This letter is in response to the Letter to the Editor printed in the 6/26 issue of your paper.
Thanks for the compliments on our trail building skills (I think). COTA is proud of the amazing trail system our volunteers have built over the years and we learn something every year. We welcome your input, skills and sweat any time you’d like to join us, whether you’re a cross country rider, free rider or daring unicyclist.
As our city has grown, so has our trail system, and so have the numbers and types of users. This is true for users’ types within the bike community – Free ride, Racers, Cross country riders, Cross Stuntry, weekend warriors and families. It is also true for other trail user categories like runners, hikers, dog walkers and geo-cachers. The Central Oregon Trail Alliance may have initially been formed to address the access issues of a specific user group – mountain bikers – but our current broad-based support is a result of listening to and working with all the aforementioned user groups, plus hundreds of hours of meetings with public agencies such as the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the City of Bend and the Bend Metro Park and Recreation District.
I’d also like to point out that COTA has worked incredibly hard over the last 4-5 years to be very inclusive when it comes to working with every cycling discipline as it pertains to our trail building duties.
I reject the writer’s notion that somehow COTA is a tradition-entrenched organization that is unaware or unable to respond to the demands of a new discipline i.e. Freeriding. The writer paints a picture similar to the one snowboarders had during the early days of that sport when riding on snow with your feet strapped to one board was somehow morally superior to riding down the same mountain strapped to two boards. Thankfully that mindset, mostly postured by marketing mavens to sell more products, has gone by the wayside; these days on the hill, you see one and two plankers enjoying the same resource as “Snowriders”.
As the writer accurately points out, it is freeriding and freeride bikes that are currently driving the marketing juggernaut in the bike business. No doubt seeing a picture of a young rider hucking some huge air is much more compelling than watching a 40-something guy or gal roll down Phil’s Canyon. But while the marketing machine rolls on down the trail, I’d like to point out that cross-country bike sales are about 90% of the market, while freeride bike sales are 10% or less.
As for the writer’s comments on improvements needed at the Lair and Lower Whoops, if he’d been out riding since the Spring Fling work party on June 7, he might have noticed that there have been substantial changes and tweaks to both of these areas, and the stewards of these two areas, Sam Pinner and Lev Stryker, are not only excellent trail builders, but very accomplished riders in all cycling styles. If you know either one of them and have seen their quivers of bikes, you’d know what I’m talking about.
Finally, I reject the writer’s notion that somehow it is the responsibility of any trail builder to make a trail so perfect that users don’t have to adapt and learn from their riding experience – they simply have to point and shoot their way down perfect radius turns with no obstacles. Our local trail system is NOT a BMX park, it has its quirks and hiccups, it has its rocks and trees and sometimes these trail features are not exactly in the place you want them to be. I’d like to challenge the writer by saying that what we lack (in Central Oregon) is not variety in trails, it’s his lack of creativity in how to make what we do have as interesting and varied as possible. If the writer is more interested in Monday morning quarterbacking than contributing to the cause, then I guess his letter speaks for itself. But if he’s a trailbuilder and wants to truly contribute to well-built, sustainable trails and jumps, the Central Oregon Trail Alliance welcomes his skills and his hard work!
Kent E. Howes, Bend
Editor’s note: Kent Howes is the president of the Central Oregon Trail Alliance and a trail builder.
This article appears in Jul 10-16, 2008.
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Kent rocks. I’ve worked on the last 3 spring flings and a few other times. But my contribution is not even a blip compared to Kent, the folks he mentions and lots of other folks. I’ve even turned into a bit of a trial geek – I carry a pruner/lopper in my pack and will sometimes do a little pruning if needed.
I’ve ridden lots of other places, but never seen such an incredible resource totally built on the backs of a few hardworking volunteers.
I am the 40 something guy Kent mentions. I am really an XC guy who spent some time at Whistler and bought a bigger bike. I like that “style” of riding, but it is hard to do, and I much prefer to “earn my turns” on a long, twisty trail.
However, I’d bet my freeride bike that the writer of the earlier letter hasn’t spent an hour working on the trails or in COTA meetings or trying to get through the red tape with the Forest Service.
I cannot possibly express my gratitude for Kent, COTA and all the other folks who get in there and WORK to make the riding experience better for everyone. If everyone would give up a couple of rides/year to spend a few hours on the trail, it would be a beautiful thing. It is really fun to ride a trail that you helped to build. I dare you to try it.
Incidentally, Kent mentioned Lev and Sam…I’ve not seen Sam in action, but Lev is sick. Good God man, are you INSANE?
Happy Trails.
Kent Howes is one of the most stand up people I have met in my last 19 years of living in Bend, Oregon. He is a go getter and unlike some of the slime that whine about their kids not being offered high chairs in restuarants to the wives of developers who whine about clothes being hung outside to dry infringing on their CCR’s, Kent has forgone greed and fame to build one of the best biking trail systems on the planet.
It is usually the whiny offspring and mommies with too much time on their hands that sit and complain as that is what they are taught to get away with and anyone critisizing them will get sued by their hot shot attorney….so you better watch out as to who you are speaking with….LOL
Kent Howes is my hero and anyone ripping on him should instead pull their head out of their asses and put on a grubby t shirt and come do some digging with us and help build a system and get involved instead of sitting back and whining…and blaming…..
That crowd of people and low class of people like the jerks that whine about Baltazar not giving their kid a high chair….go back to Orange county as we do not want your kind here. That selfish woman was not aware that some of us that have kids and want to go to an upscale restaurant do not want to sit and listen to your rug rat scream as we are enjoying some quality time with our spouses…. Why does this have to be all about you and what you want?
It is the mentality of the people that whine that is similar. Rich, spoiled, arrogant, ignorant and having no class. Secret…..hhhhssss…..money does not buy you class…..you either were born with it or not…
why is it every time i go to the lair or the slalom loop there is some guy with a shovel saying i cant ride. this has happened to me 3 times and even several other friends. sure cota is making a difference like sam and kent. but your pee-on volunteers are walking into the woods like the trail police. we are suppose to share these trails not stand in the middle and yell at some one to get off the dirt. maybe put a sign up or something. i read the rules at the bottom of the hill, it didnt say look out for the jerk with the shovel. the volunteers be warned your upsetting ALOT of people, and the next time i drop in you need to move cause im not using brakes. i appreciate cota and what they do , but, it doesnt give your volunteers a badge saying they own the place. they are very rude about it. and i quote, “you ruined my lip!” , even though he was waiting for his buddy to go down. but not me. there needs to be more organization. i ride my bike from town to the trails i dont drive to the trail head. so when i get there and you say i cant ride, and im suppose to leave? not anymore im bombing the trails whenever or however i can. i nor my friends will be stopped by anyone not wearing some sort of cota jacket or pin or something. if there’s not a coat or a pin with cota and there name (in case there is a complaint) then we will blow by them . show the trail users a little respect and we will respect you.the moral of the story is this land is not cota’s to do with as they please it is for everyone to enjoy at ANYTIME THEY WANT! not when its convenient for there volunteers! we all need to share. i dont mind sharing but dont be a jerk to me cause your doing something. maybe cota should put volunteers through a people skill class. sincerely angry in bend