Two mountain bike news items from this weekend:
Beardance trail near Bigfork, MT. Photo by AK_Dan.
New MTB Trails Proposed – In Montana
In what might be considered a bit of a peace offering, the US Forest Service is proposing 33 miles of new mountain bike trails in the Helena National Forest, Montana. The proposal comes on the heels of a recent bike ban in Montana wilderness study areas (WSA) that came down this spring. Admittedly 33 miles of new trail doesn’t make up for the hundreds of miles of Montana trails closed to bikes in 2010 but hey, it’s a start…
Bend Woman Rescued After Bad Fall
We don’t normally report on stories of injured or lost mountain bikers just because there are at least 2-3 in the news every week but this one caught our interest. According to the Victoria Advocate, Shoshana Foxwell was riding on Ben’s Trail west of Bend, OR Friday evening when she went over the handlebars and sustained serious but non-life-threatening injuries. Shortly after her fall, a member of the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue (SAR) mountain bike team (!) happened to ride past and immediately began treating the woman. Now that’s a first class response!
In all seriousness, we’re impressed that the SAR mountain bike team even exists and that there are enough members (volunteers?) to ride the trail regularly. Of course riders should never count on SAR or even IMBA Bike Patrollers being around to provide assistance but man, what a difference it makes when these resources are available.
This also brings up the point about riding alone which is never a good idea, especially in the evening. If no one had come by the woman might have been stranded in the woods all night. Bring a friend if you can and tell someone else where you’re going and when you’ll be back. Cell phones are nice to have “just in case” but you can never count on getting a signal when you might need it the most.
