In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...
Quoted message said:I have a friend visiting from Germany, and I took him out on his first
singletrack today. He really liked it & would like to try it at home but
is unaware of any singletrack in his area (Bodensee). I was googling &
found your post from last year (http://tinyurl.com/2tfz3) wherein you
mention that singletrack ist verboten in Baden-Wuertemmberg. Can you
point me to finding some other options for him in that area? You can
email me at gab at gorge dot net if you know of anything.
Hi Gabrielle,
If you're friends a biker, he probably's ridden singletrack... The
problem is that it's pretty scarce here. There's the problems of
population, laws and farmers. The trails are either for hikers, or they
are farm roads. There aren't many in-betweens. Add to that the problem
that hiking trails are normally small sections of foot-path linked by
long sections of fire road.
Trying to compare the trails in the US to trials in Germany is
difficult. There's a major cultural difference. Germans think that the
reason that there is so much singletrack in the US is that "It's so
big". That's BS. It's because bikers/hikers build and maintain them.
They don't do that here. In 10 years of riding in Germany, I've never
seen a trails day. I've never seen anybody do anything to a trail
except sanitize or obliterate it. Here, you'll have a road going
straight up a hill here. In the US, someone will build a singletrack up
it with switch backs. Here, someone will drive a backhoe up it making
it wide enough to get an unimog through.
The number of times I've ridden a fire road and thought "Wow, in the US,
someone would build a singletrack off the side of this stupid gravel
road, maybe something that meanders up the hill with switchbacks and
some technical features - but those clever (insert German, French,
Italian, Austrian, Swiss), they figured out that it's better to just
blaze a road instead." Marked mountain bike trails in those countries
are normally roads. If you find a marked mountain bike trail that is
smaller than 2 meters, you probably missed a turn somewhere and are on a
hiking trail.
So, I poach. I poach often. Heck, I probably poach ever time I ride.
If I'm ever stopped, I tell people that the trails larger than two
meters, then ride on. Sometime in the past, it probably was (20-30-100
years ago). I never argue with Germans on this as they're always right.
Again, a cultural diffence that isn't improved by the fact that I'm a
foreigner.
I've never ridden down by the Bodensee so I really can't help. I could
probably help your friend find some trails up here by HD though...
email address is nota_knob at t-online dot de.
nk
