[Merlin_57]

While riding today I came across a group of guys and one thing led to another with them telling me there was a public hearing this past Monday with 2 more to follow to talk about closing off the trail to bikes and leaving it open to equestrians and hikers only.

I live 5 minutes away and ride 3-4 days a week and I haven't heard a thing on this. Anyone else?

 

[jeffj]

Holler at these folks. If they don't know anything about it, they should, and usually try to get involved in such issues.

CORBA: The Concerned Off Road Bicyclists Association

 

[Bruce in SoCal]

I'm almost afraid to ask, where is Marshall Canyon?

 

[Merlin_57]

Holler at these folks. If they don't know anything about it, they should, and usually try to get involved in such issues.

CORBA: The Concerned Off Road Bicyclists Association

...... Took a look around their site and didn't see any news concerning Marshall. I'll be joining them with a donation anyways. I do a lot of 4 wheeling as well and have seen too many Jeep trails closed over the years so its a little personal to me.

 

[Merlin_57]

I'm almost afraid to ask, where is Marshall Canyon?

La Verne.

 

[Hurricane Jeff]

Back in 1991, one of the two( at the time) horse stables in Marshall( one was pro multi-use, the other anti-everything not equestrian) put "no bikes" signs throughout the park with a penal code that didn't even match the no bikes code. The bad thing about it was, that LA County who manages the park were a bunch of equstrians themselves, so they stood behind the signs. Since a public forum was never held for the closure, my wife called IMBA, talked to all the local bike shops, called bike companies and ofcourse talked to hundreds of riders. She also called the county and called for a public forum. The day of the forum, there was about 300 people, mostly bike people, a rep from IMBA also showed up and just tore the county and the anti- multi use equestrian a new one, the signs shortly came down, but we were to form a bike patrol to educate the public on proper riding edittquite<not spelled right)
You guys need to get together with bike shops, all the riders you can get and get IMBA involved. You have to have a mass showing of support and keep it civil, talk about why they should not close it, but listen to concerns others may have.
The last time I rode MC, it seemed that there were certain riders who rode way too fast by hikers, maybe that's the issue. You have to educate the riders to eliminate any potential trail conflicts.
GOOD LUCK!!!

 

[Merlin_57]

Thanx for the history lesson. I've only lived in the area for the past 6+ years so I don't have a sense of what's happened over the years.

As for equestrians.... I have run into some really nice folks and then I have run into folks who would just as soon as wish me dead. There are 2 particularly rude women riders that we see on a regular basis.

As for bikers.... Most are really pleasant but there are the out of towers that show up as if they were riding the Mammoth Kamikazi and given the multi use nature of the trail, they need an attitude adjustment. I ride there with my wife and kids, there are horses and hikers so there is no room on the trail for balls to the wall downhilling. These mugs would be better off over at Webb Canyon.

As for the closure, I have not been able to find anything on it. Contacting the bike shops is a good idea. I will swing by Coats and see if they know anything and I plan on calling county parks tomorrow. Thanx again.

 

[AndrewS85]

Thanx for the history lesson. I've only lived in the area for the past 6+ years so I don't have a sense of what's happened over the years.

As for equestrians.... I have run into some really nice folks and then I have run into folks who would just as soon as wish me dead. There are 2 particularly rude women riders that we see on a regular basis.

As for bikers.... Most are really pleasant but there are the out of towers that show up as if they were riding the Mammoth Kamikazi and given the multi use nature of the trail, they need an attitude adjustment. I ride there with my wife and kids, there are horses and hikers so there is no room on the trail for balls to the wall downhilling. These mugs would be better off over at Webb Canyon.

As for the closure, I have not been able to find anything on it. Contacting the bike shops is a good idea. I will swing by Coats and see if they know anything and I plan on calling county parks tomorrow. Thanx again.

Thanks for the heads up. I'll head over to Roys (in Upland) and see if theyve heard anything.

 

[Hurricane Jeff]

Call LA County dept. of parks and rec., ask them to put you in touch of who manages the park, used to be someone based at Bonelli Park.
Once you find out if and when there is a public forum, get all the support from whoever you can, bike shop owners and personnel, local riders, IMBA, local media, anyone, just get as large as a group as you can and stress your concerns. When you get your chance to speak, be considerate, don't go on about how it just affects you( rather how it affects every user group, if they close it to bikes, they could just as easily close it to horses).
When we did it back in 1991, we had the LA Times out there, actually we were on the front page of the Sunday paper with a color photo of a trail cleanup done with other user groups. Do not give up, MC is such a great local riding area to lose. I hate to keep rattling on about how to defeat this "proposed closure" and I know I'm repeating myself, but it's a fight worth fighting, as my late father in law used to say" keep the faith"
If you need any help, let me know, I'll do what I can, although I live in Big Bear now, which is going through a trail building renaissance currently.

 

[rachmak]

would be a shame to lose Marshall Canyon. This is truly an MTB gem. I did notice that there was a large divide amongst the riders and the equestrians there. Also, in the few times I was there, there were some uneducated riders which is unfortunate.

On flipside, I have had some friendly exchanges with riders, as long as you slow down and say HI it has always been fine.

 

[Hurricane Jeff]

Why some riders have to blast by everyone on the trails, especially the lower ones in the tree's, is beyond me. I know its just an education issue, but some riders do not have clue, maybe easy to read signs at trail heads, tags on new bikes as well as bike shop employee's educating buyers. Unfortunately it takes trail closures for people to understand what they did wrong to get trails closed.

I too like to ride fast, but in congested area's with blind corners is not the place. I used to ride through the bottom section and use that as a warm up, then go hard up to Potato Mtn and then back down, of course when I did that, MC and CWP were not the crowded place they are now, also, I would avoid weekend traffic as much as possible.

 

[GQOSE]

I ride here once a week on average, and a trend I notice is most cyclists at the bottom rarely make their presence and group size known. If a group of hikers is going up, they end up always being surprised that I would offer them the right of way before me going down.

Most of the equestrian riders are great folks there. I've never had an unpleasant confrontation with them. Say hello,share the stoke of being outdoors and ask permission to pass.

 

[trmn8er]

It starts with us, one interaction at a time. I too ride Marshall Canyon all the time. I ALWAYS give Horses the right of way, and I have have had nothing but friendly exchanges with the riders. They do tell me some of us ride like idiots, and they appreciate someone who pauses and gives them the total right of way. Additionally, I try to give hikers the same. I do not come close to them, and try not to scare them. Generally, I find Marshall up to the Yellow gate a ghost town most weekdays, and the Claremont side is ALWAYS busy. With good visibility, I can romp on it safely most all the time on Marshall side, Claremont Loop side not so much. Tons of hikers, even baby strollers out there. If you live in the IE or even LA it's a fun area worth exploring, more so on the West Marshall side and up top like Potato Mountain.

I start at the stables near the golf course, go to the gate, around the top of the loop, down the Claremont Wilderness side to the parking lot, then take the bike path to Baseline, across base line to Esparanza, then hump it all the way up to Stevens Ranch road and back to the car. A nice 12 mile ride. I would be pissed to see it closed because of some riders who think this is their personal Strava test track and screw everyone else. I do time my rides and measure my fitness, but seriously try to be respectful of others and not ride like an ass. If you are that serious about speed, enter a Race and have at if safely. After all Bonelli Park and Fontana are only minutes away and offer world-class races. Garmin link below for my usual double-track cardio ride. There is also a lot of fun single-track up there too! Again, my hope we all are super cool to hikers and riders of all types so we can keep trails open, and not lose local riding like Marshall.

Marshall Big Loop New Epic 03182014 by trbofr2 at Garmin Connect - Details

 

[lewisfoto]

While riding today I came across a group of guys and one thing led to another with them telling me there was a public hearing this past Monday with 2 more to follow to talk about closing off the trail to bikes and leaving it open to equestrians and hikers only.

I live 5 minutes away and ride 3-4 days a week and I haven't heard a thing on this. Anyone else?

I may be able to clear things up here.

There were a lot of rumors, mostly on social media, about trail closures in connection to the City of Claremont's Wilderness Park Master Plan, which is a year long effort to develop a working plan for the growing popularity of the Claremont Hills Wilderness Park.

I was at the first public meeting and there was no discussion of closing the park to bikes. There were a few remarks about speeding bikes and close calls with hikers. But the overwhelming concern of the residents was overcrowding, particularly on the weekends.

Still there will be several opportunities for you to tell the commission your ideas. The next two public meetings are May 19 and July 21. The first meeting was at Taylor Hall which is just north of Claremont High School at Cahuilla Park.

If you want to know more send me a PM (I work at the local paper)

Steven

Claremont website:

City of Claremont -- City News

Map for Cahuilla Park

https://www.google.com/maps/preview...yAGIm4DgAw&ved=0CI8BEPwSMAo&source=newuser-ws

 

[Hurricane Jeff]

Thats good news, but still educate as many riders as possible about proper trail edititquite....(<why the hell can't I spell that word!)

 

[Bruce in SoCal]

Lewisfoto, thanks for the info.

 

[jbl_91762]

I agree with proper etiquette. Been riding over 6 years there with my sons and have always slowed for hikers and said hello. We Always completely stopped for horses and we wave them by or they tell us to come through. We always say last bike. Its all about respect and there are always riders that dont give a crap. You know who you are. Its just the way it is and unfortunately with their dont give a damn attitude and is what gets people pisst and issues like this coming up with possible closures.

 

[Hurricane Jeff]

Thanks for showing me how to spell "etiquette", for some reason I couldn't get the right spelling.
Your doing the right thing as far as using proper trail etiquette, and most riders do, it's those few that ruin it for everyone else, don't know if it's an education issue or they just don't care.
Probably 20 years ago or so in MC, we had 2 women on horses charge use as we sat off of the trail yielding to them, after they passed, one said to the other" I feel so guilty when I do that to bikers"...as they both laughed, pretty scary to have a 1200lb animal with a person with a smaller brain then the horse riding it, come about a foot from running you over, I had a rock in my hand that I almost threw at them, but in guess two wrongs wouldn't make a right...

 

[Merlin_57]

I may be able to clear things up here.

There were a lot of rumors, mostly on social media, about trail closures in connection to the City of Claremont's Wilderness Park Master Plan, which is a year long effort to develop a working plan for the growing popularity of the Claremont Hills Wilderness Park.

I was at the first public meeting and there was no discussion of closing the park to bikes. There were a few remarks about speeding bikes and close calls with hikers. But the overwhelming concern of the residents was overcrowding, particularly on the weekends.

Still there will be several opportunities for you to tell the commission your ideas. The next two public meetings are May 19 and July 21. The first meeting was at Taylor Hall which is just north of Claremont High School at Cahuilla Park.

If you want to know more send me a PM (I work at the local paper)

Steven

Claremont website:

City of Claremont -- City News

Map for Cahuilla Park

https://www.google.com/maps/preview...yAGIm4DgAw&ved=0CI8BEPwSMAo&source=newuser-ws

Thanx much... PM on the way for meeting info. I also called county Parks and they had no information so I am guessing that the group I ran into were not fully informed and were confusing Claremont with Marshall.

 

[lewisfoto]

To clarify, the most pressing problem that came out of the public meeting was overcrowding and the resulting noise and parking issues. The vast majority of the attendees were Claremont residents and not necessarily trail users but folks, like myself, who live adjacent to the park entrance at Mills and Mount Baldy Road. From what I have learned the most likely result of the master plan will be a restriction on the number of all users who can be in the park at the same time. (Not sure how they will pull this one off but that is the word on the street.)