(File photo)
The Portland United Mountain Pedalers (PUMP) want to show Portland officials what singletrack is all about. They’ve sent an invite to City Commissioners, Parks Department staffers and other key stakeholders for a mountain bike ride through Forest Park later this month.
According to PUMP, the ride will show “what is possible if we focus on environmentally-friendly recreational opportunities,” and will include a “discussion of opportunities for creating additional singletrack within city limits.”
The invite-only, nine-mile ride will include a descent down Saltzman Road, a short singletrack experience on the newly completed Fire Lane 5 and a few miles on the Leif Erickson fire road.
Stay tuned for a full report and photos from the ride.
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I went down fire lane 5 the other week on a touring bike with 35m tires. I had no idea what I was getting into! I made it down in one piece though.
I\’m not much of a mountain biker, but it would be cool to see more trails available for those who are. PUMP has always impressed me as a responsible organization as well, so more power to them.
I don\’t consider a fire road to be singletrack at all, and went I went up to Forest Park all the singletrack trails seemed to be marked NO BICYCLES like over in Washington Park. Those hikers must have strong lobbies to get mountain bikers kicked off every decent trail in the city.
SkiDmark,
There is no \”hikers lobby\” working to get bikers \”kicked-off\” trails and frankly it is absurd and misleading to suggest that there is. The question of whether to allow more mountain bike access in Forest Park has only only emerged relatively recently in the Park\’s 60+ year history. The last thing we need is for public discourse about single-track mountain biking to be reduced to a simplistic, divisive battle of hikers vs. bikers. Not only are there more than two sides to this issue (like those who neither hike nor bike) there are non-recreational values associated with water quality and wildlife to consider. Being Portlanders, I can only assume that most bikers and hikers themselves value these things and want to appropriately manage all recreational impacts, existing or potential.
Jim
Um… ever hear of the Sierra Club?
http://www.poisonoakproductions.com/
The Sierra Club has a history of trying (and succeeding) at closing trails to mountain bikes. The conflict is as old as mountain biking itself, so don\’t try to pretend that the conflict doesn\’t exist. It may not be the case here in Portland but at some point those signs were put on the trails and my guess it was right around the time of the first mountain bike boom in the mid-80\’s. Before you go and say I am wrong you should at least find out why mountain bikes aren\’t allowed on trails here in Portland.
\”Those hikers must have strong lobbies to get mountain bikers kicked off every decent trail in the city.\”
Why does this sentence make me, literally, laugh out loud? It may well be true, but it just sounds so over-the-top conspiracy theorist. Those #%$#@ hikers and their evil plan to eliminate mountain biking. Better watch out. I keep having to re-read it and every time I chuckle again.
I\’m thinking that maybe some people want to have places to hike that aren\’t going to be overrun by cyclists. It seems like they SHOULD be separate \”tracks\” (or trails as they are known in the hiking world) because when the trail is narrow, there just isn\’t room for both. And when you are hiking, you are noticing every little thing on the ground and all around you, taking it all in. ON a bike, it\’s more of a thrill ride – not as much need for a pretty view. There should just be separate trails. And yes, it\’d be nice if there were more bike trails.
\”ON a bike, it\’s more of a thrill ride – not as much need for a pretty view.\”
There you go making assumptions about why mountain bikers ride off-road, and that they all ride off-road for the same reason.
I ride singletrack trails (as opposed to double-track fire roads) to be close to nature, literally immersed in it, with tree limbs whizzing by my head. I am not alone on this, if you had bothered to click the link and watch the trailer you would know that and you would that singletrack refers to the width of the trail, and not it being a race track like you were trying to imply. Another reason the mountain bikers like singletrack is because the narrowness of the trail and the rocks and tree roots are obstacles that demand a certain amount of skill to negotiate, and contrary to the stereotypical image of the \”Extreme Mountain biker\” require a much slower pace. I can\’t go that fast on a singlespeed fixed mountain bike anyways, I may reach a blistering 8-10 mph downhill, and before anyone infers anything about fixed bikes being deathtraps it has cantilever brakes on both wheels.
The \’lobby\’ is Friends of Forest Park,(FoFP) and they do a TON of work helping to maintain trails for ALL users of the park. That is why I am a dues paying member of them AND I sit on the Board of Directors of PUMP. Actions speak louder than words, which is why we, Portland\’s only MTB club, works with the city and our friends, FoFP to help maintain access to the 28 miles of firelanes and the new 2/10\’s of a mile extension of Firelane 5 that is open to bicycles.
Bicycles are onlt allowed on the 8 foot wide firelanes due to the rules adopted in the 1995 Forest Park Plan. It will be re-written some year, and mountain bicyclists will have a say on what the rules are. We are a significant user of the park, there is a demand for it, and a huge lack of supply of singletrack(singetrack was defined by the Sierra Club in 1988). So, if mountainbikers WANT more access within the parks that their tax $ pay for, speak up AND act AND ride responsibly. Lets be nice and work together…..
I\’m a little too broke to be a dues-paying member of anything, but my back is strong. I am perfectly willing to maintain the trails I ride. It would be nice if they were only a foot or two wide, but hey…
Despite my name I don\’t skid when I am riding offroad.