http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999/12/02/MN88457.DTL:
Rogue
Riders
Mountain bikers
hack trails in Peninsula parks
Thursday, December 2,
1999
Like raccoons and beavers -- or maybe
termites -- they work night and day in their destructive way, staying just
ahead of the rangers.
For months now, a determined group of
mountain bikers has been hacking away with shovels, hoes and mattocks to build
bike trails deep within the Peninsula's parks and open spaces.
Park rangers say they are hot on the
bikers' trail.
``It shows an incredible lack of respect
for property rights and the natural land,'' said Patrick Congdon,
supervising ranger for the Midpeninsula Regional Open
Space District, as he surveyed a single- track trail carved into the side of a
hill near Woodside. ``What these people are doing is wrecking the land.''
Since last summer, rangers from the open
space district have discovered six illegally built trails at El Corte de Madera
Creek Open Space Preserve near Woodside. Rangers with the San Mateo County
Parks and Recreation Department have also discovered a two-mile-long illegal
trail in nearby Huddart County Park.
``We're not pointing to the entire
mountain-bicycling community, but it seems clear that the individual or
individuals responsible for this destruction of public property did so in order
to create more trails for radical mountain biking,''
said Craig Britton, the district's general manager.''
Britton said the way the trails are built
and evidence of bike use on them makes it ``pretty clear that thrill-seeking
mountain bicyclists'' are the culprits.
But if the vandalism continues, Britton
warned, he will recommend stronger measures to the district board, ``up to and
including closure of the regular trails which provide access to these illegal
trails.''
``Closure of the entire preserve until
restoration efforts are complete may be the only way to protect the natural
resources,'' he said.
The district manages nearly 250 miles of
trails, of which about 75 percent are open to mountain bikes. Yet illegal
trail-building is increasing, Britton said.
The outlaw trails in El Corte de Madera vary
from one-tenth of a mile to a little more than a mile, totaling 2.5 miles.
Entrances to many of the trails were camouflaged. In
at least one case, a homemade sign was posted just inside a trail entrance
explaining how to keep the entrance from being spotted by casual observers.
``The sign said, `Make sure to cover this
entrance when you pass through,' '' said Malcolm Smith, the district's public
affairs manager. ``There seems to be an element of addiction here. Obviously,
these people are very committed.''
The illegal trail at Huddart
Park was discovered in early October. The trail runs roughly east to west,
starting just inside Teague Hill Open Space Preserve, with an elevation drop of
about 1,000 feet.
The construction of these trails damaged
vegetation and topsoil and included cutting into steep hillsides, rangers said.
In addition, branches were cut from trees, brush was removed, and natural
drainages were filled with rock, creating the potential for serious erosion.
Restoration work is estimated to cost at
least $25,000 to $30,000, although some rangers wonder whether trying to repair
the damage might cause even more destruction to the fragile woodlands.
The Peninsula is not the only area where
illegal trails have been frustrating park rangers. Renegade bicyclists still
occasionally carve their own illegal trails in the Marin County Open Space
District.
After the National Park Service banned
mountain bikes on narrow single-track trails in 1992, the situation turned ugly
in Marin. Three booby traps, possibly set by angry bicyclists, were found in
1993, when rangers began obliterating an illegal single-track trail built by
bicyclists on county watershed near Pine Mountain.
Marin open space officials say that
although the situation appears to have been under control in recent months,
they continue to discover unauthorized trails dug by mountain bikers working at
night -- with lanterns on their helmets.
Congdon said rangers staking out Peninsula trails
at night have seen mountain bikers bouncing through the woods, some presumably
on trail-building missions, others just out for an illegal night ride.
``They ride along with very powerful lights
on their helmets,'' Congdon said. ``When I first saw
them, I thought it was a UFO or a plane coming in for a landing or something.
We've issued citations but never actually caught anyone in the act building
trails, not lately, anyway. But we've found trail-building tools stashed in
garbage cans.''
Last month, San Mateo County rangers spotted two men emerging from a trail who looked
suspiciously like trail builders, said Dave Moore, a San Mateo County parks
superintendent.
``They apparently had hid their tools,''
Moore said. ``They were wearing work clothes and boots, and they were very
dirty and dusty.
``All this reminds me of the old marijuana
groves hidden in the forests. It takes about the same amount of work. I've been
a ranger 17 years, and I've never seen anything like this, though.''
The open space district is working with a
local mountain bicycle group, Responsible Organized Mountain Pedalers (ROMP), to try to plan legal trails and to get the
word out that illegal trail building is bad news for law-abiding mountain
bikers.
``ROMP is definitely against this kind of
vandalism,'' said Kathleen Meyer, the group's president. ``I don't know what
makes me more angry, the vandalism itself or the fact that someone has so much
more time than I that they can waste it digging illegal trails in the woods.''