2021 Pic / Vid From Every Ride

IanM_MTB · May 27, 2021, 11:54am

Love this!

David_NZ · May 28, 2021, 12:26pm

What about the dogs?

You turned off commenting on the Farcebook! I had so much to say…

supercraig · May 28, 2021, 12:43pm

That was turning into a shitshow rather quickly. Make sure you have your bell, rules are rules.

David_NZ · May 28, 2021, 12:58pm

Anything posted on there generally does!

I don’t use a bell, I just send my dog ahead to bark at walkers and kids. If she’s not with me I just scream “STRAVA!!” at them…

supercraig · May 28, 2021, 1:02pm

Don’t forget to “doubly yield”.

David_NZ · May 28, 2021, 1:42pm

I used to but James calls all the spots for “doubly yielding” cheater lines so I had to stop.

Goose · May 28, 2021, 1:44pm

I always give a few courtesy « rider ups » before I forge thru.

Like on Monday, headed to Duck n Run a group of 6 adults, 4 dogs. I was shouting and nothing. Then I get behind the last guy, he freaks out and the reason they never heard me. Had a Bluetooth speaker blasting tunes.

So as I was riding by I gave a : yeah if your music wasn’t so fucken loud you would have heard my calling behind you.

In recent weeks oblivious people walking or jogging with music way to loud to hear what’s going on around them. One lady with her head buried in her phone walking on the trail.

Right at the Chimney intersection you can see the trash we are attracting to the trail system. When they let the dog shit right by the post and leave it there. Just plain ignorance.

And I’ve been bit twice, my son is now terrified of dogs because someone once said: oh it’s ok, he’s friendly.

Been there done that. Tolerance level has been exceeded.

David_NZ · May 28, 2021, 1:56pm

I haven’t taken a dog up there since the rules were clarified on here in about October. Even then she was on the leash until I thought we had lots of space to ourselves out past flat lake. I stuck to the least popular hours, leashed her whenever I heard or saw people but still occasionally got surprised by people.

I think a big part of is it is the density of housing going in around MWRA. There’s a lot of residents and a lot of dogs. People will have a sense of ownership of what’s on their doorsteps, especially now days when we’re told to stick local. And o many dog owners don’t respect leash regulations because they think the behavior of their dogs at home is going to be their behavior out of the house. And dogs pick up on peoples energy, so if the owner is going to act like an idiot the dog will be worse!

JoshM · May 28, 2021, 2:15pm

The Bird Sanctuary in Kentville is the new off leash dog park lately. Yet if you politely suggest that a dog might be better suited on leash when navigating multi use single track, you get looked at like an asshole.

Last summer I got bitten on the leg quite badly when passing a dog. When the owner spoke to me about it he said " she doesn’t like bikes, so you shouldnt have rode by her like that… "

I own a dog, and I love to let her off leash whenever possible. I also realize that a multi use trail with several different groups of users isn’t the best place to do that.

David_NZ · May 28, 2021, 5:08pm

She only doesn’t like bikes because the owner doesn’t like bikes!

Wayners · May 28, 2021, 8:19pm

I’ve trained former trail dog Scout to respond to a few simple commands so that when walking him off lead he will stay close, come regardless of what’s happening or smelling around him and to sit so I can attach a leash or get hold of his collar. We walk together unleashed all the time but not in places like the MRWA trails anymore. There are far to many dangerous situations that can arise there. Untrained and unsocialized dogs that are “friendly”, Bikers that could run into him and possibly hurt both parties and skittish hikers and trail runners that are just out for the fresh air and don’t want to be frightened by my dog.
Scout has been trained, he’s a pretty chill breed but A lot of dogs off leash in these off the beaten places aren’t. With the large increase in dog ownership and with no places open to train them during Covid, this is only going to get worse.