Good day today. 8 bikers, 0 hikers, 2 park guys (Duncan and Tom). The 20 or so hikers all went hiking while we worked on their trails.
Gotta' admit this has been "stickin' in my craw" a little bit. First a disclaimer:
MDR is a great park, is in my back yard, and I want to see it enjoyed by everybody. As such, I'm perfectly happy working on trails up there in which I will never roll a mountain bike tire on.
Now with that being said, I must exclaim WTF?! When I first pulled into the parking lot, I got very excited. The big MCPC trailer was there and people were all over the freakin' place (maybe even more than the 20 Norm estimates). Wow! This is gonna' be most kick-ass TM day EVER! In all the TM I've done at MDR in the last year and a half, only one hiker has ever shown up for a session. This is great! I genuinely thought it was gonna' be awesome working with a strong contingent from the hiking community.
Then I noticed that most of these folks didn't look like they were getting ready to go play in the dirt. Hmm. I then learned, of course, that there was an organized hike launching at the same time as part of the national trail day thing.
Okay, that's cool. Surely, some of these folks are here for TM and not the hike (again there were a LOT of people).
But no, the only folks (sans Duncan and Tommy) who were there for TM were we bikers. Oh well, that's disappointing, but this is what we're used to up here.
Then I learned we were building a re-route off Headley Overlook that was to be a foot traffic only trail. Jeez, really? Okay, fine...'needs to be done. And besides, Duncan and Tommy put in more time and effort than any five (or MORE) of us building all trail types in Morris County, so it is all good.
It was still disappointing, though. I just hope that they all had a great hike and that none of them sneer or make disparaging remarks to any mountain bikers they meet on their hikes (especially those of us that do TM!). Though, I'll also wager that virtually none of them had any clue that the little group of folks who were sweaty, dirty, and tick covered were bicycle riders that built them a pretty cool hiking trail...while they hiked.
Well, at least the Morris County folks know where the vast majority of their volunteer trail labor comes from...that has to be good for us.
. Participants at our sessions have ranged from mid-teens to late 60's.
