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.

What happens when you ride your bike for hours at a time?  You turn into Ryan MacDonald, of course.

Actually no, that’s not true, but if you do, good things may come your way.

Ryan has been pedaling hard for a few years now.  Because of his hard work, natural ability, and some great coaching he has been steadily transforming into an elite level cyclist.

Ryan’s talent has not gone unnoticed.  The Canadian National Cycling Team has invited him to travel to Europe in May to spend a month training with them. 

Ryan will head to Belgium from May 10th to 25th to stay and train at the new National Team house. From there he will chart a course to Switzerland to race in a UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale) 2.1, called Tour de Pays de Vaud, and then he’s off to Germany where he will compete in the UCI Nations Cup, Trofeo Karlsberg.  This is the spring program to prepare the National Cycling Team for the upcoming race season.

By partaking in this training program Ryan will build on the foundation to complete his goal of competing at the world level. Participating in this National Team project will not affect the Worlds selection, the Worlds selection is based on his performance at the National Championships, which is Ryan’s main goal for the season. But according to him,  “Being with the National coaches and other athletes for a full month will definitely help me later on in the season, mostly because it will get my name out there.”

With all the time away at only seventeen years old, Ryan’s education is also a concern. He will have work packages to do for the month away so he can keep up with his peers. The same will be done when he travels Quebec for the month of June to begin training with his new team from Quebec, Atrium-CC2R. Ryan admits that the time and distance away from family and friends can be tough, but by the same token he really loves the traveling. His first training camp will be in Cuba at the end of March, and not surprisingly,  he is really excited for it. “My teammates are really great!!”, offers Ryan, “I really can’t wait for the upcoming season and hope that it is injury free so I can do my best and try and win some races, or even help my team out for some wins!!”

 

 

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.

Well, it's really starting to wear me down. This crapshoot weather we've been having is starting to take it's toll on me really bad. I hardly ever get to ride as of late, let alone do anything else I enjoy, as most of it goes on outside. Went kiting once in the last month. Only really ride Tuesdays for the shop beginner rides. The car is almost due for an oil change. Lawn is jungle like out back. And my usually cheerful self can now be found cursing and swearing a lot while destroying things around me. Like mushrooms, garden gnomes and other cute things. And to make a bad situation worse, Cindy Day forcasted a bit of a dryer day, and was wrong. It was wet out. I know, I know. I still like her a bit, but not like I used to. Ruined it.
So, what are we to do? It is so tempting to bust out old school XC style, and just blaze through the woods, run down rivers, slide down washouts. You know, pre-single track days style. Seems like we worry so bad about not riding wet trails, but they are ALWAYS WET!!! What do they do in BC? They seem to ride A LOT, and they look pretty damp in most of the pictures I've seen. Maybe we need some kind of all-weather trail building to start going on. All I know is I'm soon going to pack the Dodge, and head for the western end of this country. Really though, we can't hardly ever do winter things in the winter because it's wet. So, we wait patiently for the promise of summer, only to be bitterly disappointed. So, I am going to see what the northern prarie provinces have to offer. BC is Soggy on one side. Alberta seems a tad expensive. I want DEFINED seasons, some rocks and lakes, and a job I can feed me and the cat with.
Is it more expensive out west? Probably. But, it starts costing you when you have to pay to have fun and still stay dry indoors, i.e. movies, eating out, shopping, bowling, pool, clubs, etc. And I don't even like a lot of that stuff. I want to be able to sit outside, mess around with my car, build stuff out of old junk, go fishing, shoot my slingshot collection and other desireable pastimes. As long as it doesn't rain on Hallowe'en. Or I'll finally go bad.