Nails in Colorado trail spark concern over sabotage of mountain bikers

Nails in Colorado trail spark concern over sabotage of mountain bikers
Mountain bikers find concrete bricks studded with 3-inch nails buried in new Buffalo Creek mountain bike trail
By Jason Blevins, The Denver Post
Posted: 05/18/2016

Photo by Tim Fishback

Tim Fishback was riding the new Little Scraggy Trail in the Buffalo Creek network last weekend when his buddy, Nick Kostecki, got two flat tires in a relatively smooth section. When Fishback returned to help his pal, he too flatted.

They poked around the trail and found a nail sticking out of the dirt. They tried to pry it up but it was mounted in a concrete brick. More riders on the trail that day reported flats. Across a mile span, Fishback and his friend found three 2-pound bricks that had been formed around 3-inch nails and buried in the middle of the singletrack.

"I've never seen anything like it. Someone manufactured these things. It took some effort to dig those holes and put those in there and they were spaced out a good bit. Somebody was trying to do some real harm and they were targeting bikers," said Fishback, who regularly rides the Buffalo Creek area, where mountain bikers have spent two decades working with the U.S. Forest Service to develop and build one of the state's richest webs of flowing singletrack.

Posted on I Love Pine Grove, Colorado Facebook page 2 days ago :

Well......this is pretty upsetting......
A warning to ALL local trail users.
It seems someone is booby traping our local trails. For now, there have been a couple instances on the Little Scraggy Trail. It appears the target may be mountain bikers, but ANYONE on the trail is at risk, including animals (pack animals, horses, dogs, and wildlife).
What I have learned is, man made concrete blocks, with nails or some sort of puncturing items are being burried along a trail with the points up, near the surface. I have heard a few bikers have been victims to this near the south trailhead, in a little ways, behind the Kelsy Creek Campground area. I would be extremely cautious along the first 1/2 mile or so of ANY trail head, or anywhere that walk in access to a section is fairly easy. Especially if the trail surface appears to have natural forest debris on it....sticks, pine needles or cones in a cluster, different looking dirt surface in a patch.... Probably a good idea to carry TWO extra tubes.
Keep a heads up on ALL trails and report any suspicious findings. Be vigilant when riding or hiking by yourself. You never know if the subject(s) doing this will go as far as actual physical contact with the user group they are targeting, as in a recent case I read about in California. (two persons targeting mountain bikers).
Be Safe out there, keep situationally aware, be prepared.

Front page of the Denver Post!

I've overheard conversations at businesses in Pine and Buffalo Creek about this very subject. For someone to go to this length because they are that PO'd, they would have to be a local property owner. I'm not advocating what's been done in any way, shape, or form ... but it seems the residents down there aren't real happy about those trails. I heard one elderly woman saying they have walking trails on their own property, and apparently their property is fenced off with barbed wire - and they've had cyclists hoist their bikes over the wire, then ride across their property, and one day she had to jump out of the way and fell down because a cyclist was blazing down her path. The woman she was talking to said she'd had her own driveway blocked three times by cyclists' vehicles parked there, and she couldn't get out. They were having quite a boisterous chat about how "city people" have no respect for the rights of property owners in "The Mountains", because they're "The Mountains" and anybody can do whatever they want.

Many of the trails up here have been around long before the houses were built so they are there for the public use. I have not doubt they will find out who is doing this.

If your driveway is blocked then call the police and they an order it to be towed. Don't know about them lifting bikes over fences that would suck.

Hope this doesn't inspire copycats.

ScienceChic wrote:
... like Rosier held between riders of Deer Creek Canyon and residents last year (or 2 years ago?) to allow grievances to be aired and solutions proposed and implemented. Those were very productive meetings that helped a lot, especially with the porta-potties they put along the route for the riders so they had an alternative to peeing on the side of the road, one of the main complaints.

Since you brought it up, , here we go ... the road cyclists.

Most residents would call that meeting and resolution an "epic fail". The intersection is getting progressively blocked by groups of cyclists who won't move out of the road for residents and other traffic. It's getting worse and worse as Denver's population grows; Bike Jeffco has reached out to give sound advice to its members, but most of the cyclists on Turkey Creek and Deer Creek and Deer Creek Canyon and the High Grade and Pleasant Park don't seem to care. It's a free for all, "the mountains", do as you please. Long time (we're talking decades) residents say they've never seen anything like it and the powers that be yield to the cyclists.

We were told at that meeting (which devolved into chaos within minutes, April 2013) that the residents of the canyon would be kept personally apprised and updated of the situation. We were told that. Next we knew an outhouse was being installed at that intersection. Apparently a small flyer stapled to a stick was the county's solution to keeping the residents "apprised". I believe the county spent $10,000 taxpayer dollars to pave that shoulder on the corner.

I walk a lot, and have shared this with Bike Jeffco. Gu packets and energy bar wrappers and energy drink bottles everywhere, as if someone is expected to come along and pick up the trash. (That would be me.) Go green, right? Seventeen sightings of cyclists dashing off onto people's property to piss. (And that's just the ones I've seen during my walks.) One lovely instance of a guy copping a squat along the rock wall on the High Grade. It's the mountains, dontcha know, no private property up here, piss and crap wherever you want to. You should have heard the stories at that meeting told by some of the Pleasant Park folks who've been there forever. One woman actually burst into tears to Rosier, telling how their driveway reeked of urine and human feces because it's become a popular stop. So the outhouses haven't fixed anything.

Cyclists who have refused, REFUSED I tell you, to stop or move over for ambulances and sheriffs and wide load haulers. (And in one instance of absolute irony, those responders were going to the aid of a downed cyclist on the High Grade.) Groups who won't ride single file. The race downhill through the canyon ... refusal to obey the law and the speed limits (like the constant 20mph signs, and Hidden Entrance warnings everywhere.) Can't even count the number of times cyclists have swerved around our vehicles as we're leaving our property, doing 40-50 downhill and acting as if we're in their way as they fly blindly around the curves, flipping us off and yelling. This constant issue negates the notion that it's a small, bad element.

The maximum speed limit on these canyon roads is 30mph. Cyclists tailgating vehicles down from the High Grade to Lockheed Martin. Our delivery guy from Independent Propane told me he's been passed by bicyclists more times than he can remember, always on the canyon curves. I challenge anyone to stand along Deer Creek Road and find a cyclist doing the speed limit downhill.

There's no shoulder or bike lane on these canyon roads. The county took a slice 20 years ago to widen the roads to two lanes, and with the creeks and private property there's no chance bike lanes will be put on these many miles of canyon stretches. It stops where Deer Creek Canyon meets South Deer Creek Road. Tomorrow morning, take a drive from 285 around Pleasant Park, across the High Grade, down South Deer Creek, up Deer Creek Canyon, back on Turkey Creek to Conifer. It's mind numbing. It's an absolutely unacceptable situation, and everyone in charge says it's someone else's call to fix the problem - which for residents of all these roads means no bicycles. There is no allowance for the three-foot rule without going into opposing traffic in what is usually no passing areas.

No, I'm not going to drop any nails. But it's a growing hazard, worsening by the week. We've even had cyclists on these roads when the shoulders are packed with snow, grinding their way up the mountains in the middle of the uphill lanes. No kidding. Now we also have the dawn riders, a new category, causing more issues when folks are trying to drive to work in the morning.

Two weekends ago a neighbor down the road came out his front door to find ten cyclists taking a break on his lawn. They had to cross the creek bridge to get there. And when he told them they were on private property, they tried to intimidate him and say it was mountain property and they had "The Right" to take a break there. Incredible.

So, the notions of Kumbaya and 'can't we all just get along' simply don't exist here. Throughout the many miles of canyons, there is one road - to work, to school, to church, to medical care, to shopping... and the cyclists just don't seem to get it, or respect the lifestyle of those who live up here.

p.s. Someday when I can make the time I'll video what I'm talking about and post it on youtube.

Wow, sounds like it more than just a few bad apples.

Indeed. And to clarify ... I believe the mountain bike trails are a wonderful idea. But putting cyclists on the road amidst traffic where there's no shoulder or bike lane is ridiculous. The logic of it all seems flawed to me; cyclists were allowed on the roads because they argued that they pay taxes. We all do. And most of us drive motorized vehicles on those same roads. Does that mean I can drive my tractor anywhere I want? I should be entitled as a taxpayer to dual usage of county roads. Bicycle licensing and registration aren't required, and there seems to be no good answer as to why that is. Heck, DOGS are licensed and registered.

So a few years ago someone counted the number of cyclists clogging up the intersection at Deer Creek and Deer Creek Canyon, and said, "Hey, look how many cyclists are up here!" And the county planted an outhouse. Oh, and they told us if we saw a cyclist misbehaving, to note the colors of their outfit, as many are part of cycling teams. Wonderful solution. We were also told that these canyons get more 911 calls - most regarding bicyclists - than any other area of Jefferson County.

The answer? For me, it's no bikes on roads where they can't be clear of vehicular traffic. Then redirect massive amounts of county money and double the size of the Jeffco Sheriff Department, which has suffered a mass exodus and is stretched far too thin.

Personally I don't understand road cycling. With how distracted motorists are right now, I wouldn't want to be riding on narrow mountain roads with awesome views to distract drivers even more. One of my friends was almost killed in Coal Creek Canyon when a trailer hit her. Driver didn't even notice it.