Illegal trails cropping up in Lake Tahoe Basin
By Kathryn Reed
A new bike trail is going in at Carnelian Bay. Trees are being felled, berms created and gap jumps installed.
And whoever is creating this trail on U.S. Forest Service property could wind up in jail and having to pay a fine.
Cultural resources like these were unearthed in the process of creating this unauthorized trail on the South Shore several years ago. Photos/Provided
“When we have to obliterate unauthorized trails, it takes crews away from building other projects,” Cheva Heck, USFS spokeswoman, told Lake Tahoe News.
This is one of a few trails that has been discovered this summer in the Lake Tahoe Basin. Others are near Tahoma and Cave Rock. The Carnelian Bay trail is the most destructive because trees have been cut down. It was about a half mile long when crews discovered it.
While the feds don’t have any suspects at this time, surveillance has been set up.
“I would rather have the Forest Service spend its limited trail budget on new trails than destroying illegal trails that are perhaps causing resource damage,” Kevin Joell, president of Tahoe Area Mountain Bike Association, told Lake Tahoe News.
TAMBA has been working with the Forest Service to create trails throughout the Lake Tahoe Basin. While working through the government process can take time, the end result is a trail built to current standards that takes safety and other issues into consideration.
“If someone has the energy to build trails, if we can harness that, we can talk to them on a peer level to find out what they want and explain what it would take to do it legally,” Joell said.
Illegal trails are not built to safety or other standards.
The problem with illegal trails is that they can cause erosion problems, disturb cultural resources and not be safe.
The illegal trails are often built near an existing trail but do not directly tie into it. This is so it won’t be detected so easily. It’s by word of mouth that the illegal trail is discovered. It might require carrying a bike or a bit of cross country.
“We want people to work with us if they want to make trails,” Heck said.
speaking of erosion problems, it seems since the forest service-conceived restructuring of the trail system between gardiner mountain and fallen leaf lake, that horseback riding has become by default commonplace on the last few un-eroded single track paths in this area. i rejoice that we all have access to these public trails, but please, horse people, realize that these last few trails will soon be duffed-out roads if you continue use on them. there exist plenty of already horse-impacted trails for you to travel.
Its long off but maybe someday there will be enough lift accessed single track and slope style features in the area that the need to build your own becomes pointless.
“Illegal trails”? Was the Oregon Trail legal or illegal?
there are some guys out there who put allot of time and effort into Flow Tracks, or down hill trails. (And they are very secretive as to location)
I was not aware of this one. Looks like it was getting quite a bit of use.
With the equipment available now for MTB there really is not much out there that is legal. There is North Star where you would have to drive and pay.
dumfounded, the Oregon Trail was legal as there were not laws that prohibited it. There are laws that prohibit the creation of MTB trails without going through the proper process. Pretty clear.
Rick
Forest Service Property. (Tax payer Property.) You mean people that stand around and pile up wood to burn.So we can breath it in later. They have surveillance. What a joke. Careful they might make the lake brown. Quick call the TRPA:} We need to stop wasting money. on these organizations. You are not changing anything. O ya good job cleaning up the trash out there.
I just noticed the comment in the picture,
(cultural resources)Is that what we are calling old Trash left in the woods from decades ago. An old tin can with a couple bullet holes in it, MUST BE PROTECTED.
I lived in Carnelian Bay for 1 year in 1972? And I plinked at stuff back in the woods with a 22. That could be my cultural resource sitting on that rock. Man I wish they had had Bikes with 27 Speeds and 7 inch suspensions back then!!
“Illegal trails are not built to safety or other standards.” -That is why they build illegal trails because the safety standards make the trails very boring. Mountain biking is not “safe”, so stop trying to make it safe for everyone. When the government starts making everything safe for everyone, the real bikers are going to make their own trails that are actual mountain bike trails with fun features.
Rick, yes. Thank you for clearing that up. However, there was just a bit of sarcasm there. Rhetorical question and all that. My thoughts are that the USFS is not particularly adept at deciding what is right for the forest, or what is wrong with our forests. The recent (but unrelated) story of USFS law enforcement at a Lake Tahoe beach on the 4th of July is yet another example of a lack of understanding of their role. Like the TRPA, they have a dismal record of following their own rules, IMHO.
Cultural resources are anything more than fifty years old. I helped a friend set up some rock quarries out side of Hawthorn. He was forced to build fencing around a pile of old beer and oil cans.
One legal way of building trails. http://youtu.be/OuHl8KZqyJ8