Needham Town Forest Rant

[far raider]

I rode in Needham today and I think I have calmed down enough to write something other than a string of expletives and threats.

The issue is the incessant push to further and further emasculate this once challenging trail. Unless you just crawled out of Newbieville, you should know that if you cannot ride an obstacle, walk your bike over it - DO NOT REMOVE THE CHALLANGE! DO NOT ADD HELPER ROCKS. DO NOT MAKE A NEW BRAID SO CAN RIDE. DO NOT CUT DOWN TREES TO WIDEN THE TRAIL -that is how the trail was designed, until you showed up with your new saw. And DO NOT REMOVE LOGS IN THE TRAIL. You are turning this into another Cutler Park!!

OK now to be positive. What could be done to prevent this? Signs? Other ideas???

FR

[gnar602]

I'd gladly help put signs up. This same thing is happening at Lynn Woods and it's ridiculous. My guess is the person(s) doing this have no idea how blood and sweat have been put into making these places what they are. There are plenty of newbie oriented trails out there while the technical terrain continues to disappear. This trend needs to stop!

[Fitch]

I've heard a lot of back and forth about Needham in the past year. A cat with NEMBA said the club was trying to get the town's approval to become involved with signage and trail work, while another basically said "don't talk about Needham."

I always saw it as a technical alternative to Cutler Park, though I haven't been back in about 4 years.

Pacification of trails is an annoyance, to say the least, but I don't see it stopping. People new to biking or who aren't bikers may think they're helping by making something easier.

[pdon]

NO NEMBA. NTF is perfect the way it is.

NEMBA does tons of great work. I do think NEMBA involvement can lead to wussification of trails. NTF is pefect

[(Tom)]

NEMBA does tons of great work. I do think NEMBA involvement can lead to wussification of trails.

Yeah? Like where are you talking about?

[Ridnparadise]

If you don't know who is doing this, then it sounds like you have no involvement in trailcare. Perhaps getting involved may assist in understanding the what and why of it.

[pdon]

im not a nemba basher, they do lots of great work at great places and I am very appreciative of it too.

I do think that NEMBA when doing trail work, has a standard as to whats acceptable (probably pertaining to safety and cleaning up things), that can sometimes take away from the character of a trail.