Dear CMBC Member,
As a club we try our best to bug you as little as possible. As far as we are concerned, our job is to go to meetings, write letters, and fill out reports, so that you can spend your time having fun on your bike. However, once in a while, we find ourselves needing our members voices to help us out.
For the last couple years our fat bike community has been growing. With that growth has come the grooming at Magnusson trails (which is done by CMBC volunteers + agreement with the City of Whitehorse). You may think that this project is so awesome that it makes everyone happy. Unfortunately that is not the case, and there is a small, but very vocal minority of people that would like the grooming to stop and fat bikes restricted. This minority is very motivated to gather as many negative stories about grooming as possible. They have pushed for the City to complete a formal gathering of comments on the area, so that they can express their unhappiness with the situation.
The City is accepting feedback from all users on the Magnusson trails grooming project.
So what do we need? We need you to take a few tiny minutes of your time to email the City at trails@whitehorse.ca and let them know your experience on the Magnusson trails. Please cc info@cmbcyukon.ca so we know how we are doing. We want as many positive emails as possible going to the City by March 1st. We hope that we can build a long term Magnusson grooming agreement, so that we can stop revisiting the complaints about the area on an annual basis. We want to show the City there is overwhelming support for the grooming done.
Here's how you can help us:
1. Write an email to trails@whitehorse.ca and tell them: who you are, how you use the trails in the winter, why grooming helps you recreate, and why we should continue the grooming project. Be positive and tell your story.
2. Spread the word - especially if you know of runners, walkers, skiers or kick sledders that have also enjoyed and taken advantage of the grooming. Tell them to email the City.
3. Be a nag - ask your fellow fat bikers if they have sent in a response. Bug just 5 of your friends through incessant messages, constant phone calls, or good old fashioned face to face harassment.
4. Keep being awesome on the trail - yield to walkers, say a big bright cherry hello to skiers, keep being the positive, respectful riders that you are!
We promise that once we are done this survey, we will go back to letting you enjoy nature on 2 wheels. We will use this loud, boisterous support for packing to not only keep Magnusson groomed, but to continue to dialogue with the City on access for fat biking, and additional packing opportunities (imagine if we could get permission to pack more loops across the City!).
We appreciate every one of you taking the time to engage. Opportunities like this, as well as things like the recent Chadburn Lake Ideas Fair where we recently represented, are our chance to get a message out about how much we value, and take care of Whitehorse’s trail network.
Thank-you to those who have already sent feedback!
Thank-you! CMBC Board