Please stop fuelling a fire that barely is more than a single smouldering ember in a massive wet forest. I am speaking of the recent article about how downhill mountain biking is a major problem in the Cowichan Valley. The article was very biased and never once offered an opinion from the other side. I now see that you have created a poll that is once again biased towards bikers being a problem.
I have been mountain biking in the Valley since 1993. I can honestly say that I have never had an altercation with anyone on the trails. I ride Tzouhalem and Maple mountain often. Most times when I ride Maple I meet a hiker or group of hikers. We all stop and give way to each other and continue on. Tzouhalem seems to be more spread out and the majority of the time that parking lot can be 100 per cent full, yet I never meet anyone out on the trails.
I am not going to say that there have never been issues on the trails. But these handful of issues are far outweighed by the thousands of users that don’t have an issue. Those thousands of users you never hear from, unfortunately, but I guarantee you they are there happily using the forest trails for hiking, biking or running.
I am not a member of the CTSS (if you don’t know what the CTSS is then that just furthers my point on the biased nature of the article and poll), but from what I can see they are helping to deal with these small number of conflicts by putting up signage and helping to control the trail building that has gone on in the past and working towards making the future trails safe and usable by all user types. You only have to take a few minutes on Google to see how groups like the CTSS have been a very positive influence on local trail systems. North Vancouver, Squamish, Cumberland, Victoria and Whistler to name a few.
I could go on but I will end this here with, please do not stir up something without reporting on all interested parties’ views.
Mark Law
Duncan