Note of apology to all you sensitive and well-meaning downhill riders. I was referring to someone who rides downhill at speed, not necessarily someone who is on a DH specific bike. Sorry about the misuse of terms - I edited my original post. And kudos to whoever built the drops up on Anderson. That's some scary s#!t I won't go over. Even some of the bailouts are a thrill on my XC.

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Tall Bike - the natural high.

just to add the possibility that the guy scottk posted, 'ignatious r', is also chris campbell

http://www.strava.com/activities/31390563

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Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy. ~Milan Kundera

Chris Campbell seems like a lovely fellow.

Never quite understood the idea of cheating for notoriety. I guess if there is a lot of money at stake or it's a life or death situation I can see motive. When it comes to pure rankings and nothing else I guess you'd REALLY need to be good at lying to yourself.

An old buddy of mine that was at interbike this year...

As a person who has called out this chris campbell in the past. I would caution that this guy is a huge nut bag. His MO. is that he uses the internet to find out anything about his accusers that he can. He used linkedin and google to dig up a ton of info on me and then contacted my employer and others I know making wild adn untrue accusations.
He is a total dick face. He is also very very mentally unstable.
So tread with caution and carry a big stick.

Here is a board like this one from austin where he was kicked off of in the past. http://www.bikemojo.com
Do searching for his name, you'll see what i'm talking about.

BTW- My screenname was created for the sole purpose of calling out this tool after he went after me in real life.

Whether it's campbell or someone else, his picture should be posted up, here and on other forums.

I think at one point the OP said the perp was cutting manzanita. I can't recall ever seeing manzanita in there, but it's a protected plant species. It would be great to catch someone in the act and let them deal with the fines for cutting it down. Yeah, I know, snowballs's chance in hell of that happening. So hopefully it was just sumac and he gets a big old rash in the area for which he's clearly trying to compensate with faster Strava times.

Heh, "Stravagra."

On a serious note, I feel compelled to go up there this weekend and do a little cleanup -- blunt the jagged stumps, drag the dead shit away from the trail, etc. Or has that already been done?

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"Those skilled at the unorthodox are infinite as heaven and earth, inexhaustible as the great rivers."
— Tzun Tzu

Don't do that shit! It's like picking up a bloodied knife next to a dead body. If someones sees you, you will get the blame!

I was out there on Sunday, and it didn't look like any "fixing" had been done. I took some pictures, which I'll post later today when I get a chance.


Funny you should say that. When I was there on Sunday, I saw a row of freshly-placed football-sized rocks lining the trail right before a stream crossing. I couldn't see any purpose for them being there - they weren't in a spot where there was a threat of erosion, etc. They were just there to look "pretty", I guess. But they were also sitting precariously where they'd roll onto the trail pretty easily if disturbed. So I stopped and tossed most of them back into the streambed... and sure enough, right then another rider came up the trail and started in on me! "What the hell are you doing to my trail ?!?!" sez he. Once I explained what I was doing, he agreed and we had a nice chat. But from his first reaction, I was the guilty party - guilty until proven innocent.

But yeah, what's up with people wanting to line trails with pretty little rows of rocks? They sometimes have their places, for stopping erosion or armoring trails in certain spots, but on a flat curve with no erosion issues?

Funny stuff, that thought crossed my mind as I was typing my post. Maybe not such a great idea.

I was thinking of hiking up since I haven't got the leg strength back to ride up parts of it. But maybe the initial reaction to seeing a lone hiker clearing brush would be a bit more harsh...

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"Those skilled at the unorthodox are infinite as heaven and earth, inexhaustible as the great rivers."
— Tzun Tzu

I agree I wouldn't touch that trail at all. You would get blamed for probably all the destruction done not just what you were fixing. Good deeds can sometimes be perceived badly. What happened happened and I would only let the ranger fix it if he thinks it needs it.

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"You're like a mountain biking version of a mall crawler."-24v

Pics of the destruction, as of Sunday 2/17. I have to admit, it doesn't look as bad in the pictures as it does in person.


Branches cut off at about chest height on the right:




Closeup of the cut and/or broken-off branches:




Severe cutting, with the cut branches left in place, some poking directly at the trail:




More waist/chest-high cutting on the right, and a row of rocks line up on the left:




Looks like a trash pile on the right, and another row of rocks on the left:




Same spot, viewed from the uphill side:




Closeup of the same spot:




Another view of it:




Further up, on Teote. The bench cut was deepened and some rocks used to armor the downhill edge. This work wasn't so bad.

Except there is no ranger, because this area is NOT part of MTRP. It may become part of the park at some point in the future (the area is known as the East Elliott expansion area), but as far as I know the park hasn't even purchased much of the land.

It's a tough call. A lot of us (myself included) would like to fix some of what's been done. But some things you can't fix - you can't reattach cut branches, for instance. And if you try to remove the leftover pointy spikes, you'll effectively widen the trail and be perceived by anyone coming by as sanitizing or stravatizing. I'd like to pull some of the dead cuttings out and toss them well away from the trail. I'd also like to remove most of those silly rock borders. But it's like the wild west - there's really no rule of law regarding how or where trails are built or modified. Whatever you might do to the trail, somebody else is going to object.

Wide open to ideas...

Chuck beat me to it that there are no rangers for that area.

I'll heed the advise, though. Just when I thought I had a better option than road riding Saturday

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"Those skilled at the unorthodox are infinite as heaven and earth, inexhaustible as the great rivers."
— Tzun Tzu

I edited my previous post to heed JJohnson's advice.

Chuck, what time of the day were you out there? I rode through there around 12:45ish and the bush in your third pic was completely hacked down to nubs, maybe 6 inches all the way through. You could actually see the trail on the otherside of the bush from where you took your pic.