Endurance.Net: Trails Matter: March 2021

Wednesday, March 31, 2021

Canada: Carriage club to map out multi-use trail

KELLY SINOSKI
Mar. 31, 2021

Plans are in the works to create a multi-use trail that would stretch from Meadow Lake to 83 Mile House.

Members of the Cariboo Country Carriage Club are seeking a grant writer to apply for funding to develop the trail, which would be open to everyone from cyclists to hikers, dog-sledders, snowshoers, cross-country skiers, horse riders and buggy horses, said leader Dennis Huber.

Huber, who lives in 70 Mile House, said the group would aim to upgrade its existing 18-kilometre trail and have smaller loops branching off from it, which could work for endurance trail riding. He noted the trail already goes all the way out to Dog Creek and to Meadow Lake and way. It stops just short of 100 Mile in the other direction...

Monday, March 29, 2021

Ireland: Call for More Access to Off-Road Paths for Horse Riders

Newstalk.com - Full Article

Marita Moloney
15.49 28 MAR 2021

An equestrian group has called for increased access to off-road paths for people wishing to ride horses on public land in Ireland.

The Leisure Equestrian Association of Ireland states there are limited off-road riding facilities or bridleways for equestrianism here.

The group, which lobbies on behalf of private horse-owners, is seeking to retain current access and increase future access to of-road facilities.

Members of the group, who came together for the first time at the end of 2020, have given 80 submissions this year to local authorities seeking more access...

E-bike 101: What to know as electric cycling moves to Colorado Springs trails

Gazette.com - Full Article

By Seth Boster seth.boster@gazette.com Mar 22, 2021

If it wasn’t already, the e-bike debate is officially on in Colorado Springs.

That’s after the parks department this month announced a year-long pilot program expanding e-bike access to trails. Beginning May 31, the department will begin observing and deciding the long-term future of charged-up rides in cherished parks and open spaces.

Here’s an e-bike 101, filling you in on the technology, the trends and some finer points of debate:...

Sunday, March 21, 2021

Beara Bridleway: Ireland’s first long-distance horse trail

Dan Linehan photo

IrishExaminer.com - Full Article

Exploration of the local Wild Atlantic Way is now possible on horseback

SAT, 20 MAR, 2021 - 23:00
CARINA MCNALLY

Ireland’s first official long-distance equestrian trail, the Beara Bridleway, has emerged in West Cork’s Beara Peninsula, with exploration of the local Wild Atlantic Way now possible on horseback, with the permission and co-operation of several local farmers and landowners.

Following private and public tracks along the Sliabh Miskish Mountains, a large section of the bridleway was already historically a horse trail when, during a local industrial age, it first opened in 1824 to facilitate copper mining at Allihies.

The 23km trail, which links the townland of Clounglaskin (a few miles west of Castletownbere) to the historic village of Allihies, and then onward to the coastal townland of Urhan, overlooks stunning seascapes and views to Beara’s sister peninsulas...

Thursday, March 18, 2021

BCHA Public Lands Update On E-Bikes for 2021

BCHA.org - Full Article

By Randy Rasmussen – BCHA Director of Public Lands and Recreation

Public debate is likely to intensify in 2021 regarding the appropriate role of motorized electric bicycle (e-bike) use in outdoor recreation, including the appropriate role of electric mountain bikes (e-MTBs) among backcountry trails. The issue is not going away any time soon. This Public Lands Update summarizes recent changes in policies by federal land management agencies on the e-bike topic and what BCH chapters can do when the e-bike debate comes to public lands in your backyard.

Final Rules for E-bike Use Issued by DOI Agencies

The e-bike industry continued its aggressive push to open public land trails to e-bike use, driven primarily by an objective to increase e-bike sales across the nation. They chalked up one such success in 2020 via the Department of Interior (DOI), which in early October announced final regulations for e-bike use by the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. These new policies provide a green light to local agency managers who seek to authorize e-bike use on trails where traditional bicycle use is currently allowed (for details, see BCHA’s Summer 2020 newsletter). In short, the new policies treat e-bikes as a non-motorized trail use, akin to a regular bicycle—a reversal of policy that previously (and rightfully) recognized that e-bikes operate via an electric motor...

Saturday, March 13, 2021

Australia: Endurance riders fear national parks moving to restrict access

HawkesburyGazette.com.au - Full Article

March 11 2021
John Ellicott

Fury is building in the horse riding fraternity at plans to "manage" horse trails in NSW National Parks, with changes to trails at Wollemi National Park in the Hawkesbury seen as the thin edge of the wedge.

National Parks has issued a draft management plan for Wollemi that may see horse trails reduced from about 50 to 19 as it moves to prevent threats to the park's ecology.

But the move has sent shudders through the NSW Endurance Riders Association who have obtained an urgent meeting with the environment minister's office on March 22...

Sunday, March 7, 2021

British Columbia: Expansive horse trailer parking lot built on Timberlands Rd.

Nanaimonewsnow.com - Full Article

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff
Mar 6, 2021 7:18 AM

NANAIMO — Equestrians won’t have to worry about unloading their horses on crowded roads south of Nanaimo.

Expansion and construction of a 150 foot parking area for horse trailers on Timberlands Rd. was recently completed. The roughly $31,000 project also installed a mounting block for riders at the edge of the parking lot.

Lynn deVries, central Vancouver Island chapter chair of the Back Country Horsemen of B.C., told NanaimoNewsNOW riders would previously have to park along Timberlands Rd. despite the large size of their trailers...

California: Nostalgia for the Live Oak Trails We Are In Danger of Losing

Edhat.com - Full Article

MAR 06 2021
by Pat Fish

This blog is meant to be a testimony to the pleasure of four-legged exploration in the front country trails of our marvelous region. But now access to the best of the local trail systems, the ONLY exclusively equestrian area, is being "modified" to become multi-use. I drew the logo above to publicize the effort to stop this change.

That tiny red area is all we have that is exclusively equestrian. We are not greedy, we just don't want the trails, which have been set aside for us since Lake Cachuma was first created in 1953, to be ruined by hikers, with off leash dogs, and bicycle riders careening at high speed down the trails.

Today the MeetUp had 9 riders and we took a leisurely stroll in the beautiful weather. We traveled through a variety of riparian and chaparral zones, as the map shows, both wooded and open spaces.

Truthfully we were on the trail 3 hours, because it was nice to stop, give the animals a rest, and appreciate the views.

HOWEVER the day did not start out all that well...