Cow canyon and the motards (rant)
It’s always nice when you can singlespeed something you use to suffer up on the little-ring. Juni and I went up cow canyon yesterday AM. Weather was great! The morning sun coming over the ridge from mogul was beautiful and even though there is all that building going on that area still seems almost remote.
Only intrusions are the sound of the Interstate, the one house poking over the hill from Mogul and the trenches, braids, stutterbumps and mudboggs cut into the trail by ATVs and motorbikes.
What used to be a sweet fast flowy and technical downhill is now unrideable in some spots thanks to motorbikers riding up the hill under full throttle in wet to muddy conditions. Now I’m not going to say those guys have no right to the trail (cause the USFS has already said that) but this could have been, and still could be, a good area where we can share the trail. The only thing we ALL need to do is concede this one simply tenant of two wheeled fun: If you can’t get up or down something without dragging your rear wheel, or digging a rut up a climb then you’re a hack and need to slow down and learn how to ride. Or am I missing something? Is that the goal these guys have? Do they see a nice trail and say, “Wow! how awesome would it be to obliterate that and make it almost impossible to ride!!!!!”
That said, this trail is not well aligned and is completely unsustainable even under the best of circumstances. Perhaps the Poedunks will get to it one of these years. I can’t help but think that when citizens look up at areas like that and then consider weather they want the City / County to limit development they think, “what’s the point? It’s just road warriors tearing shit up out there anyway…”
-M
i agree 100%, with the part about riding not sliding-roosting-widening-eroding by any trail user.
i’m not so sure that trail was completely unsustainable. the abrupt turns, off camber switchbacks and steep shots were a ton of fun and challenging. it held up fine to the occasional equestrian and mtb riders, but then again, the only people that rode it knew what they were doing and where to find the trail. it wasn’t too long ago that riding Cow Canyon (Bull Ck Ranch?) meant getting thrashed from brush reclaiming what was probably an old horse trail. when the south side of Peavine burned up a few years ago, all that changed. then consider the increased number of users out there… probably 20 x from 1995.
with the total lack of presence of USFS Rangers and any perception of consequences, there is a free for all state of mind among users of Peavine Mtn. as more people have their way with it, the proliferation of roads, illegal trail (OHV or otherwise), target shooting and the associated trash piles and shells, invasive weeds, disruption of artifacts, and impact to the easily disturbed soil and veg, Peavine Mtn is showing the wear and tear. i don’t really see that changing much until people as a whole see the landscape and all the things that live and play there as having intrinsic value.
As a lover of all things shiny and two-wheeled (motorized or not), it is a shame that there is an inherent conflict between dirtbikes and mountain bikes. Admittedly, though, there is pleasure in ripping a patch of Nevada desert dirt, leaving a Grand Canyon-sized rut behind (it’s ego-stroking, homoerotic, meathead and redneck … but also primatively fun). The secret is to do it in a place (like the upslope of a 45-degree climb, 15 miles into the outback), where it is unlikely to affect people, also like me, who like riding under human power too.
The people I “motard” with are mostly of the considerate variety, treading lightly, riding slowly closer to the trailhead and paying attention to the integrity of the trail, but there are those who fuck it up, so that we all get painted with the same broad brush. I don’t mind seeing more enforcement to get the assholes out of there, but I’d hate to see (more) areas cut off to dirtbikes just because of a few pricks.
Jim,
Don’t mean to paint all motos with the same brush. Just the ones who dig the ditches. Just cause it’s fun don’t make it right. I’m of a mind that you make as small a mark on the landscape as possible while still getting out there. That means ending the road in a place that leaves the longer trail, routing a trail on a shallower incline so that water won’t wash down the fall line and dig it’s own rut and digging a trench with a tire (motorized or not) is bad landscaping and bad form.
And at this point, I’d settle for keeping motorized vehicles out of the areas in which they are already prohibited.
-M
Jim,
With all do respect, it’s not a user conflict between dirtbikes and mountain bikes. It’s a conflict between offroad motorized users and everybody else. As a dirtbike rider that is respectful of his surroundings and other users your a minority. As a former Jeep enthusiast, I have been on the other side of the argument. While there are a few caring individuals that use gas to get themselves into the back country, most( and I will broad brush here, because I know it to be true) are selfish, indignant assholes. I live right next to a very popular multi-use access road onto Peavine, so I see day-in and day-out who uses it and how they do it. Anybody who has been on Peavine this spring has seen the impact motorized vehicles have had just this winter alone. Every time it snows, every booger eater and swinging dick with a throttle sees it as an opportunity to tear shit up. I have personally witnessed a Toyota pick up with a “Tread Lightly” sticker on it’s tailgate doing donuts in the middle of a sagebrush field during one of those snowy afternoons. One motorized vehicle is capable of massive amounts of damage in one afternoon. I believe every user group has a responsibility to police it’s own and the motorized crew isn’t getting it done. The last five to eight years have been particularly devastating with the growth of Reno and the massive proliferation of dirtbikes, quads and Jeeps/trucks.
Part of the problem is our climate. This is the driest state in the Union. Our local environment is incapable of repairing itself. If we were in an area that received more rain such as the North West or South East this would all be a moot point, the biggest problem they have is keeping the trails from being over grown from season to season.
While I have a very pessimistic view of our local agencies such as Washoe County, and the Forest Service and believe that nothing will be done to mitigate this issue. The only solution is to designate an OHV specific area and close the rest of the mountain off to OHV’s. OHV users could have they’re own area to do what they want. Mud Bogging, hill climbs, abandon they’re old cars, dump they’re TV’s and shoot the shit out of all of it. It’s not a few bad apples ruining it for everybody else, it’s a lot of bad apples ruining it for a few. Now I’m ready for the shit storm. Blah, blah, blah don’t “take away my right’s”. It’s public property and so on. My answer to all of it is OPEN SPACE IS TO BE ENJOYED, NOT DESTROYED! I’d like to be able to take my kids on Peavine in 20 years and enjoy it, not say it used to be a cool place.
I believe every user group from OHV’s to mountain bikers to dog walkers have an impact on our local environment and they all have they’re assholes. Mountain bikers are usually next on the shit list when things start getting closed off, so trust me when I say I don’t take closing anything off lightly.
Grislybikegeek,
I don’t ride a moto, probably never will. I can’t stand the smell, how loud they are, or how stupid some of their operators can be. BUT, almost all of the singletrack we currently ride and feel territorial about was cut by motos, Bull Creek Ranch, errr, “Cow Canyon” included.
You guys might remember that the trail was an absolute disaster after the fires in 2005. There was one rut in particular on the section of trail that climbs out of the first drainage up onto the flats (right before the singletrack intersection). It was impossible for MTBs because it was too deep and narrow. Pedals would just hit dirt of you tried to ride it. The upper part of the track was a combination of nightmare ruts and almost unridable sand. Motos went to work on that trail. They probably weren’t trying to be altruistic, but in the course of their brappin’ the sand was work-hardened and displaced, and the ruts were whittled back into something ridable. Slowly but surely, Cow returned, and it was better than ever. Moto riders built the trail, and then–after fire and flood wrecked it–they quite literally gave Cow back to us.
Considering most moto riders no longer ride the trails that they originally built/carved/cut/whatever; I’m inclined to paint the crowd with a broad brush of consideration. Most have “ceded” their original trails to the MTB contingent and have gone on to find new places to play (I.E. far western side of peavine below the aspen grove, where there’s some ridiculously fun, swooping singletrack with massive, high-speed banked turns, and huge rollers for jumping). If you’ve ever had to stop riding a trail because it’s been decided that it’s for “hikers only,” you’ll have an idea how these guys feel about no longer being able to ride something they built. Maybe our time’s better spent calling out the bad ways of some of our own: like the ways MTB’ers are slowly trashing the Keystone area by cutting multiple trails, riding around snow patches instead of walking the line of the trail, bombing off trail between switchbacks instead of patiently waiting while an uphill rider passes, picking up all the damn sport-goo wrappers, or taking time to repair damaged pieces of trail instead of “braiding” sensitive drainages (i.e. the upper part of the Luge, aka Fenceline).
What do you mean by: “Motos went to work on that trail?” you mean with a shovel or with a tire? That rut coming out of the first drainage is still there and/or back. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that trail improve. It gets washed away and re-rutted, but I can’t see how that can be credited to anyone. The only section of that trail that is well-done are the tight steep switchbacks once you get our of the canyon. Then it drops into a traight fall-line into the gully right next to a huge rut/drainage channel that use to be the trail. In the canyon there is a crappy crossing and a fully established trail on the south side.
There is actually a group that maintains those moto trails: http://www.poedunk.com/?p=27
We should definitely work on the behavior of our community. But the last time I was riding up to the bacon strip every mud rut ride-around has MTB and moto tracks.
It’s the same issue as shooting. The presence of Motor bikes on a trail makes it hard for others to use the trail. They can’t portage their bike, they can’t step off the trail to let horses by, they can’t take blind corners slow enough to account for oncoming hikers (neither can we sometimes).
Bikers need to be careful we don’t get kicked off Keystone, Evan’s and the White’s creek trails, by making sure we act appropriately and not destroy our own resource.
-M
Are their conveyances more destructive than ours? Yes. Did they use shovels? No. But my point remains the same. The trail exists because motos cut it. It became ridable again for MTBs because Motos kept riding it. Yes, the fledgling poedunkers are doing a hell of a job maintaining the trails they can, but they aren’t responsible for Cow being ridable again after the fires and floods.
The motos are a more fiscally powerful user group. Cow is in danger of being shut down (you might have noticed Somerset has it’s eye on the Cow T.H. as a “back-door” access point to the development). All I’m saying is: Keep vilifying the moto user group and see what happens to MTB rights and access on that trail.
The more we engage in finger-pointing and my-toys-are-holier-than-yours bickering the more enemies we create and the more time we waste. We’re all out there to have a good time. Yes, certain people’s “good time” is a bit more obnoxious/offensive/loud/deadly/whatever. But, well, it’s the West. We’ve got public land and all the beautiful conflict and frustrating compromise that comes with it. The lessons of history repeat this mantra: we either learn to play together or we lose it. I’m choosing the first option.
And no, moto riding is NOT the same as shooting. Those two activities happen to be shared by a group that seem to have beeen lumped together into the same stereotype–one that is being painted as rather distasteful. But bullets can sort of, well, you know, kill people. More often than not, the moto-riders I cross paths with are polite and respectful and their toys aren’t in danger of sending errant projectiles through the bodies of innocent bystanders.
Look, I’m the last person I thought would be standing in the corner of moto-riders, but trying to vilify user groups and win exclusive access for a privileged subset might win a battle or two, but it almost always loses the war.
Mike,
I have a dog and walk her @ Plumas Park. Though it’s not a “dog park” it’s a great park and a fabulous place to take a dog. A lot of times the park is a stinking festering sewer of dog shit cause all the biddy housewives jaw @ each other and don’t see their dogs shit all over the place. I find it unfathomable that when soccer season starts there isn’t a huge backlash against us all. But people will quite literally shit all over the things they should otherwise cherish.
I’m not vilifying anyone except people who destroy shit.
People who destroy shit = motards, douchebags, boogereaters, asshats…
People who spend time in the open space and don’t endanger the resource for the next guy are gods in my book. I don’t give a crap what they’re riding, or not.
-M