The snow is finally almost gone on all of the local trails on the North Shore. I had my first ride back on Mt. Fromme a few days ago, and while I was super happy and stoked to ride those trails for the first time since December, I had a few encounters which really made my blood boil…
Let me start this off by saying, I’m not a big dog person. I’ve never owned one, but I’ve spent enough time around them and “babysat” a few for extended periods of time to understand them and peoples attraction to them. There have only been a few that I could honestly say I’ve enjoyed being around for some time, but in the end, they generally seem like too big of a commitment and inconvenience to me. That’s just my take, you do you.
When I go ride Fromme alone, I tend to just ride from home straight up Mtn. Highway as opposed to taking the variety of climbing trails on the west or east side of the main road. It’s faster, I can keep a consistant heart rate, and in my mind, it’s easier. I’ve never been a good technical climber. The climb and main decent of my first two rides were pretty typical. 18-20 minutes to get to the base of Fromme, 20-30 minutes from there to get to the various mid mountain trails. It’s when I started doing some of the lower mountain interval loops where I noticed something that really started to bother me.
On the first short climb, I noticed within a 500m section of climb trail, there were 3 dog doo bags laying on the side of the trail, with at least 2 piles that weren’t picked up just laying on the side of the trail. Now this trail is more of a multi use trail, used by hikers in addition to mountain bikers. I have been riding Mt. Seymour more often in the winter and didn’t notice this problem. Seeing this made me think back of a similar situation in the LSCR trails that I had been teaching spring break camps in. Little dog doo bags sitting on the side of the trails/paths.
Am I missing something here? Is there a magic dog poop fairy that makes its way through the trails picking up all the little bags and putting them in the garbage? Not likely. Seeing this also made me think back to a Pinkbike article from last spring that was posted that talked about the health and environmental effects of un-managed dog doo on the North Shore, so I won’t be getting into any of that. I just can’t fathom how people think that simply bagging the doo and leaving it on the side of the trail is helping anybody! If anything, it’s worse, if you’re looking at it from a pollution/environmental standpoint. After taking a wilderness first aid course where we did most of our simulations in the woods off the side of the trails in a park. During the simulations, we were rolling around with various simulation injuries and getting covered in dog doo. I was absolutely disgusted by how people were so careless with the animals that a lot of people seem to be going crazy over these days. This however, was not near mountain bike trails, so even though I was annoyed, I was glad our trails weren’t like that. It was the hikers and other fellow dog walkers that would have to deal with the problem. Now that the poison is creeping into our territory, it’s time to do something about it.
The lack of doo digging by dog owners isn’t the only purpose of this rant. A little while later into my intervals, while riding a pretty popular MTB Primary trail (Lower Espresso), there was a dog walker with 3-5 dogs beep bopping their way UP a downhill trail. Fortunately I was able to hear them and slow down just in time, and was a bit too tired and freaked out from almost running one of them over to say anything to the person responsible for the near collision so I brushed it off and decided to just do laps on the trail below since it also had a nice climb trail that was about the same length. I have had heated confrontations with dog walkers using MTB trails on Cypress before, and no matter how polite I am to remind them that they are walking on high speed MTB trails and it is very dangerous to be on it, people get defensive. I decided to let it slide instead of getting in a fight with this particular person.
It’s worth noting that this far down the mountain, there are quite a few different biking trails that cross the Baden Powell and Dempsey Connector, multi use trails that runs along lower Fromme. On my 4th or 5th loop, out of nowhere a pretty decent size dog jumps out barking like crazy at me and starts chasing me, nipping at my ankles. It never actually bit me, but came pretty close. It got ahead of me, so I stopped and put my bike between it and myself. By then it calmed down and the owner, also a mountain biker who was climbing up the climb trail which was only about 10 feet away from the decent in that section, came over and tried to calm it down and bring it back to the climb trail. The owner didn’t say a word to me. No apology, no friendly hello or acknowledgment that I was there and that the dog nearly attacked me, scared the crap out of me, or at the very least, got in my way.
We’re fellow mountain bikers! They’re the nicest group of outdoor recreation people I’ve ever experienced! Heck, I apologize for the littlest inconveniences, like when I’m teaching and people ride by even when we’re completely off the trail, or if I’m doing some freelap timing drills and warn people about my little yellow tower to the left side of the trail just as a distraction to the other riders. The lack of empathy in this situation was really shocking to me.
Two days later, while doing the same loop on the same trail, a very similar thing happened. This time, the dog that started chasing me was a little higher up on the Dempsey connector trail coming down to where the trail I was looping started. I just ignored this one and it eventually left me alone and never really got that close, but as the one two days ago, no apology or acknowledgment from the owner.
Is this the new normal now? It logically makes sense that dogs and bikes don’t mix. Bikes are fast, loud, and can kind of come out of nowhere. I learned very quickly while babysitting some friends dogs that they were absolutely terrified and always tried to run away when bikes were near. What did I do? I walked where there weren’t a whole lot of bikes. If you know that your dog is either frightened or goes into attack mode, why in the world would you walk them where you know there’s a very good possibility for bikes to be around? I can understand if you’re trying to train them not to be afraid or aggressive, but I would think it would be logical to have them on a leash and be very self conscious and apologetic if they do lash out. Is this another thing people are being entitled about these days? The poor behaviour of their animals?
These two experiences recently have lead me to reflect and I’m starting to notice a pattern. Very poorly behaved dogs and very entitled lazy owners who don’t care about their fellow trail users. I know not all dogs or people are like this. I’ve ridden with a few that have been very well trained and moved off the trail when you told them to. I also know responsible dog owners who pick up after them, and walk them in places where they won’t get in peoples way when they’re off leash. I know part of owning a dog for some people is enjoying the outdoors with it. I don’t have a problem with these people. What I have a problem with is my experiences on the trails that I work on and pay for being misused by very ignorant, entitled human beings.
The course was now even dryer and faster. Riders were only able to get one, maybe two runs in due to 1 minute practice intervals to keep the course moving along, but that was all that was needed.
