There were just about 60 spikes planted on the ground at the Tyrolean Downhill Trail in early October, a mixed-use trail in Tahoe’s Incline Village popular among bikers and hikers alike.
As local news outlet KRNV first reported, the spikes were discovered Oct. 5 by a mountain biker who suffered a flat tire while riding on the trail. About 12 spikes were inside the biker’s tire, Thea Hardy, the spokesperson for the Tahoe Area Mountain Biking Association (TAMBA), told SFGATE.
The unnamed female mountain biker removed the spikes shortly after; there have been no attempts to repopulate the area with metal spikes since then, according to TAMBA.
A day after the organization shared the news on social media, new reports came in from other mountain bikers who suffered flats.
“They had been buried in the dirt across the trail in a few different spots nearby as well,” Hardy said in an interview.
A spokesperson for the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office declined to comment on the spikes to SFGATE.
Spikes in the ground at Tyrolean Downhill Trail.
Courtesy of Patrick Parsel at TAMBABut the incident has become a dangerous flashpoint in the indefatigable turmoil between mountain bikers, hikers and those who live near well-trod trails, prompting an investigation from the U.S. Forest Service and calls by TAMBA and other mountain bikers to reconcile this tension. (Forest Service representatives did not respond to requests for comment from SFGATE.)
Patrick Parsel, the trails coordinator for TAMBA, told KNRV the spikes were not set deep in the ground — and he thinks they were set up with “malicious intent.” He also believes they were set up under cover of darkness, on a night when the trail was not populated with community members.
“There's no other explanation for spikes on a trail,” he told SFGATE in an email. “I don't know what kind of person would do this, although I can speculate and guess they have had some previous user conflict on a trail, and probably with a biker, and this is their way of seeking revenge.”
---
For mountain bikers, the appeal of the Tyrolean Downhill Trail is vast. Originally, Parsel explained, the trail was an old dirt road popular for motorized dirt bikes. But the setup has evolved to be one tailor-made for non-motorized mountain biking.
One review calls the downhill ride “smile inducing,” noting the “combination of fast flowy sections, switchbacks, jumps, rock gardens and the occasional small drop,” which makes the trail among the more desirable for experienced mountain bikers in the area.
But because of this setup, there’s also been considerable confusion over the trail’s use designations.
The trail is officially mixed-use, meaning that every user has to share the path with their fellow hiker or equestrian. And some stretches of the run are only available to mountain bikers on even-numbered days.
TAMBA’s own guide advises mountain bikers to “let your fellow trail users know you’re coming” to prevent any tensions, and for downhill bikers to cede to uphill ones.
“A friendly greeting or bell ring are good methods,” reads their guide. “Try to anticipate other trail users as you ride around corners. Bicyclists should yield to other non-motorized trail users.”
But confusion abounds, even among the residents who live there.
Community members have spoken of altercations between mountain bikers and hikers looking to walk Tyrolean largely due to this mix-up over the space. (For what it’s worth, there’s no such thing as a bikers-only trail in the Tahoe Basin, Parsel told SFGATE. Even trails built by TAMBA, with the intention for mountain biking, are still open to hikers.)
Spikes picked up from Tyrolean Downhill Trail.
Courtesy of Patrick Parsel at TAMBAIn a local Facebook group discussing the turmoil, members alleged everything from illegal e-bikes zooming on the trail to hikers and other walkers nearly getting run over to biking children being screamed at by neighbors in the area, among other concerns. (A selection of commenters who shared these experiences did not respond to requests for comment from SFGATE.)
Steve Drescher, a local resident and avid mountain biker, told SFGATE that these tensions are perpetual — an inevitable condition of anyone using a shared space differently than yourself.
“This conflict will endure as long as there is someone who doesn't walk/ride/ski the way you do,” he told SFGATE in a message.
But as a father of young mountain bikers and a rider himself, he said he does worry that a strategy as risky as setting up spikes on a shared trail could not only endanger its human and animal users, but destroy any goodwill in the community.
“It does nothing to stop people from using it and it only serves to make people less considerate of others on the trail,” he said. “I do my best to pay attention to others on the trail and yield way when appropriate.”
He said his children do the same.
Hardy, the TAMBA spokesperson, also shared these concerns.
“When something like that happens, it's sort of like an act against mountain biking,” she said. “It’s something that we want to avoid and we want to continue to build a good community that's supportive of all of the activities that are allowed to happen on trails.”
(The Tahoe Rim Trail Association did not respond to a request for comment from SFGATE.)
---
Though this is a rare occurrence on trails surrounding the Lake Tahoe area, spikes have been found within the past five years in trails in Marin, Arizona, Colorado and North Carolina.
The spike installation in North Carolina even prompted calls for legislation punishing anyone found to have set them up on trails, after one hiker’s foot was impaled by what appeared to be a DIY spike days before a popular trail run event.
A state official that represented the area co-sponsored a bill to criminalize trap-setting on trails, parks or other publicly owned land, calling the action “domestic terrorism.”
Pinnacle Park in Sylva, North Carolina, where a spikes incident took place.
James Robert Smith/Getty Images/iStockphotoNorth Carolina state Rep. John Bradford, a Republican, co-sponsored a bill that would charge an individual in his state who “willfully and maliciously sets a trap in a public park for the purpose of injuring another person” with a misdemeanor. (The bill was later referred to committee.)
For the Tahoe mountain biking community, the solution would not be a punitive one. Among the proposed solutions in that community group: more signage, more construction.
Parsel, the TAMBA trails coordinator, told SFGATE that the mountain biking community understands the conflicts of the trail.
“The very bottom is near neighborhoods and that is where most of the conflicts have historically happened,” he said.
TAMBA is planning to reroute the bottom half-mile of the trail to ensure that homeowners and other residents near the trail do not have to confront downhill bikers.
But the larger issue, Drescher observed, is one of just learning how to co-exist — as tenuous as that may be.
“The most important thing to promote is that we all have to share our public lands and [be] tolerant of others' use of [the trail],” Drescher said. “It is the only way we'll be able to stop such stupid behavior as spiking or wiring trails.”
More Lake Tahoe News
"popular" - Google News
November 05, 2021 at 06:04PM
https://ift.tt/3BP5dAs
A disgruntled local might have sabotaged a popular Tahoe bike trail - SF Gate
"popular" - Google News
https://ift.tt/33ETcgo
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "A disgruntled local might have sabotaged a popular Tahoe bike trail - SF Gate"
Posting Komentar