Mountain Bikers Upset Over Losing their Illegally-Built Trails!

Locked gate now restricts access to land near airport

By Michael Burge
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

November 25, 2006

CARLSBAD – A group of mountain-bike riders who used a clandestine web
of trails for two decades is trying to save them, even as the paths
are being fenced off and bulldozed away.


CRISSY PASCUAL / Union-Tribune
Josh Lenahan (left) and Stefan Rest (right) stopped to talk to Michael
Hansen of San Marcos. The two are trying to save some mountain-bike
trails.
Called Flightline, for their proximity to McClellan-Palomar Airport,
the trails had been fashioned over time by riders who built bridges
and other features on brush-covered hills that, to them, were of
questionable ownership.

That ownership is no longer in question, as 300 acres recently was
transferred by the county to the nonprofit Center for Natural Lands
Management. The Fallbrook-based nonprofit administers the property
east of El Camino Real and north of Palomar Airport Road, preserving
it as natural habitat.

Much of the land was owned by the county, and when developers of the
nearby 195-acre Carlsbad Oaks North business park won approval for
their project in 2002, the land was set aside as permanent open space
with restricted use.

Hearing of the land switch, the mountain bikers began corresponding
with Markus Spiegelberg, the San Diego manager for the land management
center, about preserving the trails. Two weeks ago, the bikers found a
fence and a locked gate at the trailhead.

“This is him working with us,” Josh Lenahan, a trail rider from
Carlsbad, said sarcastically as he stood at the sealed trailhead on
Orion Way near the Carlsbad skate park.

“There have been hundreds of hours (put into) the trails here,” he
said, adding that people who built them tried to respect the natural
environment, and now their work has been obliterated.

Stefan Rest, a mountain biker upset by the trails' demise, has
dedicated a Web site, www.rideflightline.com., to saving them.

His online petition has more than 1,300 names, including some from
Canada and France, and even from Jersey, an island in the English
Channel.

He said there's nothing comparable in the county, even in the
backcountry.

Rest discouraged riders from using the trails while his group worked
with Spiegelberg to retain access, and posted signs warning people
they risked a fine and the loss of their bike if they rode in the
area.

He saw Spiegelberg's fence as a betrayal.

“We're upset that this guy told us to work with (him), get everybody
to stop riding, and all of a sudden we stop getting correspondence and
the chain link went up,” Rest said.

Spiegelberg said 100 acres east of the Carlsbad Safety Center near the
city's skate park is controlled by an agreement, called a conservation
easement, that bars biking, horseback riding and motorcycling.

That's why the fence went up.

Spiegelberg said he found some interesting features when he walked
through the property recently before taking it over.

“One (trail) was pretty intense. It had bridges and switchbacks and
lots of cleared vegetation,” he said, all potential violations of
state or federal law.

“I posted it and said you're on the land illegally, stop, and I got
5,000 e-mails.”

Mountain bikers weren't the only ones taking advantage of the natural
space. Employees of local businesses and business owners hiked, ran or
rode there on a regular basis. Spiegelberg also found encampments of
homeless people.

A wild-west attitude had prevailed that the land was open to anyone to
use.

“You get this history of use,” Spiegelberg said. “Nobody kicks them
off. A motorcycle would go through there, or a mountain biker.”

He said it would have been better if people who used the trails were
involved when the Carlsbad Oaks North project processed its
environmental impact report, so they could have been considered. But
because such people usually aren't organized, they learn about such a
process after decisions are made.

Rest and his group are learning that now.

“The uniqueness of this is it's in the middle of where we all live,”
Rest, a Carlsbad resident, said. “There aren't many places in the
county where you can pay $600,000 for your starter home and learn you
can't ride in your backyard.”

Spiegelberg has engaged the riders in e-mail conversations on their
Web site, calling it “a very friendly back and forth.” But for the
mountain bikers to use the land, they would have to work with the
county to rewrite the property agreement, he said.

“If they're going to come back in here and develop a trail, we'll
develop a trail that's sturdy and safe,” he said.

And he said he hopes everyone can get through this rough patch.

“A lot of people are really mad at us but essentially we're all on the
same page,” he said. “We're trying to find the last pieces of land and
manage it.”

That didn't help Michael Hansen, who was disappointed when he showed
up to ride last week and encountered that gate.

“I've been coaching for three or four years and riding since '88,”
said Hansen, 39, a semi-pro rider who works for American Airlines.
“That's the reason we moved to this area. Now we're losing this, too.”
Michael Burge: (760) 476-8230;
===
I am working on creating wildlife habitat that is off-limits to
humans ("pure habitat"). Want to help? (I spent the previous 8
years fighting auto dependence and road construction.)

Please don't put a cell phone next to any part of your body that you are fond of!

http://home.pacbell.net/mjvande

"Mike Vandeman" wrote in message
...
Locked gate now restricts access to land near airport

By Michael Burge
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

November 25, 2006

CARLSBAD - A group of mountain-bike riders who used a clandestine web
of trails for two decades is trying to save them, even as the paths
are being fenced off and bulldozed away.

A narrow biking trail is being removed with a bulldozer? Now folks, that's
the government way to do things, and Mike approves of it.

di wrote:
"Mike Vandeman" wrote in message
...
Locked gate now restricts access to land near airport

By Michael Burge
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

November 25, 2006

CARLSBAD - A group of mountain-bike riders who used a clandestine web
of trails for two decades is trying to save them, even as the paths
are being fenced off and bulldozed away.

A narrow biking trail is being removed with a bulldozer? Now folks, that's
the government way to do things, and Mike approves of it.


Maybe the tunnel vision cause by your severe anti-vandamnan attitude
kept you from reading the fact that it was PRIVATE PROPERTY, not
government lands as you have erroneously indicated. Yes, you are a
dumbass. Almost as much of a dumbass as those idiots who cried after
their crap was torn down and are now building more crap on private land
that will only get torn down again, causing another torrent of dip****
tears. **** you and **** them too.

JD

"JD" wrote in message
ups.com...

di wrote:
"Mike Vandeman" wrote in message
...
Locked gate now restricts access to land near airport

By Michael Burge
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

November 25, 2006

CARLSBAD - A group of mountain-bike riders who used a clandestine web
of trails for two decades is trying to save them, even as the paths
are being fenced off and bulldozed away.

A narrow biking trail is being removed with a bulldozer? Now folks,
that's
the government way to do things, and Mike approves of it.


Maybe the tunnel vision cause by your severe anti-vandamnan attitude
kept you from reading the fact that it was PRIVATE PROPERTY, not
government lands as you have erroneously indicated. Yes, you are a
dumbass. Almost as much of a dumbass as those idiots who cried after
their crap was torn down and are now building more crap on private land
that will only get torn down again, causing another torrent of dip****
tears. **** you and **** them too.

JD


calm down and take a pill, the way I read it is it was county property which
was tuned over to a non-profit trust for management, now who's paying for
the clean-up, improvements, or restoration, the county or trust? Whoever
is doing it, using a bulldozer to remove a bike trail is overkill, hardly
benefiting the environment.

In article . com,
says...

di wrote:
"Mike Vandeman" wrote in message
...
Locked gate now restricts access to land near airport

By Michael Burge
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

November 25, 2006

CARLSBAD - A group of mountain-bike riders who used a clandestine web
of trails for two decades is trying to save them, even as the paths
are being fenced off and bulldozed away.

A narrow biking trail is being removed with a bulldozer? Now folks, that's
the government way to do things, and Mike approves of it.

Maybe the tunnel vision cause by your severe anti-vandamnan attitude
kept you from reading the fact that it was PRIVATE PROPERTY, not
government lands as you have erroneously indicated.

So when the original article said it was County property when the trails
were built, it was an error? Or was it an error when it said the new
management of the land by the trust was controlled by an agreement with
the County?

--
is Joshua Putnam
http://www.phred.org/~josh/
Braze your own bicycle frames. See
http://www.phred.org/~josh/build/build.html

"di" wrote in message
...

"JD" wrote in message
ups.com...

di wrote:
"Mike Vandeman" wrote in message
...
Locked gate now restricts access to land near airport

By Michael Burge
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

November 25, 2006

CARLSBAD - A group of mountain-bike riders who used a
clandestine web
of trails for two decades is trying to save them, even as
the paths
are being fenced off and bulldozed away.

A narrow biking trail is being removed with a bulldozer?
Now folks, that's
the government way to do things, and Mike approves of it.


Maybe the tunnel vision cause by your severe anti-vandamnan
attitude
kept you from reading the fact that it was PRIVATE PROPERTY,
not
government lands as you have erroneously indicated. Yes, you
are a
dumbass. Almost as much of a dumbass as those idiots who
cried after
their crap was torn down and are now building more crap on
private land
that will only get torn down again, causing another torrent of
dip****
tears. **** you and **** them too.

JD


calm down and take a pill, the way I read it is it was county
property which was tuned over to a non-profit trust for
management, now who's paying for the clean-up, improvements, or
restoration, the county or trust? Whoever is doing it, using
a bulldozer to remove a bike trail is overkill, hardly
benefiting the environment.

Hey, never let the truth get in the way of idiots that can't read
and reason. Anyone that backs up mickey must have some screws
loose.

ps mickey, bob jumped, just to get away from your BS.

It is pretty clear from this article that the land is set aside as
biological mitigation land for an environmental impact to one or more
special status species or sensitive habitats. If that is the case, and
the CNLM is going to be the manager of this land under some sort of
grant arrangement, it is a foregone conclusion that bike riding, and
probably most other activities that are potentially harmful to the
specific species being protected, will be restricted. In other words,
this land is for the use of endangered critters, not for people.

And yes, in the process of environmental restoration, sometimes you use
a bulldozer to get to an improved end product. Won't be the first
time, nor the last.

Bruce Jensen

"Bruce Jensen" wrote in message
oups.com...
It is pretty clear from this article that the land is set aside
as
biological mitigation land for an environmental impact to one
or more
special status species or sensitive habitats. If that is the
case, and
the CNLM is going to be the manager of this land under some
sort of
grant arrangement, it is a foregone conclusion that bike
riding, and
probably most other activities that are potentially harmful to
the
specific species being protected, will be restricted. In other
words,
this land is for the use of endangered critters, not for
people.

And yes, in the process of environmental restoration, sometimes
you use
a bulldozer to get to an improved end product. Won't be the
first
time, nor the last.

Bruce Jensen
==============
Reminds me of an area just off the runway where I worked. For 30
years the airport burned the area off every spring, and mowed it
3 or 4 times each summer. Then, during some construction
somebody found a 'rare' plant. Now, the plant itself wasn't
endangered, but apparently the butterfly that fed off it was.
So, the state came in, told the airpost they could not mow, and
for sure could not burn the area. It looks to me like the plant
liked the fumes off the runway, the burning and the mowing.
Afterall, it was thriving there for the last 30 years. Now
they're gone. The area looked like crap for years. I think the
only thing that turned the thinking around was that the high
weeds could be a security threat.
Sometimes the 'process' of environmental restoration doesn't
protect what they think it will.

Bruce Jensen wrote:
It is pretty clear from this article that the land is set aside as
biological mitigation land for an environmental impact to one or more
special status species or sensitive habitats. If that is the case, and
the CNLM is going to be the manager of this land under some sort of
grant arrangement, it is a foregone conclusion that bike riding, and
probably most other activities that are potentially harmful to the
specific species being protected, will be restricted. In other words,
this land is for the use of endangered critters, not for people.

And yes, in the process of environmental restoration, sometimes you use
a bulldozer to get to an improved end product. Won't be the first
time, nor the last.

Bruce Jensen


What the article doesn't state is that a lot of those trails in that
particular immediate area were/are on private land and the trails in
question run in and out of those private lands as well. Here's a good
project for the dimwits who can't see the forest for the trees, take a
close look at that area's areial photos from the last five years and
make a time lapse out of them. Any idiot could see that the area is
being developed at an astronomical rate and even though there is some
conservancy land in there, it's destined to be squeezed quite heartily
by the area's developers. The bottom line is that those crybaby bitch
"mountain bikers" didn't have the foresight to look even a year in
advance before they poached their ****ty manmade "stunts" and other
bull**** trails. Again, **** them and **** them in a big way. They
are not mountain bikiers, they are just assholes with engineless
motorcycles looking for a "thrill".

JD

What the article doesn't state is that a lot of those trails in that
particular immediate area were/are on private land and the trails in
question run in and out of those private lands as well. Here's a good
project for the dimwits who can't see the forest for the trees, take a
close look at that area's areial photos from the last five years and
make a time lapse out of them. Any idiot could see that the area is
being developed at an astronomical rate and even though there is some
conservancy land in there, it's destined to be squeezed quite heartily
by the area's developers. The bottom line is that those crybaby bitch
"mountain bikers" didn't have the foresight to look even a year in
advance before they poached their ****ty manmade "stunts" and other
bull**** trails. Again, **** them and **** them in a big way. They
are not mountain bikiers, they are just assholes with engineless
motorcycles looking for a "thrill".

JD

Well stated!