someone said to enjoy the forests before they are gone

That statement feels poignant around where I live (Scotland). Large areas of trees have been completely flattened by unusually strong storms coming from a north/north-easterly direction rather than the usual southerly to north-westerly direction. The “big one”, Storm Arwen, was a couple of years ago now, but its effects are lingering. I thought about the storms on my ride today. The trees affected were mostly monoculture plantation, which I believe makes up the bulk of the forested area in this country, meaning the trees are/were all someone’s property. It is a curiosity to me that the forests I ride through mostly exist primarily for cultivation and so-called commercial productivity. For sure, I am grateful for their existence at all and that my right to roam this land and have fun on my bicycle is allowed, but I can still feel the emptiness of the forest as commercial property. To me, a living tree is an essential part of the elemental world that depends on a more than human, multi-dimensional and multi-species holism which humans are a part of, yet this is being profoundly ruptured by humans. Sometimes, no matter how fun the ride, it’s hard not to see past the sham of private property and the monoculture desert to rejoice in the beauty and peace that the forest still gives.

Some other thoughts: I need to get a cooler basket bag than my mother-in-law’s Waitrose bag. Bars are too wide. Are there other 26er chill adventure people around here? Billy bonks ain’t doing it for me on really scrambly gavel.

Photos shot on a campsnap.