It was exploratory, preliminary — and in general positive, said mountain bikers and representatives of TimberWest logging about a meeting they had to discuss trails in the area around Comox Lake.

“I guess there was no bad news in the whole thing,” said Bob Austin, a mountain biker who initiated the meeting when they saw logging happening on the land from the dam at Comox Lake to the bottom of Forbidden Plateau. Because of the popularity of the area for mountain biking — where it’s estimated there are miles of trails used by up to 500 riders — among many other user groups, Austin suggested a meeting with the company.

While they recognized that it’s private land, and were thankful for access at all, they also wanted to see if there was some way they could work with the company to protect trails that have had hundreds of hours invested in them.

The good news, said Austin, is that TimberWest representatives said they had done most of the logging they planned for now in the area, and don’t expect to be back for three more years.

In the interest of planning, though, they told Austin they were interested in forming a land-use agreement with a user group so that they would be more comfortable with the access to their land without being potentially liable for accidents that happen there.

“A group would take responsibility for the area in terms of the trail maintenance and safety that’s up there,” said Austin. “It’s not an unreasonable request — it’s happened before in B.C.”

Steve Lorimer, public relations manager with TimberWest, said that the meeting was positive, but introductory.

“I guess we’ll have to see where that goes,” said Lorimer.

Austin said the proposal of a land-use agreement isn’t a bad thing — but a proactive plan to protect the long-term access to the area.

“Just keeping our heads buried in the sand and just hoping it goes well as it has in the past decade isn’t going to work for the next decade,” said Austin.