Ontario Riders - The Don Needs Your Help

Riders in the GTA are asking for your help. A group of volunteer builders recently reconstructed a section of trail here in Toronto's Don Valley. A network of trails that give riders a good 60km or so on dirt in the heart of Canada's largest city. Yes, it's not The Shore but it's pretty cool. And it gets a lot of use. How much? I am not sure. But the section in question shows over 500 riders on Strava alone.

About half of that trail is managed by the city of Toronto. It's called Crothers Woods. On that section there was a nasty off-camber section of trail that fed into a blind corner lining you up perfectly with a tree. If you were going down you were flying with little control into said blind corner and tree. If you were climbing you were hoping that the oncoming traffic would see you in time. Needless to say it was the result of numerous crashes. Both collision and the single bike variety.

A group, featuring some of the most veteran trail builders in the Don, took it upon themselves to fix that. A separate up and down line was created to avoid head-on collisions. It was a big job spanning several weeks. Berms were put in place to solve the off-camber section. Direction was changed to avoid the tree. Drainage was dealt with. It was done right. It was safer, much safer. It was also more fun. It was clearly marked. Trees were transplanted wherever possible. It was all done by volunteers. It was all done for free and out of love.

This is the bottom of rebuild, with clearly marked up and down lines. Down is on left. Up on right.


Here is one of the new berms added (upper left) and a turn put in after it (lower right) Ignore the upper right photo, that's my trail building rig:


Here are some comments from riders on the new changes.

"Big thank you for peeps who built the new lines. The downline is fantasic, loving the booters."

"The new section is awesome and probably one of the most important spots to employ trail directionality. I rode it downhill for the first time Friday and had so much fun I went back and did it 4 more times."

"That modification was beautiful and sustainable it is so sad to see it go"

After completing the new changes one of the builders reached out to the city to let them know. This may have been our undoing because the build was done without permission.

Yes - it was an illegal build.

Photo courtesy Timothy Charles

As we speak the City is working hard to undo the work done several weeks ago to restore the trail to its 'original' condition. Yes what was done was done without permission. Yes it was on a city managed trail. But it was done to make things better. It was done by the same people who work with the city when the city needs help managing trail. It was done by the same people who have spent literally hundreds of hours this year and every year maintaining those same trails. All for free. All because they love to ride and understand that in order to do that someone has to be in there; clearing deadfall, finding drainage solutions, raking leaves and getting dirty because no one else will.

I'd like to think Pinkbike and its users could help push back. That if they took two minutes to send an email maybe we could change what is happening. Which, if done in time, might get the city to stop and listen. Instead of just rip it out, assess the changes that were made and then act. Maybe nothing will come of it. But perhaps this can be stopped. But only with your help. I think it's worth a shot.

I know this is coming from Onterrible and worse, the centre of the universe, Toronto. But let's try to look past that and see this is about builders doing what we all love them to do. Build great trail for us to ride.

If you could send an email to these two people:

councillor_fragedakis@toronto.ca

slaver@toronto.ca


Below is a template to work from. All you need to do is add your name. Thanks for taking the time to read this. Happy fall riding.

-Ben Aylsworth. Just a guy who loves to ride his bike.

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Dear Councillor Fragedakis,

I am writing to you to express my concerns regarding the City of Toronto taking continual efforts to remove volunteer-built trail developments on the Crothers Woods nature trails. I was saddened to find out that just this morning the City is removing a community volunteer-built upgrade to "The Ridge" trail behind the sewage treatment plant near Millwood Rd.

At a time when the City is continually pressed for resources, it would be beneficial for both City Staff and the community to work together in supporting the work of volunteer trail builders who provide critical development and maintenance on these trails. Why is the City wasting precious resources to remove trail builds that are beneficial to all trail users in Crothers Woods and were constructed by skilled community volunteers?

Let me clarify: the developments in question were constructed by a skilled group of community members, one of the leaders of which has worked closely with the City in performance maintenance and improvements to these trails for some time. These are not "rogue" individuals out to make the trails hazardous. The changes the City is now removing were safer for all trail users, as they implemented "up" and "down" routes on a heavily used segment of trail, and helped to reduce erosion through limiting direct fall-line mountain biking through the use of berms and gradation changes.

I would ask that you please respond to this email indicating:

1. Why the City chose to take action to remove these recent community-supported trail changes.
2. What plans the City has to work together with skilled community volunteers to design and implement trail improvements and maintenance in Crothers Woods and other natural environment trail networks throughout the City. The current disregard for the interests of trail users is unacceptable.

Thank you in advance for your response.

Sincerely,

(Your Name Here)

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