A few weekends ago I headed down to Mountain Bike Oregon (MBO) for the day. Up at 4 AM and on the road a half an hour later for a 2.5 drive from Portland to Oakridge. The main priority of the day was to hang out with Nate Miller from Tasco MTB and serve coffee in his booth. After a few hours of doing so the vendor area was a ghost town since the reason why people come to MBO is for successive days of shuttled runs through some of the most epic trails that Oregon has to offer. By mid-morning the shuttle buses had all gone and there was only one thing to do ... go ride ourselves.
When you think about it, we live in an incredible time in the progression of history. Born a hundred years ago and we would've missed out on the sport (and lifestyle) we've come to love ... mountain biking. Even on a yearly basis we see technological advancements within mountain biking as well as riders pushing the boundaries of what is deemed as "extreme" farther and father. It's almost comical to see late 80s DH races on grainy video footage ... narrow bars, sketchy brakes, short travel bikes, and wild clothes.
Every organization lives by values or principles whether they are written down on a website or not. Most often they end up being the "unwritten rules" of the company. At Loam Coffee we're no different. We're guided by a set of principles and values (even "unwritten rules") that acts as a filter of sorts for how and where we get involved. Here's what we know (and what you know) ... we're into both coffee and mountain biking. Pretty basic and obvious.
To the outside world mountain bikers and are simply mountain bikers. We all look the same, act the same, ride the same bikes, dress the same, wear the same shoes, frequent the same websites, and even talk the same. You know and I know, and I know and you know ... that's utterly not true.
While "local" is a hot buzzword it can be a bit deceiving. We love our local coffee shops, local restaurants, local bike shops, and so on. But in a truly globalized world the word local is often misleading and misunderstood. What even does local mean?
Mountain bikers are an interesting lot. We'll drive two vehicles for fours so three people can ride shuttled laps. We don't think much about loading our bikes up and hitting the road for the day. "Close" trips are anything within an hour and "reasonable" trips are anything under three hours one way. Driving and shuttling become almost as important as the ride itself and we have awesome set-ups to prove it ... Dakine truck pads, coolers full of ice for post-ride brews, and then there's the whole #vanlife crew out there with the amazing retrofits.
So when do local trails become local? What does local even mean?
