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trails
Sometimes, riding your local trails becomes mundane. It’s like going to the gym each week, where it’s more of a discipline rather than an epic and awe-inspiring adventure. Don’t get me wrong, like going to the gym, I still enjoy riding on my local trails. However, it’s always good to mix things up. That’s what I did when I ventured to Anthony Lakes Mountain Resort in Eastern Oregon.
Access to trails is not evenly distributed from community to community. In some places, your town is your trailhead. All you need to do is simply hop on your bike at home and pedal over to one of a myriad of trails nearby. One typically has to drive 45-60 minutes to get to a trail system in places like Portland. While that’s slowly changing with a few new little trail systems within the metro area, we’re definitely not a place where our city is the trailhead.
As a mountain biker, I love trails. We all do. In fact, we often talk about our favorite ones. We will also talk about amazing trips and grand adventures that focus on riding some trail system … Whistler, Sedona, etc. We all love our trails. And we should.
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.
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 unprepared … 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.
Whether we live in cities or in rural communities we’re tied to the land. Terra firma. No, that doesn’t mean we’re all farmers, ranchers, or loggers. We’re grounded in a topography. A geography. Even in urban studies when I teach university courses on the city we explore this notion of a city’s site and situation. We talk about topography, geography, climate, resources, and more. It influences us in the city … the rain and lush forests of the Pacific Northwest … the sun, heat, and arroyos of the Southwest. We’re tied to the land.
