I had the chance to ride Otay Lake last night, I know it is short, not very tech, and there is no climbing, but it is still alot of fun to me. I grew up in that area and have riddden Otay alot. Anyway, the singletrack is dare I say perfect, smooth, flowy, and nothing but bike tracks on the trail. I think someone should invite the Los PQ mountain bike haters committee out there and see what a trail with little, to no horse traffic looks like. I currently live in Poway and I have a back way into Sycamore Canyon that uses a trail mostly used by equestrians and it gets so rutted, and dug up by those 1000 lb steel shoed things; the trail is only useable after it rains and packs back down. I dont think it's a sustainable trail issue that keeps us mountain bikers second class citizens in PQ, I think its about money, and power, the equestrians have both and don't want to share. Otay Has no rangers, no restrictions, no citizen committees, no park hours, and granted not an epic trail, but the condition of the trail is awsome.

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"Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and
feed him for a lifetime. Teach a man to cycle and he will realize
fishing is stupid and boring."
--Desmond Tutu

I believe that you're exactly right. And the developers have some cash to throw around too...

No need to invite them out there. They already know the truth, horses cause severe trail damage, more than bikes. That battle was fought hard for years, but in the end, after tons of study’s, it was proven; A 1000 pound horse will cause more damage than a 28 pound bike (seems like a no brainer to me).
You hit the nail right on the head; Money equals power. If you live in a 3.7 million dollar house, have a horse for each of your kids and wife, a piper to fly the Politian’s and lobbyist to your cabin in Utah/Colorado, you sure as shit can grease the city, county, state, and federal Politian’s a lot better than some stinky-assed mtn biker with a pint of arrogant bastard. Dirty money trumps in the end…every…single…time.
Just look at the state of the good ole US of A right now, EVERY POLITIAN IS DIRTY AND HAD A HAND IN IT! Bush lied, Obama lied...guess what...city officials lie too and are equally as greedy as their federal counterparts. The dirty dealings are everywhere and we lose…the end.

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Code 347

Scarcity creates value...

IMHO, the fact that that area of town is so valuable to everyone (Developers, MTBs, Horse people).

One one side of LPQ you have million dolla' homes, and horse ranches, the you have sorento valley and large neighborhoods.

It's like I bring a small cake to a party... everyone is going to bitch and complain about not getting enough.

That why Multi-use is the best option... everyone shares the trails they are able to. The more trails the less likely we will have conflicts, the bigger the cake.

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never stop....

Let me make this as clear as possible: Nobody needs to invite a fucking committee of any sort anywhere near Chula Vista/Bonita. We've got it under control.









No offense meant to the OP.

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Long Live Long Rides
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I think fucking committees are a valuable resource to any community. Just make sure that all local fuckers are represented and have a fucking voice. Just don't invite any horse fuckers. Of course this is just my fucking opinion.

Wirk wirk wirk wirk wirk...brother....multiuse is not the best option. It may be the only option right now but certainly not the best. Just ask the folks in Santa Barbara. "Tunnel" ring a bell?
In a totally kumbaya world, everything Zen, peace love dove, can't we all get along world, yes multiuse would be ideal. But we all don't walk (or pedal or ride) around with peace signs on our helmets, smoking pot, and saying things like "far out"...can you dig it?
We have to keep things multiuse, not by choice, but by necessity. We as mtn bikers do not have that many options as in "bike only trails" so we must share with hikers and equestrians.
Think about this, if you were a hiker on SJT on a Sunday morn, out spending some quality time with your wife and kids, and then all of the sudden a group of iron clad body armored hooligans wielding swords and riding 40 pound 8 inch suspension bikes come hauling ass by, you have to scramble to get your 6 year old out of the way but your stupid rat dog gets in the way and blammmo, over the bars goes Tommy the ripper. He breaks his leg and then they call in life flight to get his ass out. In the mean time the dad whom almost had his kid run over is talking to an ambulance chaser about suing someone. The local tree hugger media gets a hold of this story and now it is posted all over the Orange Country Register with the headlines "Mountain Bikers cause destruction and injure poor helpless puppies and terrorize catholic family on peaceful Sunday outing" Hmmm maybe "Muslim" family would get more sympathy? Anyway The point I am trying to make is multipurpose trails are great, but user specific trails would alleviate a ton of squabbles. BUT we being mtn bikers are the bottom of the food chain, we have to have multiuse or we would be limited to only about three trails in all of SOCAL. I would love it if we had bike only trails. We could fly as fast as we want without having to worry about speed limits (Elfin) and wouldn't have to worry about hitting a horse on Noble (almost happened to me). Wouldn't it be nice to bomb a singletrack and not have to dismount for a hiker or horse to pass? Ideally, yes would be the best answer. Most of us are kind and follow the rules of etiquette, but if we could have our own system without fear of hurting someone or an animal we would be in heaven. How many equestrians would prefer to have “multiuse” or do you think they would prefer horse specific trails better? Hikers want hiker only trails, equestrians want horse only trails, mtn bikers want bike only trails, but there isn’t enough trails to go around. So yes we try to be Zen, we try to be Kumbaya, we try to spread peace and love, and we try to smoke pot…um okay we don’t smoke pot but you get the point. In an ideal world, multiuse would be good for all, but in the real world, it causes conflict. We try to minimize conflict with advocacy, edjukayshun, service, and just basically being a nice guy/gal on the trail.
For bikers, right now, multiuse is our only option. Hikers and equestrians want us off the trail but refuse to give us any trails at all. Even the trails that bikers make get taken over by hikers and equestrians and the biker gets kicked off. So if we want to ride, we help “multiuse” flourish, because they sure as shit won’t let us build our own trails. Well we do, but they get ripped down soon after being built or it becomes a “multiuse” trail, then a hiker gets hurt and we get kicked off again.
Tunnel will surely close ( I am surprised it isn’t closed yet), and it will be another black eye to the biking community. Think about this, If you had 5 multiuse trails and 5 bike only trails, which ones do you think would have the least conflicts? That’s a no brainer but like I said earlier, mtb’ers are the bottom of the food chain and the ratio from hike only trails to bike only trails is probably 1000 to 1? Yes all the best trails are multiuse, Noble, SJT, SART, etc but if they would let us build some trails of that caliber in the mountains of the Laguna’s, Santa Ana’s, Bernardino’s, Gabriel’s, and label it bike only…..WOW!

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Code 347

Mike G,
I agree with you 100%... It's why I rarely ride at LPQ during the day.. the main trail is a superhighway of horses, families and retards with ipods.

But on public land here is socal I don't think we will ever have a bike only downhill trail in the near future.

I rather be able to bomb down Rocking Horse at night and maybe baby-it during the day then never be able to ride it. The La Costa model is the best we can hope for. Trails designed for bikes but trails we have to share.

Multiuse is better than no use.

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never stop....

I believe there's laws against "horse fuckers" in most states, except maybe in Texas.

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Scum on a Bike

I don't know if it's really about who has more money. Don't forget--people have been hiking and riding horses on trails for, well, forever basically. Mountain bikers have only been trail users for what, 30-ish years? And really only in any sort of huge number for the last 10-ish years. We got decades upon decades of catching up to do.

Nobody needed a committee at La Costa 20 years ago. Flightline didn't seem to need a committee either.

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There's a lot of shame on a road bike. -- evdog