After the drought ending rain earlier in the year the woods are jam packed with an amazing display of wildflowers this Spring. On a fine Saturday afternoon bizarrely you don’t come across anyone else out on the trails. It makes for great riding in a selfish kind of way but the lack of people out there enjoying the bush verges on a wrong you want to right. With a fuel reduction burn scheduled over Summer chances are it could be many years before the woods will look like this again.
Wheeling back into home on dark I wondered if the empty trails in some way reflected dominant MTB culture which seems to be centered around racing, where riding is reduced to reasons — preparation and training, competing, a long way removed from the heart and soul of riding — the freedom, the flow, the thrill, the adventure, the sensory overload as the mass of wildflowers blur into a sea of color… cruising the woods.
Each to their own I guess, but it’s a bummer methinks.
