El Moro unauthorized trail closure

I got a call today from a State Parks environmental managment people to let me know that they have closed a popular illegal trail in El Moro. The trail is known to some as Deliverence or Carpet Muncher.
Fire crews pulled in the sides to obstuct access and also removed some bridges and other wooden structures. I was told that the entrance to the trail was signed but I am pretty sure that there are several entrances to the trail from various locations.

Let's all show our support of responsible mountain biking by not only avoiding this trail but by encouraging others to do the same.

Where Crystal Cove is concerned, the more we (mountain bikers) support them, the more they support us.

 

thanks for the heads up.

one quick question though, how can they 'close' a trail that was never 'open'?

 

The answer to that question would have to start with a definition of the word "open".

 

nevermind...I was thinking that they closed a trail without authorization.

 

Does this trail start at the top just next to Park Ridge Drive and drops down left into Dear Valley for about 1.5 miles?

 

Not Deliverance

That one isn't Deliverance, but it is also an unauthorized trail or whatever you want to call it. You would definitely know it if you ever dropped in on Deliverance!! :-k

 

Thanks.

 

Posting exact locations of illegal trails can be counter productive to keeping people off of them, as you can probably imagine. A good rule of thumb is to simply stick to trails that are on the parks official map.

 

We, the patrol riders on STR, just want to know so we can inform others while riding around El Moro during peak riding periods. :wave:

 

I have also noticed while riding in the park that there are a lot of trail closure signs completely faded or painted over like the one at Fence Line that links to Ridge Park. Are those trails now opened or are they just waiting for state funding to be refurbished back to new?

 

No, that area is not open but people keep knocking down the signs and going around the fence so the park can't keep up with it. Like I mentioned before the best guidline is to just use the trails that are on the map. There's new sign with a trail map on it at the end of Fence Line.

 

To bad. That was the perfect trail for a rigid SS. :lol:

 

This is a subject that has been hashed and reshashed a thousand times. Basically, we have to keep in mind that El Moro is not a mountain bike or recreation park. The highest priority is protection of the habitat so the area will stay as natrual as possible while still allowing the public to access and enjoy the open space. If they just let everyone come in and build trails where ever they wanted to, the place would look like a big BMX park.
Also there are at least 5 government agencies involved in controlling the amount of land that can be used for trail access. If the park does not abide by the regulations imposed by those agencies it could be facing some pretty stiff penalties.
Lastly, when we try to get approvals to build new trails, those agencies look at the trails that already exist, legal or not and take the number of trails into account when deciding to approve or disapprove new trails. In other words, illegal trails actually prevent us from building legal trails.

 

Never really thought about it like that. That's awesome! :bang: Sounds great to me! Ah man, with the rains we just had we should go out there and start diggin'!

So what you're also saying is that it won't be too long until this trail is open again. :clap: Maps...yeah...no one reads those stinkin' maps (if you can ever find them).

 

Let's see over the last 10 years approximately 40 trails have been closed and termed illegal in Laguna and exactly ONE legal trail has been built, awesome. Wow, that system sure works.

 

No more than talking about them on the internet.

...until a development company shows them enough money and more homes are built. But nobody whines about the MILLIONS of acres of natural habitat destroyed. Instead, people get in a flurry over a narrow dirt trail that was "constructed" inside an already existing park of trails.

Don't get me wrong...I have never ridden it, and if there's obvious signs of closure I will not go around them. I also realize the "system" is all we have to work with. But that doesn't change the fact that it still sucks...and in one way or another, it all comes down to money...NOT environment...in the end.

The reason we don't have more trails or bike parks here...like they have in Canada, for example...is because it's not profitable. It has NOTHING to do with environment, or habitat, or anything like that. Everyone has to make their buck calling mother nature "theirs." Property in Southern CA is very expensive, and the suits don't think a bike park would be profitable. Not like a cookie cutter housing track or a shopping mall, anyway.

So we get a couple small parks that we have to share with the general public (that were never intended for mountain biking to begin with, as our sport didn't exist when the parks were established)...and that's all we will ever get here.

For this reason, it's even more crucial to follow the rules or we'll be left with virtually nothing.

The system really is kind of a big hypocritical/ironic joke. And people who think it's about environment couldn't be more wrong. It's about money, and that's it. Count all the dead coyote and deer and rabbits in south OC that have been displaced due to development over the last 15 years in the RSM area and tell me I'm wrong.

 

Actually people were mountainbiking in the Laguna area long before the parks were established, in fact EVERY single trail in the Laguna parks was created by mountainbikers. My favorite bit of Hypocrisy was when they shut a bunch of trails down in Aliso for "habitat restoration" and then a year later leveled the whole area and built a university on top, sweet.

 

Interesting figures but not factual. This is the type of hype that does not do our sport any justice.

I can think of 9 previously non-sanctioned trails and new trails that have been opened locally, with more still in the planning, and nowhere near 40 that were closed.

Please be factual in these posts.

One other problem with your post is that if there were truly 40 or more non-authorized trails locally; it would clearly indicate that there is a local problem; and that also does not reflect well on the sport.

Take the time to look at the map of Aliso, LCWP, El Moro, and the Irvine areas; and count the number of legal trails........it is a considerable number of trails for the size of the area; and a lot more dense than many similar areas across the country.

We actually have a pretty lucrative system of trails locally and have very little to complain about IMO.

We need to try to post reality here. A lot of trails have been opened it the distant and recent past, and more are in the works.............it's not a bleak picture locally for mountain biking...........lots of trails to enjoy!

Just my .02

 

You're mixing apples an oranges here. SOKA was a planned development area just like the surrounding areas and was never intended as a park, so no planned habitat was taken. Aliso-Woods is a signatory protected area that allows for recreation, so there is a legal requirement to review all of the trails.

The areas that are set aside as parks and wilderness areas are not being built on or developed. There are some developments that come right up to the borders, but again......these developments have been planned for decades, and were not a surprise.

Parks are parks, and development areas are development areas. They exist side by side in most cases......it's just a fact of life.

Again.......there's plenty of fantastic riding locally and more being planned.

The picture is clearly not as bad as you paint it to be.

 

I think that considering that all of our Wilderness Parks (Whiting, Aliso, LCWP, Limestone, Oaks, Peter's, Riley, O'Neill, Casper's, etc...) were originally on private property and were only created as a result of the County and various environmental groups banding together to force developers to create "open space" in their plans, we should do everything in our power to preserve access to these areas.

When I was growing up in El Toro in the early '70s, most of the Saddleback Valley looked like these parks look now, so if you're living in South County in a home built after 1975, I wouldn't be bitching too much about the evil money-grubbing developers wrecking the land because you helped support them.

Considering the value of land in South Country, I think we are indeed fortunate to have what we have. Go to other urban areas of the country and try and find parks like Whiting, Aliso, Oaks and El Moro that have MTBing and are just minutes from your house. They just don't exist.

Instead of feeling entitled to create trails wherever the heck we want, we should be grateful that the trails are open to us at all. Even considering that MTBers are one of the biggest user groups at some of the parks and contribute the majority of the maintenance, we are still a small group overall.

If you want to dig some trails, build jumps, etc... buy some land and do what you please because the land in the parks is not just owned by you. It is also owned by the other three million residents of OC. Most of whom did not fight to preserve that open space and support it through their donations and taxes just so a small group can tear it up and create a big BMX park.