So sad to see the Times reporting this negative ill-researched drivel. But after Jayson Blair, am I surprised? Not really. Frankly I'm surprised that Eastman Long is still telling these 'stories' after so many years being proven wrong. He even recently admitted that bikers don't carry shotguns or rip his lines down.
We have tried to stay out of his way for a long time, but he keeps putting lines across trails that are on STATE land. He is one of two people in the entire state that are allowed to sugar on public land, the other guy takes his lines down in the summer. The lines have gotten progressively lower over time (~4ft high for many of them now) and he strings them purposely to close off trail on state land. He has also cut many widowmaker trees along the trail and outright felled others to block access.
The funny thing is, Eastman employs quite a few mountain bikers to help sugar in the spring. They've talked to him about his issues and he knows he's just being crotchedy, which makes for a juicy quote, but it is hardly reality.
We've had success with the state in legitimizing trails and are working to permanently find a solution to the sap line problem through a major reroute. We are wiling to pay for tubing connectors so we could continue to use the existing trail, but it seems like that olive branch may not work. Also, the trail is so nested with lines and felled trees, it may be not worth it. So we have will probably have to reroute.
As far as the damaging roots thing goes, boots, bikes and hooves (including horse, deer and moose) can damage roots, but this is minimized on a well designed trail. Much of the trail in question does not affect any maple roots. BTW, the Long Trail does more root damage than all the bikes trails in Vermont combined and tapping trees for sugar can affect their health too (the sugaring process draws off sap through holes drilled in the trees.)
I think all this is okay though. We impact the earth and can choose how much and where we balances our impacts. I use maple syrup almost exclusively for sugar in my diet, so it is near and dear to my heart. So is the Long Trail. And so is biking.
Thankfully, The Times has lost so much credibility, this misleading story won't affect our efforts that much. Unfortunately, I will probably be having a long conversation with Eastman tomorrow at the Farmer's Market.
John
Wilder Farm Inn Luke riding in Camel's Hump State Forest, near the infamous Bitter Route/ Kessler's Connection.
p.s. There were two other idiotic statements in the article. One from the Travel and Tourism guy about how many mountains there are above 2 thousand feet in VT and that's why people ride here. The truth is 95% of the best riding in the state is all below 2500'. Heck, I think I could count the number of legal bike trails above 3000' on one hand.
The other was how freeride is to x-c what snowboarding is to skiing??? Right, I get it. Thanks for clearing that up for the uninitiated.
