Idiots Blocking/Trapping trails – is there an sensible answer?

Now the sunny weather is here, we are seeing some of the local trails getting obstacles intentionally put across them.

Ranging from large rocks being rolled into the middle of trails, to logs being dragged across trails and this weekend the first wire appeared… set at knee height, between two posts, across a fast bit of trail.

The rider who hit the wire, wasn’t badly hurt but it’s probably only a matter of time until someone does get badly injured or worse.

I know this kind of thing has been an issue in various parts of the country from time to time. Has any one, or any group found a sensible way of dealing with this in their local area? Will the police or local authorities help?

Some of the trails involved are cheeky, so you could argue, just don’t go cycling there – but it hardly excuses someone intentionally laying a wire across a path, with the intention of injuring someone.

Police, motion detection cameras etc.

We just put a load of signs around our trails warning MTBers, horse riders, runners and dog walkers of traps being laid. I think it’ll have a positive effect – yesterday I had a professional dog walker stop me to warn me of the notice she’d seen. 99% of people are happy to share the space, and the 1% need to learn that their behaviour is considered unacceptable by everyone, not just the user group they have a problem with.

We’ve had a spate of this on the local trails. All you can do is remove the obstructions when you find them. Seen a few times where small trees had been snapped over the trails to form a barrier like this …

One of these lives in my pack for this purpose…

OP – take it this is response to whats been going on around Brighouse/Halifax over the last week?

Its getting dangerous… like the idea of he signs though warning all trail users whether they should be there or not.

Sorry missed this. Ignore my other post.

Scary stuff

I’ve found in my local woods if I move logs/branches off the trails they reappear very quickly. So now if I can hop or ride over an obstacle I just leave it.

Wire across the trail is a whole different thing to a few logs though.

the log thing isnt too bad in my mind (depending on placement the fact that they are dead branches etc) the rocks are getting worse as you couldnt see them as you entered under the trees (admittedly its cheeky) the wire you dont stand a chance to see it.

This appears to be a common feature on one of my local trails. Shows just how deranged these people are, thinking that breaking healthy trees in half is somehow a more acceptable activity.

did you run a mower down that ‘trail’ first?

Somebody on another thread suggested putting up posters saying a child had been injured and “witnesses needed”, might make the perpetrators think twice?

OP – take it this is response to whats been going on around Brighouse/Halifax over the last week?

Yes, that’s the one mate.

I don’t have an easy answer, but am wondering if taking some form of action would be best (rather than just moving trail obstacles etc).

did you run a mower down that ‘trail’ first?

Can’t vouch for Perchy’s trail maintenance schedule, but I have a Roundup sprayer mounted on the bars.

I’m thinking – Has anyone ever caught someone blocking a trail and managed to have a discussion about why they are doing it?

Would be interesting to understand what makes someone behave like this and why they think in the way they do.

Can’t vouch for Perchy’s trail maintenance schedule

Not a mower.

One run through virgin undergrowth on a fatbike. 🙂

*pic was lifted from google for tree snapping illustrative purposes…but you knew that right?

Can’t defend wire although it may well be just kids. We did that sort of thing as 8 year olds to trap our mates.
Logs across tracks may well be horse riders, some of whom like that and it may also be people who wish to slow down cyclists.
Can’t object to that.
I’ll assume that none of these are on official custom made tracks so to be honest whilst its mildly annoying ( wire aside) its not a problem. After all we all ride sensibly don’t we, meaning able to stop in any situation?

By coincidence last week I was in a respected mountain bike shop in NW England where I overheard a conversation between the proprietor, his mechanic and two customers. The customers were complaining about trail sabotage and the bad attitude of some of the public towards mountain bikers. The discussion went on for a few minutes and the universal agreement was that the bad relations are being caused by an increasingly “yobbish” element buying mountain bikes and riding them all over the place with no repect for rights of way or property. I didn’t air my views but yobbish behaviour was one of the reasons why I drifted away from mountain biking. Mind you; I also don’t ride with my local road club because a couple of members are aggressive and confrontational towards drivers.

I’ve never seen anyone doing it.

I can kind of understand a miserable git shoving the odd rock or log in a trail who’d taken a grudge to riders being somewhere they shouldn’t. Maybe understand is the wrong word but I can imagine them thinking it’d slow riders down or put them off riding there.

The sort of person that leaves the house with wire to wrap around trees needs to be found ASAP and taken through the courts or at least spend a night or two in a cell and the threat of a criminal record. Defies belief.

Almost as bad are the loonies that pull down a perfectly healthy tree or as in the case of around here last week, pull down stone walls that have been there for decades/centuries just to create an obstacle.

Agreed, you’ll not stop yobbish riding. But wire isn’t the way. Smiles and nods work better

Somebody on another thread suggested putting up posters saying a child had been injured and “witnesses needed”, might make the perpetrators think twice?

I think this is the best way. Get the parents on our side.

Agreed with that!^ and motion cameras if possible but basically I’d be looking for somewhere else to ride!

I caught someone placing logs across a bridleway a few months ago, somewhat bizarrely he did after one of our group had gone past but in front of me. I asked him what he was doing and he started going on how his dog had nearly been run over by mountain bikers a few times on the trail, we go fast, blah, blah, blah. I did suggest he could maybe keep his dog on a lead and we were entitled to be on the track but it seemed a bit of a waste of time as he was not receptive to conversation. So I just bade him farewell and rode over the offending piece of log and leaving him to gurn on.

The sort of person that leaves the house with wire to wrap around trees needs to be found ASAP and taken through the courts or at least spend a night or two in a cell and the threat of a criminal record. Defies belief.

It does. Occasionally they are caught too.

http://www.pinkbike.com/news/to-catch-a-saboteur-2015.html

There is another story that was in Bike Mag about a very well-educated saboteur that was caught in California. Can’t seem to find anything online at the mo though.

Personally I don’t think you can stop folk like this but you do need to get them to think about the possible consequences of their actions

the wire is totally unacceptable

The poster mentioning injured child may make them think but who knows
Best to do a scouting run at very low speed IMHO

I’ve found tree branches placed on the trails around mirfield woods at waist height, quite annoying as its a legal right of way, I can understand logs on the floor, after all it’s a wood and horses and dog walkers use them so they really don’t want mtb’ers hurtling around corners too fast..

I’ve found if you pass walkers slowly on footpaths it’s very rare they object, many people do not understand rights of way and so being polite helps, a lot of old roads in West Yorkshire moorlands and countryside are only footpaths (ie no horses or bikes), but on google maps they appear to be old Cart trails with road in the name..

Out of interest were was the riding is it well used by bikes,

I’m thinking posters is a good idea. A bloke was killed a few years ago with wire ( had heart attack after) police didn’t do anything so maybe this would have more effect

I’m thinking – Has anyone ever caught someone blocking a trail and managed to have a discussion about why they are doing it?

The poster mentioning injured child may make them think but who knows

A few years ago now, caught a chap in the act putting logs on corners in an area that had been sticked for a while, asked him what he was doing and why. He got all defensive, denied doing it and mentioned calling the police : ) classic clueless defensive i-can-do-no-wrong kind of chap, usual ‘bikes aren’t allowed here’ line etc. I told him he was a quite identifiable-looking guy and a local chap was on the warpath after his lad got hurt on that trail recently so maybe he should be careful, rode off. Seem to have had minimal to no stickmen in that general area since, I guess he moved on for whatever reason.

I think these people think it’s all ok when it’s them alone in the woods, seething with passive-aggressive as they pull stuff onto a trail, put them on the spot or make them think it through and see that they can/will get caught and it’ll either end there or escalate. Depends what kind of idiocy it is – wires are a very different idiocy level to logs and rocks etc.

I was moving some logs off a trail when motorcycle park patrol rode up. He said please tell people that they need trails clear for emergencies and to spread the message to others. It has actually been a very serious waste of time for him trying to help a person in an emergency who needed medical attention.
You would hope it would trigger something sensible in their minds next time they feel like dragging lumps of wood about.

Can someone link to some more info on the trails affected in Halifax/Brighouse please?

There was an article earlier in the week about a runner nearly standing on a plank adorned with 6″ nails that was hidden under leaf debris. Really difficult to stop it happening, miles of trails and only a few idiots out there, thankfully.

I’d hope that if any culprits are caught, they get done for the most serious offence that will fit, and they get a hefty and well publicised punishment.

Have started to get more logs now on the North Downs near me, no wires, and hopefully none will appear.

There are lots of dog walkers/runners/horse riders all using the same space, I always try and be polite and courteous to other users, slow down when I see dog walkers and say if there are others coming down the trail behind etc. Need to ensure we do not give them any ammunition. Alas, that still may not be good enough for some oiks.

I said this on the FB pages the OP’s incidents appeared on.

I’ve been living in the area now for 13/14 years and have once in that whole time have ever been ‘told off’ for riding where I shouldn’t be (and even then it was a little old lady who by the end of the conversation we were wishing each other a good rest of the weekend).

If these cowards have a problem, step forward and confront a rider about it. Put up a notice pointing out its not for bikes. Contact the landowner. Contac the ROW people at the council.

No, I’ll be a snivelling little piece of sh*t and put logs/rocks/wire across trails whilst its quiet to teach “them” a lesson.

https://m.facebook.com/calderdaletrails/

Has picks of what we’re talking about scapegoat

Same Dave. Only issues I’ve ever had are on the canal

The area in question “suffers” from a dearth of legal riding, but the cheeky stuff is well ridden and mostly well tolerated. Until recently it seems….

I think we do need to start riding more selectively. I’ve had a couple of run ins recently, and if I’m totally honest they were probably caused by riding inappropriately. High speed runs down through the local woods on summer evening, whilst great fun, are very likely to come in to contact with other users and so cause distress. A lot of the local tracks don’t have great visibility in their entirety (which is what makes them fun…), again making it more possible to have an encounter. I have never heard of an incident of ANYONE being hurt by anyone on a bike though.

We need to be whiter than white, at least for now anyway. Turn off strava and just go for a ride maybe 🙂

I think for people just blocking trails with logs etc, the best thing to do if you catch them is to try to discuss things with them, rather than reinforcing their ideas about cyclists/MTBers. We caught an old boy doing this once, and just chatted to him about why it’s silly to create conflict. He grudgingly accepted we had a right to be there as much as him, and that not all MTBers are arseholes, and hopefully dissuaded him from doing similar again, but who knows. A friend once flattened a right tosser who he caught dragging a huge log across a bit of trail, but that was because the bloke got very aggressive and threatened him with a big stick. I don’t think that incident did much to engender good relations. 🙁

Wire strung across trails should be treated as attempted murder, because such actions can and have killed people. The message should be that such actions are potentially deadly, and carry an appropriate sentance/deterrent.

Good shout woody2000…..

Agreed woody, Ive said this for ages. Strava will be the death of tolerated trails imo as people strive for faster times at all costs.

Andy – may be we should try spread that message through our respective FB pages?

agreed, although ive come under criticism before for telling people what to do when we had groups of folks wandering all over the middle of the road on a group ride.

Not 100% sure how to go about it tbh.

that said i have a “friend” who might be able to get a few things laminated at his cost to pop up where we are seeing the majority of issues if we could agree on a nice, non confrontational, way of going about it.