I just returned from a trip to Nova Scotia. My mom owns a house in North West Harbor, a tiny little shoreline village in Shelburne County. It's a pretty isolated area by my urban standards, quiet and still very wild. You would think that this would be a perfect place for biking, but I have found that it is not.
About five years ago I went full bore with the idea of mountain biking in Nova Scotia. I had been watching a lot of freeride videos featuring Canadian locales (I know, wrong coast) and my parents owned a back lot of woods covering almost forty acres that I was determined to turn into a trail. So I brought my Kona Stinky and took to cutting out a trail. I labored in a bugshirt, trading sweat for protection from the thousands of mosquitos surrounding me with a feast in mind. I even made a little freeride feature, a bridge crossing over a massive fallen tree.
So you would think that my construction would have seeded a regular mountain biking pursuit in Nova Scotia, but it did not. After spending a full week clearing the trail, I had little time to ride it, so it was not burned in. When I returned the following summer, it was pretty much gone. I am used to bemoaning the over-riding of trails located around New York City, but in Nova Scotia I learned an important lesson: if there are not enough people riding a trail, it won't be a trail. In addition, the ecology of Nova Scotia really does not encourage mountain biking. I have heard that there is a good riding scene near Halifax, but down where my mom lives it is flat and the bugs are voracious. There are great rocks, but with no one riding over them, most are covered in moss and aren't all that rideable.
I should say that a lot of people travel around Nova Scotia as bike tourists, and I can see where it would be fun to pack up the panniers and cover the long winding roads that cover the coastline. But just riding around is pretty boring, and I have not gotten a lot of pleasure out of road riding in Shelburne County. I am not a big fan of just riding around on the roads, so perhaps my own lack of interest is my problem.
So what's a dedicated biker to do when visiting a place without good biking?
For me, it means a shift of frame. What do I like about biking? It's getting out and exploring the outdoors, it is discovering new places under my own power. In Nova Scotia, the best outdoors looks like this:
I have to admit it, a bike is not of much use in this terrain. The best human-powered vehicle for exploring the shoreline looks like this:
So I have learned to go with the flow and use my arms for a change. Really, although I am pretty much using the wrong half of my body, kayaking is a lot like riding. You have to set a pace and get into a rhythm, and once you get into that rhythm paddling can be really relaxing. Like a mountain bike, a kayak can really extend the range of places that you explore. A good ocean kayak can ride in about 6" of water, so almost nowhere is beyond range On the ocean there's also the potential for some "freeriding", as wind and wave conditions can create significant challenges. Is it mountain biking? No, but it is a fun alternative.
Although the kayak is pretty versatile, it does suffer from one characteristic that I really don't like: weather dependence. If there's significant fog it can be dangerous; my partner Teresa and I once got caught in between two coasts as the fog rolled in and for a few minutes we couldn't get any bearing on where we were or whether we were drifting out into the open ocean. Kayaking in the rain is possible, but with enough wind it is really not that pleasant.
I will ride my mountain bike in pretty much any weather, with snow being the only thing that really slows me down. Coastal conditions unfortunately create "good days" and "bad days" for kayaking.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
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