VIVA LA SINGLETRAIL!

Fireroads can be really boring.

After various hold ups en-route to a recent ride, combined with the “exploratory” nature of the first section of the ride making for slow going, my riding buddy and I called it early and bailed down a familiar fireroad and back to the car. We’ve ridden this fireroad before and, in fairness, when ridden in our usual fashion, the high speed descent it provides is a welcome change to the long grind preceding it and is kind of fun in its own way.

But not on this night. Sure, it was riding bikes which is a far superior option to watching Saturday evening TV, there were several ‘Roos to say ‘Hi’ to, the creek was flowing and gurgling for the first time a long time after the first Autumnal rain; it was certainly better to be out on the bike than not riding. But after the excitement and a little drama with some of the navigational decisions we’d had to make on the way in, a bit of bush bashing along overgrown and somewhat forgotten trail giving way to pretty cool views over the lights of Adelaide, the fireroad descent left me feeling a bit numb. Especially as our intended descent was one of the prime singletrail descents from the hills to the plains. The ride just sort of fizzled away; it was a ‘boring’ finish, not one that that had you contemplating a quick climb back up the hill for another go.

So, singletrail is where it’s at for me. I’m sure many of you feel the same. There are times and places that firetrail or road linkages are needed; feedback from the Kona Dirty Weekend 24 hour held in the Adelaide Hills over Easter asked for a bit less singletrail, which makes sense when the sleep demons are attacking at 3am and you need a chance to eat and drink more easily than the singletrail allows, but outside of racing, let singletrail reign.

Yet, if we are not careful, we may very well end up with access to our parks and reserves only in the form of firetrails.

For various reasons, walkers are less opposed to bikes on firetrails than singletrail and Parks departments seem to follow this thinking, too. For Parks accountants, providing access within their budgetary constraints, it is a low cost option – no construction costs, with upkeep covered by fire management practices as is – which surely makes it attractive.

For walkers, it is a “safe bet” in the politics of trail access. The longer sightlines fireroads provide appear to make them a ‘safer’ option in many walkers’ eyes, who often quote ‘risk of collision’ as a major concern. Yet the direct nature of their routing and lack of Technical Trail Features (by their very nature) to prompt much in the way of speed control, means even the most inexperienced of riders can gather a lot of momentum very quickly. Conversely, the rises, falls, twists and turns of singletrail generally keep a rider’s speed more manageable, (even though you feel fast due to the enclosed nature of the trail) should other users be encountered.

With higher speeds surely resulting in greater drama should rider hit trail or – worse still – hit another trail user, surely the risk on firetrail must, in balance, equate to that perceived by other in regards to singletrail? With less technical challenge to keep rider’s interest in the trail, what will stop ‘boredom’ creeping in, leading to the use of non-designated trails in search of such challenge? Or worse yet, start building unauthorised trails to provide the challenge they seek?

When considered in this way, you start to wonder; Are we making headway with access to Parks? Or are we being set up to fail due to the lack of singletrail access being offered?

I know I welcome access to our Parks – absolutely, I do! – but I will continue to do what I can to get more singletrail onto the agenda, however many obstructions presented. I’d rather we had 10km of quality singletrail than 25kms of fireroad – though ideally I’d want more of both!

So, whilst I’ll ride this aforementioned ‘boring’ fireroad again at some point in the future, I reckon the few small sections of singletrail we scouted on our ride will win out more often than not. Whilst we may get some form of access to our Parks, we must keep on keeping on for the singletrail access we all want and not give up, however hard it may seem.

Viva La Singletrail!