Cleaning paths are becoming more and more fashionable: clean paths = more fun. Right. But then a strange mechanism always triggers that I would define 'The Pathology of the Unstated Trail Builder' and there the question arises: "but who the f *** asked you to clean the paths?". Let's get to know this theory together... and I get ready for threats 🙂
While I'm preparing to lose several friends and receive verbal threats, I begin to formulate the unestablished Trail Builder theory. I found confirmation of this theory in several locations and, since there will be many Trail Builders who will read, let's not feel (I draw myself in too) implicated if deep down we are pure and wholesome or driven by healthy ideals.
TRAIL BUILDER THEORY NOT ESTABLISHED
Let's try to think of a path that has been used for about ten years both uphill and downhill. A trail where there has never been any kind of problem. One day I decide to put my hand to it heavily, instead of opening a new one done well with relative permits. I take that trail because it's easier to do like this: I clean it a bit, I make small cazzum banks, a few jumps with a ramp that kicks more than a colt in heat and automatically the path becomes my property, complete with autonomy (via social ) to prohibit shooting in certain weather conditions or other. This could be a borderline situation but, in a less obvious way, it often occurs: how many of you feel pointed out because they don't maybe go to clean certain paths every other day? And, once you get out of the path cleaning loop, you automatically lose power over that area:”but what are you talking about that you never come to clean","come and shoot with friends and I only saw you once with the hoe in your hand"... and the answer comes spontaneously:"but who the f *** asked you to clean the paths?"
Maybe I was already walking here 20 years ago, with leaves and without leaves, I've always done ordinary maintenance to make the path practicable and I don't see the reason now to create a highway in the woods using the blower every other day and even come and point out to me that I don't do this. The fact of not removing the leaves every other day, however, preserves the natural evolution of the path, saving it from the continuous erosion dictated by the fact that it is always bare.
This is not to say that the paths should not be maintained (otherwise I would be self-offending), but that there is often an ulterior motive (and exasperation) to cleaning and it happens to find realities that clean paths and then reproach it in somehow or they proclaim themselves (on social networks and, indirectly, in the field): "godparents of this area". A bit like volunteering and then expecting others to do it too.
One fact that convinced me to write this editorial was that the other night, in a late evening bar, an enduro (motorcycle) rider told me:”I've been riding motorcycles for 15 years, I've opened many paths where I now see many downhill bikes riding. I always pay attention but the world fell upon me when I found myself in front of a path, which I have been using for years and which I practically opened 10 years ago, with a beautiful sign that reads: motorcycles prohibited!". I will not go into the merits because it is undeniable that the bikes do damage, especially in the case of non-expert riders, but I leave you this dialogue to make you understand that, by opening your mind a little, you can grasp many inconsistencies and different points of view.
And I quote an answer from Pippo Marani, THE king of the Trail Builders, to those who removed the stones from the paths to look for more flow: “The steepest wrecks and extreme passages highlight the technical/athletic feats of the strongest and the differences in performance. Everyone good at taking pictures "with the whip" – while he says it he grotesquely mimics the whip pose – “on those drawn tracks that look like billiards. These new bike parks are like cages for hamsters…"
With this, however, I don't want to pull Pippo Marani on my side: I keep him out of these diatribes, it was just a statement of his that circulated on the internet.
And then we want to put the continuous tabular any type of path or even track the stones with GPS? (ah no, the stones are often removed or colored)… But where is the spirit of adventure going to end up if before leaving I can even see in 3D the room where I will stop for a beer? But on this, and for any insults, I give you an appointment in the next editorial.
