The name was coined by Terry on a group ride after the bns annual general membership meeting. It did reference the movie but you may not have remembered as you took a nasty fall off the same spine of rock that gords gold begins at. Lorenzo and Rick Devine were the primary guys involved with the original trail and this was the big reveal ride we were all on so their name for the trail lasted about 1/2 the ride before it became fight trail
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Sounds about right, thanks!
Yes that’s the one. I will keep looking, I would love to look through it
McRun seems to be showing up in the Android App for me. Maybe the Internet Fairies have been listening.
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Sorry but I still call Independent Grocer’s IGA, let alone calling them Save Easy. Buddy you’re lucky if every Walmart doesn’t get called Zellers. I WILL DIE before I call Dartmouth HRM, lord forget calling it Halifax 
So whos riding fight trail tmr?
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I wonder, if it pleases the elders/builders, if there could be a trail named “fight trail” within the MRWA trail system. Maybe with signage explaining the history.
You could look it up on Trailforks and learn about McIntosh Run at the same time 
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My personal idea is to try to resurrect the original Fight Trail and incorporate it into the system and make it ridable again (parts are very overgrown now – and I’m not aware that it is getting much bike traffic).
This would seem to be the most accurate tip 'o the hat to history.
To do this will require some work with HRM, the Nature Conservancy, and several other landowners.
Maybe Lorenzo could even be involved in the resurrection, and @darkmyth and @tossedsalad could do the first through ride!
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Brat! 
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Thats been my back yard for 32 yrs and I was under the same impression and thought the name worked very well for the also could of worked for the trails description!!
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So what was the trail called during your childhood? Fight from what I’ve followed is approx 15 years old.
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This is how I recall the naming occurred too. Darkmyth’s memory of events is impressive!
Lorenzo and Rick D showed us the area first and had named it South Dixie Highway. They had been down in the US training previously and named it after a hwy in the South.
The trail went in on Colpitt lake Rd, ran around the east rim of Colpitt Lake, made its way to the Hfx Rock Climb Lookoff and then eventually out past Purcells Pond to Purcells Cove Rd. Eventually it was determined that the East Rim trail sucked and a new trail was blazed on the West side connecting the large granite whalebacks.
The Fight name does pre-date the movie by a year or so, my understanding is that the local vegetation was called Fight Brush so Fight Trail seemed an apt name. The release of The Fight Club movie a year or so later in '99 simply added to the cool factor.
MANY different people created trails in there and have come and gone and come over the last nearly 25 years. Many were simply mods to existing footpaths and game trails. Planning was minimal, landowner approval non-existant, materials were scrounged or naturally sourced. Guys like Dan Smith and Geoff started working their way in from the far end near York Redoubt and there was a trail with some big features back there for a few seasons.
Dodgy ass bridges sometimes got replaced with less dodgy bridges. Hurricanes would blow down stuff and guys like Neil S and others would go in and clean it up.
In '98 Gord Smith and Keir and some others started building Gord’s. I spent my Wednesdays (my day off back then) helping him build things like Dirk Diggler, Taco Stand, Air Bridge, Two Bite Brownie bridge and then coined the name Gord’s Gold simply cuz his name was Gord and I loved Gordon Lightfoot’s Gord’s Gold album lol! Gord’s Gold was really the extent of my building assistance back there, so many others did so much more.
Although I guess I fit into the ‘elders’ category I really have little investment in the name Fight Trail as a moniker for the area. That kind of problem just isn’t on my radar.
I’m not sure why anyone would get worked up about it being named or branded with the more appropriate name McIntosh Run anymore than I’m not sure why anyone would get their skivvies in a knot that someone would continue to refer to it by it’s old, colloquial name Fight Trail.
Personally I’ve made an effort to refer to the area as McIntosh Run publically and in social media communication but verbally with friends I sometimes still call it Fight Trail entirely from habit.
Certainly I can’t imagine being pissy that those who’ve invested countless hours and efforts developing MRWA would respectfully request the area be referred to by its modern name.
Jeff W nailed it, rebranding doesn’t happen overnight. If the adoption of a rebranding effort is significantly slower than a brand would like then the question has to be “is our message getting out there? If not, why not?” Certainly I’d rather the MRWA folks continue to focus their tireless efforts on trail building rather than chasing a few grumpy old Fight Trail hashtaggers since eventually time will fix this ‘problem’ and everyone will reference the area as McIntosh Run Singletrack.
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The majority of the original baseline trail system comes from Purcell cove quarry systems from the early 1900s that have a lot to do with the history of halifax they had two significantly different types of of quarry pretty sure it was was granite and slate and all those path connected in one way or another from spryfield to herring cove
The trails are all dated different…some are ones used for military access to and from lake eRly ages used the lakes to cut and freeze the water for ice to and from the mill in purcells cove and some trail dated back I read a article the says mcintosh run was named after a native tribe that came here from Bridgewater to fish the river yearly when salmon was running ?? Stated "they traveled through the quarrys in a straight line till they meet the river " which would basically like be where there rotten bridge is now ?
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Consider this thread my effort toward the rebranding effort. 
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Very interesting thread. Thanks to all those who know the history of the trails and the area.
I just finished a documentary about the McIntosh Run Watershed and MRWA, the group that we can all thank for the recent trail development. The doc is for Eastlink and will air this fall on their Sunday night documentary series.
The doc has four chapters, each with 4-5 segments, or mini stories. Things like:
What is a watershed
What’s the role of government
The importance of volunteering
How the trails are built
How they are approved by the land owner
Etc.
One of the segments is about Fight Trail. The idea was to differentiate it from McIntosh Run, which is sanctioned and well built. Vs Fight that is on private property and often in rough shape. Fight by it’s very name is not inclusive.
I will say here that I did use the “first rule about Fight trail is you don’t talk about Fight trail” line. I thought that’s were it originated. So if the timing is slightly off, I’ll apologise now.
I use Fight to describe the older non-sanctioned areas of trail. As Lawrence pointed out, many of these are in rough shape, but still rideable for those who enjoy challenge. There are small yellow signs where these sections connect or join with the McIntosh Run trails.
As Jeff White accurately pointed out, branding does not happen quickly. However if we collectively keep focused on the goal, which is more and better trail development, we will get there. Old habits die hard. I’m constantly reminding myself to use McIntosh Run if that’s where I’m actually riding. It’s not a complicated thing to do and certainly worth it in the end.
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Thanks every for contributing to this discussion. I appreciate hearing about the history, the current making history, and future plans of this trail system. BIG thank you to everyone who has volunteered and worked on and for this trail. It is a gem that is getting netter and better.
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