I have been fortunate to ride some very awesome trails this summer, Bonshaw and Brookvale in PEI, and Edmunston and Woolastook in NB.
In all cases, the trails were extremely fun, extremely well built and extremely well maintained. Also, all areas had local cycling groups that ensured the well built and well maintained trails not only existed, but continue this way for years to come.
I raced at Woolastook, and this trail and others around Fredericton are part of the River Valley Cycling Club. The trails in Edmunston are part of Velo Edmunston, and in PEI they have the Rigid Riders. Both the River Valley Cycling Club and Rigid Riders have been featured in Cycling Canada Magazine recently.
Why is it we have nothing like that here??? In talking to many of the guys I ride with, we all say that it is hard to believe that places like Fredericton, Edmunston and PEI above can have the fantastic trails systems and support when they are so much smaller than Halifax.
Riders in Edmunston pay a $40 trail fee for the year and the money goes to trail building/ maintenance. Visitors, like myself, pay $10/ day and this goes towards the same thing. River Valley Cycling charges a membership fee which goes towards the same thing, as does Rigid Riders.
In all my years of riding here in Halifax, which is well over 10, I have never seen or heard of anything like this. I know there are people who do lots to keep our trails up and running, but I look at what I saw traveling to NB and PEI this summer and am left asking myself, what’s up with Halifax???
I know we have the MacIntosh Run Association, and others working towards gaining more/ better access to trails, but these are not MTB specific to my knowledge. I am also not knocking what we have here, as I love ripping through Fight/ Whopper/ Spider, but I will say after riding in these other locations I catch myself thinking of the what ifs and whys.
Would be interested in hearing other views on this as I can help thinking that if these other places can do it, why can’t we???