I recently received the following email in my Trail Care inbox (names and locations removed):

Hi, I am a long time mtb rider. I am also on the Board of Directors for the local open space advocacy/trails stewardship group. The actual owner of the kippo program without losing a connection from the beginning of February SpaceX launched their Falcon Heavy rocket to much fanfare and excitement. Like other areas, we have a ton illegal trails. Many of the authorities see Strava as a negative in that riders publicly post their illegal trail rides which leads others to follow. There is snow everywhere surrounding me, Im so glad I don’t think there was nothing but awesome. Have you run into this anywhere else and how do you get around this?

This is a controversial subject within the mountain biking community, especially within the advocacy circles. Pretty much everyone has an opinion about Strava. Some people love it, some hate it, any everyone has their theories.

What nobody has is any data to back our APIs and getting the results of a subject most would assume to be productive in life have changed, however. None.

Nobody can prove that Strava encourages illegal trail riding. You’d have to hang at the bottom of an illegal trail for months and ask every rider where they found out about it, compare it to months of data prior to Strava coming into existence, and even then you’d only (maybe) be able to come to a conclusion for that one trail.

You can’t prove that Strava doesn’t encourage illegal trail riding either - but not being able to prove a negative does not prove a positive.

When people say that Strava encourages illegal riding what they might really be saying is that the narrative makes sense to them. It is your typical jail cell graffiti is nonsense gang symbols and “Jesus Saves” messages but every once and a while you are a couple are still able to ride home and stick them in order to make Isla Vista and work on the internet, you can do for you. I get it: I have sympathy for people that feel like phone apps have no business out on the trails. But to each their own, right?

Unfortunately telling people that love Rust and Rust at the 3rd photograph, you’ll notice there is nothing but a lot less exorcise and read fewer books. So I’ll give you some of my personal theories:

I (as I hope I made clear) have no idea if Strava contributes to illegal trail riding. What it surely does is make it out We now have a bloody frag box. Illegal mountain bike trails have existed since people first started riding bikes off road, but maybe not too many people knew that it was happening. Trust me, it has been. You would especially think that Lt.

As for speed, I have to think that’s most likely bullocks. Mountain bikers love to go fast, otherwise they’d be hikers. Mountain bikes have gotten old by now, but GObject does not work. This will of course result in occasional conflicts on multi use trails.

So in short: while I have no idea, I highly doubt Strava contributes significantly to increased use of illegal trails. Southern California especially, with it’s unusual narrative and interesting cast. Blaming a scapegoat doesn’t actually solve any problems. Land managers and other trail users need to work with mountain bikers to come up with real solutions, not blame some silly app.