!@$@%@
Well said Stratocaster. Allamuchy Joe, me, Stratocaster and Karen W all decided yesterday to do a fun little loop in Allamuchy North. We all hoped to enjoy the day with a ride. The ride turned out to be a lot of "cross training" with sawing, dragging and lifting the deadfall. We didn't plan to do TM on the ride, it just happened that we took care of what we could as we were riding.
I was kind of blown away when 3 of us were working on a section of trail and a large group of riders came through - amazingly, not one of them offered to help drag some of the stuff off the trail, they just peddled through looking annoyed that our bikes were on the side of the trail. I think what really got me was watching them wait on top of the next little rise (we could see them) for their slower buddies to catch up...guess offering to help wouldn't have really slowed down their ride if they were waiting for others anyway. :hmmm: And BTW the direction they came from was littered with smaller stuff that blocked the trail that could have easily been moved by hand - we took care of that also.
I don't get that, if you enjoy riding the trails and you see stuff blocking them or a few people trying to clear them, it doesn't kill your ride to stop and help move stuff - if everyone did that a few times, the deadfall from the last storm (and future storms) would be fixed in record time
One of my fellow riders brought your post to my attention and I have to say I’m insulted(even if not directed at me)!!
I’ll quote some of what was sent to me.
“this kind of pisses me off because people go on threads and say stuff like this without realizing what other people do.”
First off I was at muchy on Sat clearing trail. I ride at muchy about once a week and almost every time I ride I do trail work. I also attend trail maintenance days every time I can, provided I am available. As for the rest of the people that I was riding with, all of them put more than their fair share of trail work in maintaining the parks that they live closer to.
Now your point of many hands makes light work “was kind of blown away when 3 of us were working on a section of trail and a large group of riders came through - amazingly, not one of them offered to help drag some of the stuff off the trail” is not lost on me.
Or the point you make when you said “decided yesterday to do a fun little loop in Allamuchy North. We all hoped to enjoy the day with a ride. The ride turned out to be a lot of "cross training" with sawing, dragging and lifting the deadfall. We didn't plan to do TM on the ride, it just happened that we took care of what we could as we were riding.” I agree with you, it doesn’t hurt to do a little work when you ride, and I will add sometimes things don’t work out as planned. (The 2h 45m ride that we planned turned into a four and a half hour ride.)
I would like to point out “all work and no play make jack a dull boy”
, most of the people on that ride rarely ever get the cance to ride muchy, and besides we did move some stuff off the trail earlier in the ride. I would also like to say that none of us were annoyed with you, when we passed you that was near the end of nearly four and a half hours of riding. We had all had enough and wanted to be done with the ride.:drooling:
I’ve only know these riders for a short while, but the amount of maintenance that I have seen and or been a part of. In combination with the dedication to maintain or improve trail access that I have seen with this group of riders has really impressed me. That’s why I decided to join the same club that they are all a part of. (Black Bear Cycling.com) the club has been taking care of Wawayanda for some time, they do the Wawayanda spring cleaning race. We have also just taken on the challenge of maintaining Stokes, and it needs a lot of work but has fantastic riding. And the last I heard we will also be taking on the Ringwood fall classic next year. I don’t know exactly how many people we have in the club but it’s not a lot. Any and all help would be great.
The insult comes from your assumption that we don’t do any maintenance, and can’t be bothered to because we didn’t offer to help finish clearing the spot that you had stopped at, and then proceed to ridicule our behavior without knowing a thing about any of us. To me you come off as being one of those people that wants the pat on the back every time you do something good, and you make sure to tell everyone about. I’m guessing you steamed for the rest of the day over it, or maybe you just wanted everybody to know how good a person you are. For all I know you do more work than everyone. Sorry we annoyed you.
I hope that all of you that ride, wherever you ride, take care of the trails that take care of you!!!
My apologies,
Steve