Cedar Relics

Today I went for a ride and somewhat of a walkabout. It has been a few years since I went for a walk in the forest looking for old abandoned trails and other things that are hidden in the forest.

I arrived early in the morning and started my climb up the hill and came upon two tents plopped right in the middle of the trail. As I rolled through their 'camp' I noticed broken bottles, garbage and other stuff, but I just kept going. But I thought to myself that there are going lots of people riding today and these guys really should not be where they are, so I rolled back to their camp and just spoke out loud to them. I definitely had their attention because one dude shot up out of his tent likely thinking I was a bear.

I was polite, but very concise in telling them that they should not be camped where they are, they were camping in the middle of a trail and in 2 hours they can expect 50 people coming by and I told them to clean up their mess. The dude that was out of the tent seemed receptive to my recommendations and I was on my way for my ride. Odd beginning to my ride for sure.

Two tents complete with tikki torches

So I made my way up to Gold. This is one of the original trails that was constructed when 'free-riding' was just in it's infancy and the legends of 'North Shore' trails were just beginning to be whispered amongst mtn bikers. Currently Gold is closed and should not be ridden. I went for a ride/walk down it to document its condition and to see first hand up close what needs to be fixed before it could be considered to to opened again. What I found was kind of depressing. EVERY single wooden feature is broken and needs to be fixed. The years of riding, weather and negelct has taken it's toll on this former gem of a trail and there are too few people dedicated to keeping the trails running. This trail has been taken off the maintenance radar. Maybe one day it will see some loving, but it will not be open for riding any time soon.

So after Gold and some other trails I went on a walkabout to see what I could find. What I did manage to find was an old logging road and a couple HUGE dead standing trees that may one day be linked up together with a bridge. This can only happen if other people start helping to maintain the trails so in reality this will likely never happen.

A massive ancient dead standing tree

During my walkabout I ran into Dave that hikes up here all the time on the weekends. I showed him the logging road I found and then we parted ways in the forest. We certainly startled each other seeing someone else in the forest this early in the morning.

So I then rode over to line that is not suppose to exist. Looks like a very cool line with some nice rock faces. If completed it will be a cool line, but only time will tell if it gets completed. I then made my way over to Snakes and Ladders where I had planned to do a little buffage of some sections, but my partner in crime on the trail moved the tools and I had no idea where to look for them. So I just continued riding.

Out to the road and over to Shotgun I went for the quick rip to my car. I had an excellent ride with a good hike thrown in there. So many things I'd like to do on the trails and so little time to do them.