From the very beginning Loam Coffee has been about supporting trail advocacy and new trails. Whether that is supporting our local trail alliance, sending innumerable bags of coffee for dig days across the U.S. and Canada, serving coffee to trail builders, or having our own Trail Builders Blend to raise awareness … we believe this is an important topic.
Mountain biking has advanced light years since I first starting riding in 1994. Even as a kid I rode BMX bikes off road as there were no trails to be found. In college and afterwards we just rode on anything and everything we could find. Most often they were shared-use trails that were built with hikers or horses in mind. Some of the best trail systems were actually “designed” by cattle as we adopted their well-trodden paths. As a result erosion-control wasn’t considered, there was no flow, no sweeping berms, and we were confronted with chunky rock gardens that put your hardtail bike with a mere 80mm of travel to the test.
While I sometimes long again for those days (minus the lycra shorts and 3 chain rings) I admit I much prefer to ride on the trail systems that we currently have. Within proximity to Portland are a variety of growing trails systems that are only getting better … Rocky Point, Sandy Ridge, Stub Stewart, Klootchy Creek, and even Gateway Green in the city. The truth is NONE of those would be there if it weren’t for the thousands of hours of volunteer work. There were literally blood, sweat, and tears that not only went into building these trails, but maintaining them as well.
But there’s also another layer to the conversation as well. Sure, most trails require being slingshot out of the city into the hinterlands to ride. However, many who’d love to even give mountain biking a try may not have a car nor gas money nor even the confidence to drive to a remote trailhead. That’s why we need more trail systems within cities.
That’s why I’ve been a huge fan of Gateway Green in Portland. Not only does it provide a trail system within the city, but based on where it is located it is accessible to a part of the city where many lower income families, refugees, and immigrants live. Since I bike there often I see a wonderful variety of kids and families at the park. I’ve seen all kinds of bikes there … discount store bikes, garage sale bikes, bikes picked up at Good Will, or basically anything that rolls. But it doesn’t matter. They all work. Truth be told my first mountain bike in the early 90s was a fully rigid low budget bike. But it worked. It got me on the trail. It helped me fall in love with the life and culture of mountain biking. In other words, the barrier for entry was very low. That’s why access to trails is essential.
There’s nothing wrong with us enjoying our expensive mountain bikes. We obviously put a lot of love and attention into them. We color match the pedals with the hubs, we get forks with just the right color scheme that makes our frames pop, and we’re constantly upgrading components and suspension. More than likely most of us didn’t start off that way. It was probably with a low-budget BMX bike or janky bike that barely passed as a mountain bike. But it got us into mountain biking.
Advocating for new trails that are accessible is simply creating opportunities for more people to have an entry point into mountain biking. As long as there’s dirt and a trail it really doesn’t matter what kind of bike someone has. They can still ride. Besides, most of us didn’t realize how challenging it was riding on fully rigid bikes until we got our first suspension forks or full suspension bike. We all start somewhere.
As a brand we will continue to get behind and support trail advocacy. Thank you to all of you who volunteer to dig and advocate for more trails.
Words and Photos by Sean Benesh