Laguna Wilderness - Why is Everything Closed?

[solo_rider]

Rode laguna wilderness last weekend only to find that two of the best trails are now closed. Since I dont know the names, I'll do my best to describe:

Trail #1: Parallels the 73 toll-road for almost the entire el-moro/laguna wilderness park. Starts North near the newport parking lot and has some great technical solid rock decents. Drops you out on the 133 about a half mile above the laguna wilderness parking lot. Lots of fun descents following the toll road ridgeline with a steep granite rock face at the end.

Tail #2: Starts at the aforementioned newport-ish parking lot on the North end of the park, and quickly drops down into deer springs canyon and exists at the deer springs camp site. Great rock outcropping at the start of the trail with an unmistakable off-camber line of decent.

Both of these trails have closed signs and dead branches scattered infront of them.

So, WTF gives?

[tkblazer]

i believe adam told you whats up on the mtbr thread

[denmother]

Originally Posted by tkblazer

i believe adam told you whats up on the mtbr thread

Do you have a link to the post?

[tkblazer]

my mistake, i thought adam chimed in on that thread...

at your request

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=367996

[TURNERob]

Everything closed? The trails you are referring too are illegal, plain and simple. They have both been "closed" for a long time and the one has never been a legal trail to my knowledge if either of them have been at all. Go do Rattlesnake or Laguna Ridge if you like rock gardens. Poaching is bad

[.8down]

Originally Posted by solo_rider

Rode laguna wilderness last weekend only to find that two of the best trails are now closed. Since I dont know the names, I'll do my best to describe:

Trail #1: Parallels the 73 toll-road for almost the entire el-moro/laguna wilderness park. Starts North near the newport parking lot and has some great technical solid rock decents. Drops you out on the 133 about a half mile above the laguna wilderness parking lot. Lots of fun descents following the toll road ridgeline with a steep granite rock face at the end.

Tail #2: Starts at the aforementioned newport-ish parking lot on the North end of the park, and quickly drops down into deer springs canyon and exists at the deer springs camp site. Great rock outcropping at the start of the trail with an unmistakable off-camber line of decent.

Both of these trails have closed signs and dead branches scattered infront of them.

So, WTF gives?

you probably don't know the names of these trails because they probably aren't trails?

[andy aka rut]

The first closed "trail" is called Marie Callendars. Before the area was patrolled (in the 1990's) it was a tasty trail. Since then, the trail has been a constant headache for the authorities.

The second is either Nothin' Better to Do or Better to Do Nothin'. Both of these "trails" are also illegal.

All the above mentioned trails are illegal and tickets are being issued to people thinking they can get away with riding them.
There are plenty of good trails to ride on that are legal. Please don't ruin it for the rest of us by riding on them. I would hate to have the park closed to all mountain bikers because of a few bad apples.

thanks

[CPATCRASH]

Originally Posted by andy aka rut

The first closed "trail" is called Marie Callendars. Before the area was patrolled (in the 1990's) it was a tasty trail. Since then, the trail has been a constant headache for the authorities.

The second is either Nothin' Better to Do or Better to Do Nothin'. Both of these "trails" are also illegal.

All the above mentioned trails are illegal and tickets are being issued to people thinking they can get away with riding them.
There are plenty of good trails to ride on that are legal. Please don't ruin it for the rest of us by riding on them. I would hate to have the park closed to all mountain bikers because of a few bad apples.

thanks

I want a time machine to zap me back to the 80's and 90's. It would be nice to ride all the trails again. Not to mention all the booze and wild sex. OOPS! Did I say that out loud???

[tkblazer]

pat, i believe you told me and mike this morning that you were planning on riding those trails today

[Vickie]

Originally Posted by solo_rider

Rode laguna wilderness last weekend only to find that two of the best trails are now closed. Since I dont know the names, I'll do my best to describe:

Trail #1: Parallels the 73 toll-road for almost the entire el-moro/laguna wilderness park. Starts North near the newport parking lot and has some great technical solid rock decents. Drops you out on the 133 about a half mile above the laguna wilderness parking lot. Lots of fun descents following the toll road ridgeline with a steep granite rock face at the end.

Tail #2: Starts at the aforementioned newport-ish parking lot on the North end of the park, and quickly drops down into deer springs canyon and exists at the deer springs camp site. Great rock outcropping at the start of the trail with an unmistakable off-camber line of decent.

I believe Andy is correct......The first trail you are describing is Marie Calendars.....and the second Nothing Better to Do, both are illegal trails.

.V~

[genusmtbkr5]

In addition to those, Lizards is also illegal. The entrance to this is of Bommer Ridge and has a rusted pipe across it. These trails have been closed for a long time, they finally got the signs Adam told us about and they will start to enforce the closures by handing out tickets, impound your bike or both.

[Wicked Smot]

..

[CPATCRASH]

Originally Posted by tkblazer

pat, i believe you told me and mike this morning that you were planning on riding those trails today

Hey now! A few months ago that would have been true. No more. Not worth it.

[jcampbell]

Originally Posted by genusmtbkr5

In addition to those, Lizards is also illegal. The entrance to this is of Bommer Ridge and has a rusted pipe across it. These trails have been closed for a long time, they finally got the signs Adam told us about and they will start to enforce the closures by handing out tickets, impound your bike or both.

Unfortunately, I have been on all those trails mentioned. I have never been to LW before this year. Then I go and ride with a bunch of holligans I guess, since the only trails it seems I have been on with them are illegal. Marie being the first, then repo, and the rest of the better ones (D ETC) we all know about... many times. Then I found out they were illegal when I got busted by the volunteer ranger. The ranger even threatened me saying I knew what I was doing, yet I really had no clue. I stopped riding the illegal stuff mostly but always went down that Lizards thinking it was cool. OOPS. I seriously didn't know. Its almost if the only thing you can ride are fireroads, yet the place is really a mecca for mountain biking. So sad it is.

Funny story, after I went down lizards and was waiting at the entrance to a marked illegal trail of which I wasn't going to go in, a volunteer with a badge came up and started yelling at me not to go in there. I was like, I'm not, I am just waiting for some friends, which was the truth. Then I asked her where I was and so and so forth with the last question being, whats the best trail, most technical open trail here. She proceeded telling me cool Bommer Ridge was. "All the downhillers do it." About two hours later looking for the entrance to Bommer and asking other bikers about a cool trail I heard about named Bommer, I got laughed at and found out it was a damn fireroad that I was on. What a waste of laguna. I say the fire roads are hurting the land more than the trails are, get rid of them. Horses don't need them, hikers don't need them, bikers don't need them, animals use them to shat on so why don't we just do away with them. These fricken idiot environmentalists think fireroads are ok. Cmon, all it does is make the lazy rangers use motor powered mules instead of real mules. Horses are cool and should be allowed everywhere. The waste is no big deal so you Horse haters, quit being sallys. Rangers should patrol on horse or foot only. GET RID OF THE FIRE ROADS! The environmentalists want to let it burn in that park anyway.

Sorry for being rude, but a hiker biker horse trail does no more harm than a fireroad does. Like I said it before, does anyone realize that ordinary runoff from a paved road is toxic. I got a firefighter warning when my neighbor turned me in after I used Gunk engine degreaser washing my motorcycle one day. The Hazmat came as well and after they were done I was talking to the guy and he said that they have a hard time determining my pollutant level. I asked why and he said since I washed the street down to clean up before I was turned in, the toxic runoff of the asphalt was worse than the gunk I had used. I ended up not getting a fine because of that. Just goes to show how little we mountain bikers, horses, hikers really pollute and do harm to the environment when more than half of OC is covered in asphalt.

[CPATCRASH]

Sad but true. God forbid people have some fun before someone with tons of money buys the land and builds houses there.

[Letyrides]

Originally Posted by CPATCRASH

Sad but true. God forbid people have some fun before someone with tons of money buys the land and builds houses there.

Why can't a mountain biker have tons of money and buy it for us? Anyone have any wealthy relatives in poor health? Maybe we can convince Grandpa Hilton that moutain biking is an excellant charity for all his billions?! Must wake up now...work to do.

[sir crashalot]

originally posted by Jcampbell: "Its almost if the only thing you can ride are fireroads, yet the place is really a mecca for mountain biking. So sad it is."

The legal singletracks in LCWP and El Moro include:
Stagecoach Springs, Fenceline, BVD, (beginner-intermediate) old Emerald (intermediate) rattlesnake (advanced) and Laguna Ridge (very advanced). the volunteer you encountered was obviously not knowledgeable about mountain biking in the parks, you can get trail maps at the park headquarters. all the legal singletracks are on the maps, with the exception of BVD, which starts on Moro Ridge about 200 yards south of the top.

[sir crashalot]

Originally posted by cpatcrash: