Posts
2
Joined
6/24/2013
Location
Laguna Beach, CA
US
A lot going on around here in this seemingly never-ending battle of riders wanting to discover and ride more trails than are approved by the Parks Dept....lately, Rangers have taken more aggressive steps to prohibit riders from hitting well-established (albeit prohibited) trails. The riders seem undeterred which only escalates things....
If you are local, what is your take on this? If you are from out of the area, and your trails have faced similar scrutiny and you've been able to navigate the waters with your bureaucratic agencies sound off....maybe someone out there has a good way to make this process work for both sides...
If you are local, what is your take on this? If you are from out of the area, and your trails have faced similar scrutiny and you've been able to navigate the waters with your bureaucratic agencies sound off....maybe someone out there has a good way to make this process work for both sides...
I have never lived in an area with this problem, but it has to be difficult. It is hard for me to comprehend. Do they issue tickets? Or what are the consequences of riding "closed" trails.
I have lived in areas in the Northeast where hikers booby-trap trails.
My oil-burning, terrain-shredding 2-stroke MX bike I understand, sure. But a bicycle? Someone needs to get some perspective.
But more people on e-bikes should solve everything....right?
(That part was sarcasm).
The '96 or '97 Leaping Lizard was my first ever Downhill race. First year of the chicane after the Tank Trap. I got 29th place and a free t-shirt for being the longest traveled. From Santa Cruz that is. It was the year that Marzocci was burgled. We had stopped by on the way down and the police thought we were casing the joint for the big job. I had expressed intense interest in the second crown and two screw on extensions to make my Z1 into a triple clamp. The Leaping Lizard was our alibi.
Come to think of it,,, Our alibi was having diner with Hans Rey. The race was the next day.
However, I really think that having the "illegal" trails is of benefit to everyone. Laguna gets so packed (especially on weekends) that its almost impossible to ride a "legal" trail without the danger of monster trucking a hiker. Having the illegal trails allows traffic to be more spread out and even more importantly takes the guys who really want to send it away from the danger of hitting hikers. I think that the Rangers understand this but the execs in charge of them don't.
I always tell people to respect the rangers. If they stop you, then bite your tongue, be as peaceful as possible, polite and apologize (especially if you don't want a ticket), or at least play dumb like you didn't know you weren't supposed to be riding there, and go on your way. They are just doing their jobs. We should be glad that the most trail "interference" we get with our "prohibited" trails is a pile of bushes in front of the entrance.
IF THEY PILE BUSHES ON AN ENTRANCE DON'T MOVE THE BUSHES OR CLEAR A PATH FOR FUCK's SAKE! Just climb over or around them. Moving the brush piles or clearing a path only throws more fuel on the fire and will eventually force the Rangers to more drastic measures. It's not hard to pick up your bike and walk 10 feet around or over the bushes. Plus the brush piles keep the jabrones away from the fun stuff. Fewer riders means less blown out corners.
I heard some gnarly stories a while ago about trails in East San Diego. These were the sycamore canyon trails and were on the border of a military base. There was a trail that dipped over that border and supposedly MPs would roll up on ATVs with assault rifles in tow and take peoples bike and give them a ticket to go to court and get it back.
The rangers in Marin are now using strategically placed cellular enabled cameras: Locate em at the start of a no-bikes or questionable trail w/o splits, rider goes by, photo taken & sent via MMS to ranger, ranger blasts over to the trail exit on his quad with spare time to stroke his chrome before giving you a ticket.....a ~$300 ticket. One of the most over zealous rangers is actually the brother of a well known XC racer none the less.
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