The Mountain Bike Tourism Symposium 2022 took place last week in the Silver Star Mountain - BC. Partnership was the theme for this 2022 symposium. Definitely it worked as a prism reflecting different aspects - trail building and maintenance; tour operations planning; stakeholders, communities, and land administrators engagement. Also I would highlight integrity, diversity, resilience, exchange, purpose, learning, and environment as central perspectives.
I take the risk to say that the environment is the great background for this important event that has so much to say about the “British Columbia way of life”. It is dynamic, has pulse, and it is self-organized, as the relationships in nature are, seeking out sustainability on a permanent terms.
I could understand reasons to be conservative during trail building especially considering the Pacific Rain Forest environment. We also talked about the opportunity to rearrange actions or even redoing plans after great natural disasters, wildfires or floods. Adapting, overcoming, and creating new arrangements to make possible what may look impossible. Like the Adaptive MTB turning trails more accessible for everyone's enjoyment.
Mountain Bike in British Columbia has made history since the first steps on the North Shore, as well explained by Martin Littlejohn - that powerful start was enough to give an idea about the long and unpredictable way ahead. During the experiences at the symposium I saw that every little piece really does matter to the whole bunch - but no one detail is ever more important than the collective, the plurality and the ability to wear as many different shoes as needed to experience a broad reality.
*Martin Littlejohn is Executive Director at Western Canada Mountain Bike Tourism Assoc