Per CBC News:
-Halifax Water will reopen all of Spider Lake, including the popular Skull Trail, to Mountain bikers this spring. However, there will be a user access fee. Long a popular mountain biking spot in the municipality, there has been concerns of mountain bikers causing damage to watershed lands. During Covid, trails falling within HW land were closed to the public. Halifax Water Spokesperson Baity McClickbait explains that the company had been looking for new revenue streams. “Our Board had been looking how much the Board at Emera energy was making, and wanted some of that sweet sweet green! We felt we could only raise water bills so much, the rain barrel industry is breathing down our necks, and teenagers aren’t showering as much as they used to. We had entertained going after golfers or recreational motorsports users but our president wandered into a local bike store, and was blown away by $10,000 Yeti bikes and $100 Maxxis tires. We thought, hey we’re sitting on a gold mine here!”
Final details still need to be ironed out, however McClickbait was able to provide some information. “We’re going to build a wall at the entrance of Skull trail-we call it the Pay Wall- to access the trail. You can pay on site via a kiosk, or we can add the fee on to your Strava account or water bill.”
Halifax Water notes that the fee only applies to Mountain bikers. ATV and Moto will have open access. “The fee is supposedly to offset any environmental impact mountain bikers cause to the Watershed. So far, our research has shown that ATV and motos don’t cause any significant impact. We didn’t want to hurt anyones feelings by going after too many user groups” added McClickbait.
Whats unclear, however, is whether E-bikes will be charged or not. “half of our board seems to think they’re just motorbikes with pedals, the other half thinks it’s a great way for elderly relatives to keep shredding into old age. We heard there’s some healthy debate in the pinkbike forums, however rumours of a subscription fee and possible paywall have kept us from looking into it further”
Halifax water further adds that the rest of the trails are free and open access, however they may make them less appealing by increasing the amount of dog shit both bagged and unbagged. April fools!
