Trash

Over the last few years trash, litter or garbage…..call it what you want, has been getting attention. Finally, people are waking up to this problem, this is not a new problem. I’ve been making trash runs, as I call them, on my fat bike for years, I find areas that are hard to reach and spend some time cleaning the area up. The mid Atlantic area is full of water ways that end up with trash along the shoreline, these areas are perfect for using a fat bike as a vehicle to transport the trash. Now, a small bag and a good pair of shoes or boots are all you need to get going, I find the bike is the ticket for transporting tires. I set my Salsa Mukluk up with a rack on the rear and some Anything cages on the forks. Two five gallon pails on either side of the rack hold the trash. A tire can be tired to the top of the rack or a bag of trash if you can’t find a tire. I carried half of a pool filter out of a watershed area on that bike. You’ll want low gearing if you work in hilly areas, I use a 28 tooth chainring up front and a 11×42 cassette in the rear. Bike Doctor in Fredrick, Maryland has been great in helping me with the bikes, they are currently building me a new rear wheel for the Mukluk. That bike is a 2014 and has hauled a lot of heavy trash loads, the rear hub gave out so they’ve got me a stronger wheel on the way.

The environmental folks complain about bikes on some of trails and rightfully so, some riders don’t possess much common sense. These riders are in the minority, the biking community is very receptive to taking care of the trail systems. Bikers are like herding cats, these folks do their own thing. What most won’t tell you is the good things they do for the environment, I know riders who take a Walmart bag and pick up a few cans on every ride. What’s disturbing to me is the do gooders that complain about the hikers, bikers and horseback riders and they themselves do absolutely nothing but run their mouths. My point is, when you’re out hiking or biking pick up a few pieces of trash, keep the areas you use clean, trash breeds more trash. If you see an idiot pedaling along the trail with an over loaded bike, it’s probably me.