For Laois man Stephen McEvoy, mountain biking is much more than a hobby, it’s about keeping trails clean and litter-free. Stephen, is a founder of TrashFreemtb, and he recently received the ‘Outsider Eco-Hero of the Year award’ from Outsider.ie, in recognition for not only his litter-picking, but also his work in galvanising the Irish mountain biking community to look after the natural environment.
His aim is “to highlight the importance of protecting our wild upland areas and raise awareness for the danger of litter for small animals and the importance of biodiversity.” Last year, he was made a ‘Climate Ambassador’ for An Taisce. The award recognised the tremendous effort and dedication demonstrated by volunteers throughout the year.
“The Slieve Blooms is such a great amenity. The trails are right there and they are there for free and that’s when I started to realise it needed to be taken care of.”
How it started
Stephen admits he is happiest when out on his bike in the mountains. As a boy he spent a lot of his childhood playing in the Slieve Blooms and later ‘wild biking’ with his friends, “I used to cycle from Cappagh to places like the Rock of Dunamaise and back or as far as Ballyfin when it was a college.” In 2019 while out and about he noticed in various car parks, the amount of rubbish and started to pick it up. He then created a instagram page and he has built a community around it. Many Litter-Pickers help him in the biking and walking areas. Stephen explains; “I’m trying to keep the uplands areas clean because these are our coastlines, they are as important to midlands people as the sea is to people living along the coast.” He believes a lot of it is educating people about the importance of protecting Ireland’s mountains and upland areas and the wide biodiversity that lives in there,“because all our water springs from the mountains!”
Slieve Bloom Mountain Bike Trails
If you want to visit the Slieve Bloom Mountain Bike Trails, there are currently 35km of new mountain bike trails (MTB), with trailheads at Kinnitty and Baunreagh. These trails, which are waymarked in one direction and designed specially for mountain bike use, vary in difficulty. They range from the grade trails: ‘blue’ (moderate, with some single-track sections) to ‘red’ (difficult/severe, with challenging climbs and tricky descent). To follow Stephen’s activity with litter picking and his biking escapades follow him on his instagram page trashfreemtb.
