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Reflections
Access to trails is not evenly distributed from community to community. In some places, your town is your trailhead. All you need to do is simply hop on your bike at home and pedal over to one of a myriad of trails nearby. One typically has to drive 45-60 minutes to get to a trail system in places like Portland. While that’s slowly changing with a few new little trail systems within the metro area, we’re definitely not a place where our city is the trailhead.
For the first several years of Loam Coffee’s existence, we never had a van or anything like that. Whenever we did events, we’d move stuff around in my SUV, set up tents, etc. But that all changed once Nacho the MTB Van came into my life … What that also means is every time I head out of town on a road trip with Nacho, I grab a couple of different coffee brew method devices to test out. I have a cabinet full of various brew methods at home. Recently, I made such a trip and brought along with me the Cuppamoka by Wacaco.
It should be no surprise when we talk about building new trails as a potential catalyst for economic development in rural communities. It is met with opposing views. Some embrace it, particularly those who’ve been impacted positively by it. Then others decry it arguing it could very well lead to rural gentrification. Look no further than the Whistlers or Vails to validate this. Which is it?
A few weeks ago, I ventured out to my first mountain bike race of the season. Full confession, though, I didn’t go out to race. Instead, I was there to take photos of the event and race. It was an XC race, the first of the season, and I packed along by 140mm travel trail bike. But the only riding I did was to venture deeper into the racecourse to get better photos.
As a mountain biker, I love trails. We all do. In fact, we often talk about our favorite ones. We will also talk about amazing trips and grand adventures that focus on riding some trail system … Whistler, Sedona, etc. We all love our trails. And we should.
Like you, I love hand-built trails with tabletops and bermed corners. Gravity-fed flow trails are one of the wonders of the world. And so, I regularly hit the same trail systems repeatedly. But with gravel, whole new worlds open to me that I don’t see or miss by riding on enclosed trail systems. Oregon is packed with endless miles of gravel or dirt roads that take you on adventures that leave you whoopin’ and hollerin’.
