike trails across the province.

Along with providing useful information on everything from land access to funding to cooperating with other user groups, Garnet made a very poignant observation - that mountain bikers in this province have lost out time and time again when trail use is discussed between builders and governments. The problem is that we've never had an organization to represent us, therefore we're frequently overlooked.

The Nova Scotia Mountain Bike Trails Association (NSMTBTA)will be the answer to that problem. As soon as the association is registered we will hold our first AGM to elect directors, establish a plan of attack and begin our work of securing land and developing trails that mountain bikers in Nova Scotia will be able to ride for decades to come.

If the positive energy present at yesterday's meeting was any indication, great things are about to happen. Want to get involved or be kept up to date? Send an email to NSMTBTA@gmail.com and we'll add you to our mailing list. Things are looking up for mountain bikers in Nova Scotia.