One of the exciting things about mountain biking is you never know what you’ll find or see out on the trail. From lost car keys to bike parts to spotting deer or a bear from afar we can never anticipate the unanticipated. I’ve spied on bald eagles perched directly above me and have peered down from a low cliff to watch a 6 foot long white sturgeon lazily swim at the surface. I feel as though I’m always prepared for the unexpected … or at least assume I could anticipate confronting a mountain lion on the trail (which I couldn’t) or troublemakers shooting guns too close to the trail (which I hope I don’t). But a few weeks ago I came across something … someone … I wasn’t anticipating.

A rogue trail builder.

Full disclosure. I’m not telling you where I met him. As I came around the bend in the trail I noticed a really nice bike leaning up against the tree. I saw a bucket, rake … and then him with a shovel in hand (FYI, the cover image for this article is not from this encounter). And so I stopped. I immediately dismounted my bike, hurled profanities at him, snatched the shovel out of his hand, and with gargantuan strength I broke it over my knee in disgust. Well, that didn’t happen. Looking back on that encounter I wondered if righteous indignation should’ve washed over me where I did lash out in some way. Instead, I stopped, gave a friendly greeting, and had a pleasant conversation with him.

As I pedaled away I wondered what should I have done. Here he was digging a new jump line at a trail system maintained by a local volunteer chapter of a mountain biking trail advocacy group. There were already designated trails, regular work parties to maintain the trails, and a healthy agreement with local, state, and federal agencies. In other words, what this trail builder was doing was in a sense undermining this agreement.

Instead I listened. I asked him what he was up to (in a non-threatening way) because I actually did want to hear him out. If I would’ve come with verbal guns a-blazin’ I’m confident that would’ve shut down the conversation before it started. So he shared. With creativity and a child-like passion like those building new lines at the Red Bull Rampage he shared with me the progression of his jump line. I followed his hand gestures as he motioned me through his line. He then revealed the whereabouts of another line he had previously built.

Listening to him I didn’t detect anything malicious. Not ill intent. Nothing that reeked of “I’m gonna stick it to the MAN.” Instead, he just wanted to dig and make a “sick line.” It immediately took me back to when I was a kid digging and building jumps. I had no idea who’s land it was nor had any bad intentions. We just wanted to ride and jump our crappy BMX-ish bikes. I noticed the same in him. When I did mention the trail advocacy group he didn’t seem to know much about them. Not only that but he was interested in learning more and getting involved in dig days. I shared more.

I did let him know that his trail would be removed at the next trail building day. He seemed resigned to that fact and didn’t express any resentment. I think he knew. While he didn’t know all he did know enough. With that we exchanged departing goodbyes and I pedaled away. I decided to check out his other line he created previously. I rode it … or around it. It was a bit sketchy. In my mind I should’ve circled back around to him again to rebuke him for his sketchy line and how it was a danger to riders young and old who may find it. But I didn’t. I should’ve.

It made me think of the trails I rode when I first seriously got into mountain biking. While it was a designated trail system they weren’t even built by human hands. Instead the trails followed cattle paths that were also used by those on horseback. Mountain bikers came many decades later. Nothing machined. No sick berms or table tops. Heck, it wasn’t even erosion-resistant. But there it was … this massive trail system. Raw. Very raw. Still raw. And do you know what? We made more. We added loops, new routes, and the like. And it was completely acceptable. No one maintained the trails then.

Was I any better than this rogue trail builder? What makes one a rogue versus one “playing by the rules?” As we just celebrated Red Bull Rampage how is what they’re doing the week or two leading up more noble than this rogue trail builder? Does the conversation then simply boil down to who owns the land and the agreements in place to use it? No, I’m not advocating for more rogue trail builders. No, I don’t approve. But there’s that part of me that also says, “why not?” I know the answer but I still ask it sometimes. Especially in a city like Portland where access to off-road trails is horrific at best I am sometimes tempted (in my mind) to hack and carve a downhill run on the backside of Rocky Butte. But I don’t. I won’t. I’m a card-carrying member of my local IMBA trail alliance.

While I know it’s “wrong” … you know, right up there with tax evasion, speeding, jaywalking, and embezzlement … there’s still a part of me that wishes we had more places to simply dig, create, and be a kid again. Even if the trails are raw, not flowy, and at times a little sketchy.

Words by Sean Benesh

Founder of Loam Coffee