Royal pain

>> Conservationists and bikers differ on
how best to protect the mountain
from its own popularity

OBEYING THE RULES: Cyclists on the mountain

by LUCAS WISENTHAL

“You’re all aware that there’s only one mountain in Montreal,” says Thomas Gallenne, project coordinator for the conservationist group Les amis de la montagne. “Everybody wants to be there.”

That much was clear last Wednesday, April 16, when Les amis held an open forum at the Université de Montreal to discuss the future of mountain biking on Mount Royal and, essentially, in the city. Because while riding on the mountain around which the city grows may seem an obvious choice for urban mountain bikers, the last two decades also proved it to be a contentious one.

According to Les amis and its partner organizations, cross-country riders and downhill freeriders endanger the mountain’s wildlife and threaten its vegetation through their steady erosion of its ground. This is especially so, Les amis say, when they hit off-trail spots, building wooden jumps and obstacles in protected areas like the Boisé St-Jean Baptiste on the mountain’s northern summit. Les amis also claim that mountain bikers run the ever-present risk of plowing into the hikers and joggers who also frequent the park.

While some say that stringently enforced rules might reduce bikers’ impact on the mountain’s environment and help them co-exist with its pedestrian users, others contend that the most practical solution would be to create an alternative spot for them to ride. To that end, Les amis suggested five hypothetical locations for a bike-friendly area, all within a 10-kilometre radius of downtown. These include the Falaise St-Jacques, the space by the Turcot Yards; the Complexe environnemental St-Michel, which could be turned into 10 kilometres of trails (although it would require years of work); the Carrière Francon, also in St-Michel, a quarry currently used as a snow dump that could yield between three and 10 kilometres of trails; as a temporary measure, the section of Mount Royal Park between Mont-Royal Boulevard and Parc, and Maisonneuve Park, which, along with other parks in the city, Gallenne says would interest cyclists. Gallenne stresses that all these ideas are purely hypothetical, and says that the Complexe environnemental St-Michel proposition may not even be do-able until 2020.

OFF-TRAIL FORBIDDEN: Mountain bikers

Where next?

“It doesn’t seem like they want to work towards a feasible solution on the mountain,” says Kenny Larkin, a 25-year-old downhill rider who attended the Wednesday night meeting with his friend Dmitri Figura, 19. “They just want to get us off the mountain. [Our options are] a garbage dump, a fucking crater in the ground or a spot north of the 40.”

Larkin and Figura say that they ride on secluded trails near UdeM with jumps and drops, and that they’ve never had issues with others on the mountain. “The only time I’ve seen walkers on there, they’ve moved over, because they know it’s not a walking trail. It’s so obvious that it’s a biking trail,” says Larkin.

And if mountain bikers are barred from that trail, or if its obstacles are demolished, says Figura, Les amis are “not going to build anything to help us within the year. They even said they don’t know where they’re getting their money. They’re not even sure where they’re building it. They’re not sure how they’re going to do it, or who they’re going to get to do it. They have no idea what’s going on with anything, except for the fact that they want us off the mountain, which is completely unreasonable.”

But the two aren’t entirely at odds with the conservationists. “I think the biggest concern is people building off-trail, like kids who show up with sticks and stones and crazy fucking caveman jumps,” says Larkin. “The older members of the community have to step up when we see younger people, or just people in general, who are building off-trail, and we need to say to them that that’s not cool. That’s not good for the forest, and that’s not good for our reputation.”

David Lauzon, a 33-year-old who says he’s been riding for 16 years and also attended the hearings, got tired of fighting for turf on Mount Royal. “I moved to Sherbrooke,” he says, “because they have mountain bike trails on a mountain right in the middle of the city.”