Guest Opinion: Bikers beneficial to forests

June 1 was my first trip into the forest this year, and like most years, I spent it with a dozen other motorcyclists, clearing trails. The plan was to work in the North Jemez and see how many trails we could clear in a day. How far we would get was determined by how many trees the snow and wind felled during the winter.

We pulled into the forest access road and stopped at the first set of camp sites. Some of the other riders I had not seen in at least a year, so the first order of business was some socializing. We unloaded our bikes and got our gear together. The riders brought chainsaws, folding saws, lunch packs and lots of energy for a day of trail clearing.

There were a few RVs scattered about the area, including one from Canada – and the occupant of that one seemed very curious about what we were doing there. I found out later, as a man named Carl from Toronto, Canada, joined us on the trail, that we had just made his weekend a little better. He was touring the National Forests of the Southwest and was planning on riding the roads on his motorcycle today before he found out that we had a challenging single track. Much more fun for him and for us, as we had another helper for clearing trails.

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