[pipedream]

"They" refers to a group of disgruntled hikers who are upset with the allowance of mountain bikes on most of Kanawha State Forest's trails.

I came across one of their famous "bike traps" today. I was taking my dogs out for a stroll in the Forest (forced by guilt trip for leaving them at home the past 6 days). We walked up Davis Creek from the pond and at the turn-off for Teaberry we climbed up towards Shrewsbury. This section has a steep and gnarly "crash n burn" section going the opposite way and right above it is a small stream crossing. Well... I could see the fallen tree from the downihll side...

The tree was cut at a 90 degree angle off it's stump, which rested several meters uphill of the stream and there was no way it would've fallen right across the dip in the trail where the stream flows and blocked the tree between waist and chest high. It was cut at a 90 degree angle and four feet or so after it crossed the trail it was cut again at 90 degrees and propped up on the other piece of the tree (which was buried into the ground). The uphill end of the tree had obviously been placed, as a small hole the width of the tree had been dug out of the ground.

I couldn't do anything but report it when I got back to the office. I was half-tempted to go knock on the super's residence and let him know about the situation. But if it is not cleared by next weekend I most certainly will. The super is very pro-biking (he has a northshore course in his backyard). And if any of you reprobate hikers are reading this post out there... you better hope to hell I or anyone else with a two-wheel mind EVER finds out who you are or sees you destroying our trails because I, like many others, will not hesitate to accelerate your denture process... nor will my headset wrench.

 

[crashedandburned]

OK, Just trying to picture where this is.....

Is tree actually on Teaberry? I'm not sure if i know where you're talking about. It's a pretty rare problem out there and I've always gotton along good with any group of hikers I've run into out there. The thing we seem to fight about the most is who is actually going to go when letting the other go past. "Go ahead. No you go. No I insist. etc....." I can only remember one trail tampering incindent yrs ago. Between the pool paking lot and fire road heading to Mossy Rock there's a short piece of single track that goes down to a little pinic area before crossing the creek to the parking lot. There's a sharp S beond that goes between a cut out log. I went down it once and some SOB had set a large rock in the bend and caused me to endo. I threw the rock out, but that's the only time I can remember and trail tampering out there.

 

[pipedream]

Teaberry has been the location of several of the bike traps. Some of them I've seen, others I've heard of... but there have been several up there... I guess because of the "destruction" bikers do to the trail when we skid the switchbacks or rocket down the loose rocky and rooty parts. One of them was on the steep downhill after the first switchback, it was a tree cut into a gate so that you had to wind through it... which sucked because I almost slammed into it before I stopped...

Anyways... I'll keep my eyes open for any other signs of this activity.

 

[LowCel]

Has the obstacle been removed? At the race yesterday I asked quite a few people if they had seen anything weird or destructive on Teaberry and no one had seen anything. I haven't been up there for about 1 1/2 weeks but hope to get back up there pretty soon. Right now my bike isn't behaving all that well, seems the pipestem race did some damage to it. New bike is on the way though.

 

[davis]

just a suggestion...

I normally wouldn't even suggest this, but it does seem a sensible and non-violent way to seek retribution, AND since we're talking about WV here, there's a good chance you may own or know someone who does own the equipment necessary. Game tracking camera. Hunters use them to "watch" a certain area for signs of wildlife. They are camouflaged and lock to a nearby tree. When motion sensors pick up movement it records the image digitally. Wouldn't it be nice to catch some Sierra Clubbers sawing down trees to make biketraps??

And then there's always the option of carrying a Glock. Just in case they're "in season".

(just kidding about that "Glock" thing....sorta...)