Shuswap Dirt Riders recently took some time for a bit of spring trail cleaning. The dirt-bike enthusiast club’s May 11 clean-up outing focused on the remains of an abandoned encampment and related structures at the northeast end of Mount Ida. “The camp was right on one of our trails so we went in with the crew and we cleaned it all up and deconstructed what they were starting to construct.
..,” said Shuswap Dirt Riders president Garfield Chursky, noting the work involved a dozen volunteers and took about an hour.
To do the work, Chursky said the club received authorization from the city to access municipal property. They also contacted the RCMP as a vehicle at the encampment turned out to have been stolen. “We were made aware by the authorities that had already been dealt with and the persons involved were already in custody,” said Chursky.
The Riders were also able to get the support of the Columbia Shuswap Regional District in waiving tipping fees at the landfill. “They were really good and really appreciative, and the two landowners there are very appreciative of what we do to keep the mountain clean,” said Chursky. “Because it’s our staging area, we’re coming and going enough that people don’t go in there and party and have fires and stuff like that.
” Chursky said such cleanups have been a common occurrence for the club since it formed in 2010. “Sometimes we’re viewed as renegade dirtbikers, noisy motorcycle guys,” said Chursky, explaining he .