For some of the smaller communities, that now have excellent trail systems - is the McIntosh Run experience similar, where it took a large volunteer base to get the work off the ground? Or was there better buy-in from the community, province, outside grants, etc. to pay for trail design and construction?
Anybody can start a club and lead group rides. Go for it.
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To continue with @tossedsalad line of thinking, anyone can organize and put on an mtb event or start a trail group to try to lobby for mtb trails and funding. Go for it!
āWould be interested in hearing other views on this as I can help thinking that if these other places can do it, why canāt we???ā
Because in Halifax, we have so many people, it is super easy to sit back and let someone else do something. (not you, personally, just in general). And meetings and waiting for bureaucratic process is boorrrrrrrring.
Grab a glove, get in the game.
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I have to admit, after running the old ecmtb.com site and putting on events and such for six or seven years, I got pretty burnt out on the process (insurance, finding willing land owners, locating sponsors, securing prizes, etc), the bitching from community members about cost, courses that were too easy or too hard and everything else.
I am quietly involved in the McIntosh Run thing and will be helping with the trail build days whenever possible, but I have limited time between running my business and spending time with my wife and kids, so any time that is available, I just want to ride. Maybe thatās selfish on my part, but Iām glad that others like TrailFlow, the Atlantic Enduro series and others have stepped up to provide cool stuff for the community.
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@brightwhite, for ecmtb.net weāve taken a less ambitious route. Partly for the burn out reason and just because we are too busy.
Iām happy to just host a place where MTBāers can meet and build their own community. For the Tuesday night organizers (@riderx, @rolls and myself), we really just want to keep our regular ride going and hang out. That much is sustainable.
I must say though, it make me immensely happy to see old ecmtb.com folks join in. So much respect for the old name and people who were here in the early days.
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For a land use agreement, you need an organization with meaningful numbers to commit to the agreement. Maybe the community here is too fractured.
I think the obvious organization would be BNS and I know the folks there on the trail committee have been working hard on agreements like Spider Lake and others. (It is a long process though, so props to them for hanging in!)
More awareness of the efforts of BNS and MRWA goes a long way to help gather volunteers, show a presence at meetings and keep people from doing dumb shit like building structures that are against the hard fought land use agreement.
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Im just asking because I am curious. I am not trying to be a dick here. I honestly would like to know 
If we see someone doing something that arent suppose to do (structures for example) I can see telling them that it isnt allowed but if they tell us to go pound sand what else can we do?
Mock and embarrass them on ECMTB?
LMR29r
I have started a reply for this post two or three times now and cancelled it each time. It is a tough subject. I have to admit Iām a bit apathetic because I do believe that Halifaxās MTB community is to small and to fractured to have the political clout to save existing trails let alone get funding to build new ones. I lived in BC and frequented Banff and Jasper and watched a better organized MTB community lose trails to hikers and equestrians, I canāt even imagine going up against developers in a sprawling city without a true outdoor culture. Iām with Jeff V on this, I only have so much time and I want to spend it riding and keeping what we have, for now, maintained. I only hope that most of the MTB riders in this city are willing to offer that much and perhaps help with the constrution of new trails if we get pushed further out.
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I think youāre right @JeffV about fractured groups in HRM, I think itās hard for many to do work on a trail that isnāt close to where they live/easy to get to. Personally I am more inclined to do trail work on trails that I can ride to from my house, but would travel to do work on other trails as my schedule allows.
The solution I see is having separate trail groups for each trail. That is a collection of people who use a particular trail the most and are dedicated to organizing building/maintenance, meeting with landowners ect. Ideally those groups would be sub-committees of the BNS trail commettee to leverage the numbers and legitimacy of BNS to help with funding/grant applications and land use agreements.
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I thought I would mention that there is a Municipal election coming up.
Perhaps we could contact candidates and let them know our feelings on trails in the HRM and ask their positions regarding as much.
I know itās probably not going to change much, but if enough people contact their local candidates perhaps it will get mountain biking and trails at least planted in their minds. This might make them more receptive when associations like the McIntosh Run Watershed Association or the Spider Lakes trail folks approach the city.
Iād be happy to help draft an email if anyone else is interested.
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