Guest blog: Trails of requirement?

Kim Wills Clayden | Blog, Mountain Biking Uk | 20/03/2013 08:37am

It’s funny how trails can have a life of their own, says Neil Cain

Sometimes they seem to mysteriously appeari and disappear almost at will, like Harry Potter’s Room of Requirement. But then again, maybe that’s what they are – trails of requirement.

One of the waymarked footpaths that remains open

I started to notice this years ago while riding in the pine forests of mountainous East Anglia. Trails originally carved out by moto enduros would fall in and out of favour – some would be ridden and established, others would fall by the wayside. Some would even be ridden for several years, then forgotten about after a new path carved an easier line nearby, whereas others would be sabotaged, or fall victim to being created on private land. And then there were those, it would seem, that were just forgotten about.

A few years later I was lucky enough to be sent to work in various mountainous, sunny places as a bike guide. One of these places was a small island called Korčula, which sits in the Adriatic Sea on the Croatian coast. Part of my job was to find new trails, which usually involved hours of route-finding through gnarled olive groves and scrub, and occasionally discovering a rock-laden gem in the rough.

The trail formerly known as Rock Bush Rock

As it turned out, Korčula was actually a bit of a riding paradise. Climbing to over 500m on an island only five miles wide by 29 miles long, it was blessed with plenty of typically Mediterranean trail; steep, rocky and technical, and interspersed with the occasional sinuous, evergreen-lined snaking piece of singletrack, all with a stunning emerald sea backdrop.

Last July I returned to Korčula with the beautiful better half, the hardtails and the intention of riding some brilliant and relatively unknown trails.

It turned out to be a bittersweet few days. Both the island and the town of Korčula were as stunning as ever, the better half adored it and I loved being back there. However, most of the traditional paths I had discovered and ridden – the switchback path to town, the loose and technical trail to the coast or the quick, steep route down from the remote hill-top village – had gone. I was seeing it once again: trails of requirement.

No one rides under the arch anymore

People had obviously discovered easier ways of getting from A to B since I stopped working in Korčula, which meant ‘my’ traditional mountain paths were no longer needed. It’s a sad thing, but I’m glad to have had the opportunity to enjoy those trails (some of which I am convinced I was the first person to ride a mountain bike down) and comparisons with the winding trails of East Anglia suddenly became very obvious.

Most of all, all this trail movement got me thinking. This year I’m going to volunteer to help more with local trails. I’m going to ride more locally, and ride more generally. We live in an age of easy transportation, and it’s easy to forget about the local paths and the old ways.

This year, my local paths, the old ways – I intend to require them.

Korčula town – pretty, yes?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 20th, 2013 at 8:37 am and is filed under Blog, Mountain Biking Uk. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

One Response to “Guest blog: Trails of requirement?”

Rachael Flynn says:

March 20, 2013 at 3:14 pm

Really enjoyed reading this post & can certainly relate!. We are from the UK & moved to Korcula a couple of years ago. We love exploring the island by foot or bike but have experienced some frustrations & some “I think we’re lost moments” when marked trails just seem to disappear! We’ve been exploring the Lumbarda area around where the stone arch (from your photo) is. It’s a fantastic place & we would like to encourage more people to explore for themselves. Good luck with your rediscovery of paths & from HP fans, nice analogy!