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Reflections
It should be no surprise when we talk about building new trails as a potential catalyst for economic development in rural communities. It is met with opposing views. Some embrace it, particularly those who’ve been impacted positively by it. Then others decry it arguing it could very well lead to rural gentrification. Look no further than the Whistlers or Vails to validate this. Which is it?
A few weeks ago, I ventured out to my first mountain bike race of the season. Full confession, though, I didn’t go out to race. Instead, I was there to take photos of the event and race. It was an XC race, the first of the season, and I packed along by 140mm travel trail bike. But the only riding I did was to venture deeper into the racecourse to get better photos.
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.
Like you, I love hand-built trails with tabletops and bermed corners. Gravity-fed flow trails are one of the wonders of the world. And so, I regularly hit the same trail systems repeatedly. But with gravel, whole new worlds open to me that I don’t see or miss by riding on enclosed trail systems. Oregon is packed with endless miles of gravel or dirt roads that take you on adventures that leave you whoopin’ and hollerin’.
We all are creatures of habit. Sometimes those habits are good, but we tend to notice them when they are bad. Maybe not "bad" as in "really bad," but we definitely know areas in our lives where we're mailing it in. Perhaps we're even lazy in those areas as well. So why bring this up? What does this have to do with coffee?
Often, we’re traveling quite a ways to a trailhead to ride. It could be anywhere from 1-2 hours away (or more). What that also means is we’re not in a hurry. We’ve committed a whole day to ride and being with friends in the outdoors. So why should we settle for cold coffee at the trailhead?
