Gritty Take: Take Out The Trash
Gritty Take is an occasional feature on Riding Gravel where we allow editorial takes on issues and subjects related to gravel riding. The opinions stated are those of the author and may not necessarily reflect those of RidingGravel.com, its advertisers, or staff.
Gritty Take: Take Out The Trash- by Guitar Ted
I remember the ride well. I was in the Flint Hills near Emporia, Kansas, home to the Dirty Kanza 200, and the event was happening as I was out on my own ride. I was there with a good friend, who was riding the 200 that day. Since I wasn’t registered to ride, I took a route North of the city since the event was almost entirely South of Emporia. The ride was beautiful, spectacular, fun, and the remoteness of the area was awash with the peace and serenity that only a rural area ride can bring. To say I had been enjoying the ride would be a massive understatement.
Then I saw it……
Maybe it was because I had been so immersed in the alluring beauty of the Flint Hills that I had been made hyper-sensitive, or maybe it was just good sense coming to the fore, but the sight of that wadded up gel packet made me disgusted. To think that someone like me, a cyclist, someone maybe enjoying the Flint Hills, as I was, had trashed the road with this easily packed out nutrition container was unthinkable to me. I picked up the dusty container and finished out my ride.
The trash I found wasn’t on the route of the DK200, but had I been on that route, I undoubtedly would have seen a lot more of this garbage. It is one of the reasons why the Dirty Kanza Promotions team has had a “Kleen Kanza” ride a week or so after the DK200 for the last several years. Now they do a lot more trash picking up from other sources as well, but make no mistake, we gravel grinders are becoming a filthy bunch, and I think it needs to come to a screeching halt.
It is happening all over. I saw it at Gravel Worlds, I have seen it at the former Trans Iowa event. Gravel grinders too busy chasing the front or those who are thoughtless, (or perhaps both) are throwing out empty nutritional packets, tubes, and more along once pristine routes, sullying not only someone else’s backyards, but our reputations as cyclists in their wake. I don’t know about you, but I would rather not be associated with careless trash-tossing cyclists who have no regard for nature or thoughts for other folks who live where they are riding. It’s inexcusable behavior.
Event promoters should be making this a priority and enforcing better behavior from their riders. Maybe more events should consider “Kleen Kanza” type post-event clean up rides to promote goodwill in their respective event’s riding areas. Whatever the case, the bottom line is that we have to be better citizens and stewards of these places we have the privilege to ride in. Trashing the roads with our refuse is not what I want gravel riders to be known for, and I think that resonates with many of the readers of RidingGravel.com as well. Let’s be a force for change. Let’s take out the trash from our rides.
6 Comments
S.Fuller
I agree 100%. I’ve (unfortunately) cleaned up the same race/touring litter along the GDMBR in the middle of a route easement that went through private land. No Bueno. The problem is how does a promoter enforce this? They’d have to either see it in occur or a competitor would have to turn the other rider in. I also wonder if having a clean up ride afterwards actually leads to worse behavior since the thought may be “it will get cleaned up anyway”?
Guitar Ted
@S.Fuller- Yeah, the “post-event” clean up, if announced beforehand, probably does just what you’ve said. Unfortunately, many will “do anything” to win, place, or get their PR. Master’s doping scandal anyone?
This is why, in my opinion, it is in the fellow rider’s responsibility to make it known that this isn’t right by speaking up when it happens. Don’t work with riders making poor choices, etc. Event promoters can also make it known that they do not tolerate such behavior and ask fellow riders to police this.
I see it kind of like how helmet usage used to be enforced on RAGBRAI. You’ve probably seen instances of that yourself. But yeah, it is tough to monitor otherwise. Event promoters would have a tough time enforcing rules against littering if it was left entirely on their shoulders.
Bobby
Here, here! It’s not even just carelessness on the part of riders that can exacerbate the issue. I rode the Wild Horse fondo in Utah this past weekend and my feedbag ejected three full packages of energy blocks. Obviously, I didn’t want to just dump full packages of (precious, precious) food onto the road in the middle of nowhere but it happened. Particularly since gravel rides take us into places that are by nature not well-traveled (otherwise, there would be real roads there), we need to practice something like “leave no trace” ethics. As for the Wild Horse, I know that the race has sweeper cars for the riders and I imagine that a lot of events have the same – I wonder if it would be feasible to make these dual-purpose vehicles for litter removal?
Larry