Mountain Bike Problem in the Irvine Open Space Preserve Again

[gone2vegas]

Got this email today and thought I should share it with everyone.

Hello volunteers and partners,

Several months ago the City of Irvine and the Irvine Ranch Conservancy suspended self guided mountain biking on monthly access days in the City of Irvine's Open Space Preserve. The reason, the level of unauthorized mountain biking was out of control in areas that were not open 7 days dawn to dusk.



The mountain bike community threw a fit. Mountain bike riders posted negative things on message boards, mountain bike clubs contacted us, mountain bike volunteers argued with us, but in the end the unauthorized mountain bike access declined. Once it declined self guided mountain biking was reinstated on the monthly self guided access days.



Within one week of reinstating self guided mountain biking to access days there was a spike in unauthorized mountain bike access and it still continues up to today This included:

• Riders tearing down "closed for restoration" signs and riding through a restoration area. This area has been closed off for two years and is well on its way to being restored.
• Illegal night riding
• Individual riders attending a docent led ride to then return on multiple occasions illegally
• A rider scouting the reopening of a closed trail
• Multiple riders riding past multiple docent only area signs

The purpose of this e-mail is so all of you are aware of who these people are the next time the mountain biker user group is excluded from using an area. Do not blame the land owner or the land manager. Blame the these people, they are the one's responsible for much of the mountain biking problems in Orange County.



I will send a series of e-mails so you can have many of the pictures.



Thanks,

Dave

[Rockinthecasbah]

how About the Irvine Ranch Conservancy just opens it all and stops bitching, you know there going to build houses and a walmart on it as soon as ( if ever) the economy recovers

[DISCO]

they got my bad side, makes me look fat.

[fos'l]

The Irvine group takes pictures of the offenders instead of apprehending them, then threatens innocent mountain bikers again. How frequently are we going to play the game this year?

[Stray_Bullit]

Whoa! Who took those pictures? Is that Big Brother? Will the offenders be arrested?

<fictitious conversation in jail, two men sitting in a dark, bleak holding cell>

Bubba turns to his cell mate and says "Hey man, what are you in here for?" The tall skinny guy says "I rode my mountain bike in the Irvine Ranch Conservancy, what did you do?" Bubba responds with "Well, I set fire to my family..."

Moral of this story- ride a bike, go to jail...

[LukeTrailrider]

Are you sure that's not the hunched back? When you're not mountain biking do you enjoy luxuriating in belfries and pining after unavailable and emotionally distant gypsy girls?

Originally Posted by DISCO

they got my bad side, makes me look fat.

[druranium]

"Unauthorized self-guided mountain biking"
What a sad load of crap.
Sorry you live in irvine..............

Let this be a lesson to all so no other community should suffer the same fate.

[Fewinhibitions]

Is it too soon to joke about how a licensing fee would solve this?

[jeepr84]

Originally Posted by gone2vegas

Riders tearing down "closed for restoration" signs and riding through a restoration area. This area has been closed off for two years and is well on its way to being restored.

• Illegal night riding
• Individual riders attending a docent led ride to then return on multiple occasions illegally
• A rider scouting the reopening of a closed trail
• Multiple riders riding past multiple docent only area signs

What about the above does anyone think is ok? It seems like everytime a little headway is being made, a small percentage of riders, who are pretty short sided, ruin it for everyone.

Just because this land borders areas that are open to MTB'ing do we, as riders, have a unalienable right to ride there? Is Irvine mandated to open this land to all groups and users? How about 4X4's or hunters? Responsible members of those groups wouldn't have a negative impact on the area.....right?

I'm sure that many will disagree....but when trails get closed and access is completely denied, I blame people like the ones in the pictures above. My apologies to the "F-the man, I should be able to ride where ever I want crowd."..... but that kind of thinking will never increase our access to any areas.

[Brandy]

Those pictures were taken by the motion detector cameras, I believe. If I recall correctly, they are downloaded weekly, there isn't daily monitoring.

[granny ring]

I do not understand the logic of the sequence of events as they are described.
Illegal riding closes limited public access
Illegal riding decreases
Limited public access reinstated
Illegal riding increases
If they are poachers, then the fact that there are limited days for the rest of us to legally access the trail should have no bearing on their activity.
Can someone explain or is this just a convenient argument for Irvine Co to close the land.

[hoovermd]

So, instead if bitching to the biking community, why not have some enforcement?

I'm sure there is $$ in the budget for this

[Fearless Fly]

How about charging for a permit or just closing the area?

[Y-NOT]

Put a bounty on them, Ill take care of the problem...

[Abui]

Where are the pictures of the really harmful activity?

Show me a picture of someone tearing down signs and then riding. Anyone could have torn down a sign, even someone on the convservancy board. An indifferent poacher would just ride by the sign!

Oh look, the camera caught someone on a rigid singlespeed. The trails are going to be chewed to bits.

Is there such a concept as illegal night hiking?

Any lawyers out there willing to file a claim for Freedom of Information? We should see all the pictures.

[UR2KLOS]

The poachers: Clearly they are wrong. I don't think this needs further explanation.

People who say the solution is to open the land all the time are wrong. It is like a neighborhood kid telling a private pool owner "sorry you don't like me sneaking into your pool but if you let everyone in the neighborhood use it I wouldn't have to sneak in." The logic doesn't make any sense.

The landowners are wrong: 1 of 2 things is going on:

1: They are just looking for an excuse to keep bikes out so they intentionally make it easy to tresspass so they have "proof" to back up their statements.

or

2: They don't hates bikers. They just want bikers to follow the rules. If this is the case they can greatly reduce the poaching with proper signs warning poachers that they are being filmed and will face a big fine and loss of their bikes. Then back it up with some enforcement and get continuous cameras like those at 7-11. Post a few photos at each gate to show they are serious. The mtn bike "community" is not a single cohesive unit and posting photos on mtn bike chat rooms won't be as effective as posting a few photos on the locked gates.

The solution: Get better cameras (The photos they posted are probably the best ones they have and most of them are useless) , post signs mentioning the cameras and the penalty for getting caught, have at least a little bit of patrolling, try adding spike strips when the gates are locked (something that will penetrate a bike tire but not an emergency vehicle tire).

[One_Track_Mind]

That's some pristine fire road those mountain bikers are trespassing on. Shame on them...

[andy aka rut]

I say give out a few tickets. The message boards will in inendated (is that the right spelling?) with comments about it and most everyone will stop. It happens every year. Will we ever learn???

The process seems kinda stupid if you ask me. What if the CHP thought this way? "There are speeders on our freeways, so lets just close the 5 down for everyone; that way no one will do anything illegal on it. " Really?!?!?!?! Why do the authorities think this will work?

Personally, I don't ride the illegal trails anymore. There are plenty of great trails to ride out here. As I said earlier, will we ever learn???

[bikeadict]

Closeing trails because of poachers will not keep the poachers off the trails only the people who obeyed the rules in the first place.

[thephat]

I know some of those faces. Not the types you would want to meet in a dark alley...Ha Ha