“There was a fire here—not just once, but twice, and then a third time,” says Horst Hohn to the camera. His tone is matter-of-fact, bordering on slightly sarcastic. The long Northshore section in the first part of the course has been destroyed over a 40-meter stretch. As the volunteers clear away the charred remains, the third fire breaks out. Everything was still too hot and too dry, three days after the second fire had been extinguished.

And that’s not all, as Horst Ride explains in an email. “Unfortunately, our most important work vehicle, a crawler dumper, also broke down four weeks ago due to engine failure.” The repair will take another four weeks, he writes, and cost 4,000 euros. And then there’s this: “The engine failure had depleted our financial reserves. It was just a really bad run of luck.”

Reconstruction won’t begin until the dumper is up and running again, Horst explains. However, the trail is operational again from the very top; riders will just have to bypass the Northshore for now.

The TV1861 Bad Ems e. V. club didn’t launch the fundraising campaign until after the fires. The wood alone to make the Northshore rideable again costs 2,500 euros. Two weeks after it started, the GoFundMe campaign has raised 1,905 euros. So there’s still a ways to go, but Horst Hohn remains optimistic: “We’re thrilled by the widespread support we’re receiving.”

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