Every year here in Cumberland we lose a trail or two to the logging industry.  The majority of our trails are built on privately owned land, and while the logging companies work with us to save some of the trails, sometimes it’s unavoidable.  This time we lost another of my favourite trails, Soggy Biscuit. Soggy was one of the original Cumberland trails and one of the most popular since it was also used by hikers and trail runners with it being so close to town.  I had only just discovered it myself this summer since I needed to find mellow, easy trails to ride after I fractured my ankle.  (I normally ride the trails higher up which are a lot steeper and far more technical.)

Last week my friend, Pascale, and I decided to ride over that way to have a moment of silence for Soggy and remember the good times we had on that trail.  It was the trail Pascale had learned to mountain bike on (she’s now an adventure race/triathlete here in the Comox Valley) and she was really sad to see it go.  Along the way we saw that they were already starting to build the new logging road on the other side of the trail and into the direct path of another trail called Entrails.  Apparently the road is going to just pass over a couple of sections of Entrails so it won’t be completely destroyed, but definitely affected.

Luckily there are still a lot of good trails in that area.  We continued on down the road to Lower Crafty Butcher, which linked up to the end of Soggy Biscuit (which is still rideable), then over to Black Hole, and another of my favourites, Space Nugget.

And more logging…

While we were away last weekend, Colin received a call from another logging company.  We’re about to lose more trails, this time on Forbidden Plateau.  Luckily they are working around most of the trails so they can easily be rebuilt.  See here for affected trails and please support the Cumberland Community Forest Society.