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UCSC shut down

Icantdrive65

Monkey
Mar 21, 2005
609
1
Chinquapin fire road
Two rangers pulled into the Rincon parking lot today and started putting fliers on all of the cars and writing down license plate numbers. They said there are a bunch of illegal trails in Henry Cowell between UCSC and Hwy 9. They have not been enforcing the no bikes policy because they have not been staffed well enough. Now they have enough people to take care of this area. Amazing that they have more people on staff since California has no money.:busted:

So they are going to start citing anybody on bikes that they see entering or leaving HC property.

It's over folks.

Of course, the real deal is that it's easy money for the state.
 
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RUFUS

e-douche of the year
Dec 1, 2006
3,480
1
Denver, CO
Help support your states economy and ride there as much as you can, it will only help.

Sucks to hear though.
 

Icantdrive65

Monkey
Mar 21, 2005
609
1
Chinquapin fire road
Yeah. I was wondering if we could work out a deal where you can prepay 10 tickets at a discount rate. Maybe just carry some coupons so when a ranger stops you, give him one and continue with your ride. Or a reusable card that they can scan and you refill it when it runs out.
 

Prettym1k3

Turbo Monkey
Aug 21, 2006
2,864
0
In your pants
Whoa whoa whoa... Good portions of certain trails are completely legal for bicycles. How are they just going to cite anyone who they see? Who's to say where those people are even going?
 

wood booger

Monkey
Jul 16, 2008
668
72
the land of cheap beer
Whoa whoa whoa... Good portions of certain trails are completely legal for bicycles. How are they just going to cite anyone who they see? Who's to say where those people are even going?
Agreed, and I am aware of only 1 no-bikes sign anywhere up there.

Don't shuttle w/ a vehicle, don't be a douch, and don't pop out anywhere you shouldn't be.

On second thought, never mind. The trails suck there anyway, just don't ride it anymore.

I can't wait till some soccer moms get busted shuttling their 15 year olds!
 

Total Heckler

Beer and Bike Enthusiast
Apr 28, 2005
8,171
189
Santa Cruz, CA
The Ucon trail is completely legal. They cannot give tickets for people using that. And all that AWESOME fire road. Take that rangers.

Bummed.
 

Prettym1k3

Turbo Monkey
Aug 21, 2006
2,864
0
In your pants
More importantly, if you're going to ride that AWESOME single-track up to the top (Rincon?), and down that awesome DH style fireroad... RIDE IT. Stop shuttling!

It's cheating anyway. ;)
 

sanjuro

Tube Smuggler
Sep 13, 2004
17,373
0
SF
I said this on mtbr. If the rangers are not going to support the bike community, then in this economy, it is time to get rid of the rangers.

Think it will be a hard sell with a 42 billion dollar deficit?
 

black noise

Turbo Monkey
Dec 31, 2004
1,032
0
Santa Cruz
Rangers have had periodic crackdowns on UCSC every year. They even had a mailboxes crackdown a few years ago. The trails will be there.
 

MDJ

Monkey
Dec 15, 2005
669
0
San Jose, CA
If there's an upside to this, at least the trails will become less crowded. I've never seen the parking lot/road more crowded than it was Sunday at noon. There are a lot of people that I talk to that have just recently discovered these trails and are bringing others who had never been there. It is probably a good time for a crackdown or it would only get more crowded. Oh well, Demo is going to be full in two weeks.
 

Prettym1k3

Turbo Monkey
Aug 21, 2006
2,864
0
In your pants
I believe this could be their usual scare tactics. I have the ranger's phone number and email address, and plan on ringing him today to talk things over. Not to mention that with the State as broke as a joke, the LAST thing they would have done is hire more rangers... although, the politicians running this State aren't the brightest crayons, so who knows.

There is also a Trail Meeting at SeaSide Brewery in Santa Cruz on Monday night at 7:00pm.

I'll be there. It'd be good to hang out with some of you, but more importantly, we need a plan of action for where this trail-closure is heading.
 

Raacerx

Monkey
Finally...

I'm sorry, but I am glad this is happening. Time the idiots stopped riding here. Maybe they will crack down on Zs if I am lucky, but I guess I am an asshole. I liked the UC a lot better 6 years ago... Maybe I am just senile at 25...
 
Apr 4, 2008
53
0
Santa Cruz, CA
I think we as riders got careless. In the not too recent past you wouldn’t park at the drop out point because it would be obvious you where riding the illegal trails. If you where shuttling everyone was careful to swing by quickly when their riders where at the bottom jump in and get out of there to not draw too much attention, and on many rides we would not even drop out onto the road but would favor riding or hiking back up to the top getting on the fire road and then popping out somewhere legal. With the lack of enforcement we have all gotten lazy and have not followed our good practices. I have been seeing a tone of cars in all the pullouts near the illegal dropouts, people standing around drinking beer while waiting for their riders to drop out. An almost endless stream of people dropping out of the illegal trails, and very few people even trying to be discreet. We are getting the crackdown because we got lazy. Let’s make an effort to observe all those good practices we used to adhere to and things will likely blow over in a little while.
 

Charlieluke

Chimp
Aug 11, 2008
5
0
Riders have gotten too brazen about flaunting trails that really are not supposed to be there. I've seen numerous "kids" bomb out into HWY 9 in front of traffic. Aside from getting killed and ruining some driver's day that kind of flagrant disregard for everyone else has certainly contributed to pressure on the Park Rangers to stop the illegal trail use. I'm bummed about this but not supprised. By the way the tickets are not a bluff. I got one on mailbox in December and the Ranger basically said enforcement was going to be stepped up.
 

Icantdrive65

Monkey
Mar 21, 2005
609
1
Chinquapin fire road
Let's start by not riding these illegal trails anymore.

Tell your friends.
This is it. We have lots of other places to ride for now. I will miss UCSC because it is between my home and my shop, so it is my local trail collection. But I can still go through to Wilder/Graywhale and I suppose I could drive to Nisene, but I have managed to almost completely avoid Hwy 1 since I moved my shop out of Watsonville.

Please do like Josh said and tell your friends that UC riding is over, at least for now.
 

1453

Monkey
sigh.

I have been riding UC since the mid 90s on my rigid bike and even when I was rocking an 8-inch bike I rode up campus roads to get there, in 15 years I only shuttled twice and both times we were dropped off at umpire grade entrance.

I noticed that once the trails became internet sensations hordes of people with over-the-hill plates were racing up and down hwy 9 with bikes hanging out the back. And ome of these same people I see gave no courtesy to hikers.
 

Prettym1k3

Turbo Monkey
Aug 21, 2006
2,864
0
In your pants
Well, its all real now...

Dozers are on Z's as I type this. 2 buddies of mine just got $500 tickets.

We have all been warned.
Curious how the maximum penalty is just over $400, but your friends got $500 citations. :clue:

I'd be interested to know what code sections they were caught violating.

Can you get that information to me?
 

jmeperu

Monkey
Jan 20, 2005
138
0
Santa Cruz
z's is still there. i had to see it with my own eyes to believe it.
but i called the ranger station in felton and the ranger said they have hired 25, yeah twenty-frickin-five rangers to patroll ucsc. meanwhile i have a state tax IOU. :crazy:

i asked what they are going to do and they said patrol and remove any man made structures. and the 2 guys that got tickets were 250 each. totaling 500 bux.


we should organize some sort of critical mass ride in ucsc, that should help us. haha, not.
 

Lucee

govenor
Jan 16, 2002
284
0
nor cal
All this complainin' on a website...how many of you showed up for the MBOSC meeting? BTW--kudos, Mike for getting out there.

There are many factors contributing to this crackdown--degradation of sensitive habitat, people getting run over after popping out of the poopshoot, litter, people from all over the world hitting these trails, and previously allocated funds for these positions that have been vacant for years.

We got to work together on this--join MBOSC, go to the meetings and contribute. Policy doesn't change on its own--we've got to use our voices and get the State Parks to work with us. If any of you are on facebook, join the MBOSC group, there too.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?sid=94b1901929ff397cc1dc9f2ddbed86ce&gid=55183526625

We can find a solution, but we have to be willing to work on it, in conjunction with State Parks.

I hope to see you all at the next meeting!
 

GiantRider

Monkey
Mar 6, 2002
589
0
Nor. Ca. Santa Cruz ,Mang
I dont see much complainin' here, I think you have us confused with MTBR,although thats all they ever really do anyway.UC is done ,let it go, we will proly never ride there again, there are plenty of other places to ride around here.
 

igz-

Monkey
Nov 30, 2008
265
0
Santa Cruz
There are just too many stupid douche bags out there that come to UCSC. Just the other week I saw some dumb mother ****ers in a white Chevy S10 racing up and down Toll House.

SLOW THE **** DOWN YOU IDIOTS
 

blue

boob hater
Jan 24, 2004
10,160
2
california
It didn't help that there were pro teams in giant Sprinter vans shuttling Empire/9 day in and out...

I think maybe we should get on some of these teams sponsors (I'm looking at you, Speshy and Yeti) to help us/MBOSC with advocacy since they're partially responsible for drawing so much heat from authorities in the area.
 
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1453

Monkey
It didn't help that there were pro teams in giant Sprinter vans shuttling Empire/9 day in and out...
I wish they were all discrete enough as to go up in vans.

A month or so ago I was driving to Loch Lomond and saw three trucks going up HY 9 with 6 bikes each hanging out the tailgate, identical bikes with identical setup. All had Boxxer WCs.

Even the most stoned UCSC freshman could figure out what was going on.:crazy:

I couldn't make the meeting but I had having everyone I know in town making calls.
 

HarryCallahan

Monkey
Sep 29, 2004
229
0
SC mtns
Hey folks,
I went to the MBOSC meeting. According to the ranger, there was more to it than the shuttles, although they didn't help.

State Parks had gotten complaints about bikes popping out onto the highway.

He mentioned that he likes to know what's going on, so he gets out in the field, and doesn't just stay in the office or drive around.

Although he had worked at Cowell less than a year, he'd already been on two rescues in the area and seen plenty of stuff.

He mentioned this internet thing and all the movies folks have posted of various trails.

HC
 

bdamschen

Turbo Monkey
Nov 28, 2005
3,377
156
Spreckels, CA
It's funny that these trails are so popular to ride that everyone even knows the trails by name. Think about how some of these trails are named- none of them have GPS coordinants or directions in them (except for maybe one that I can think of), yet people freak out when you mention them by name. They are so freakin popular and so many people ride them that everyone including non locals know what you're talking about.

I don't really get the whole concept behind critical mass, but it sounds to me like we're pretty much there. Heaven forbid that there are videos of people riding there, or that people openly drive trucks up the highway with bikes hanging out of the back, or that pro teams ride there. Everyone already knows what's up and trying to cleverly disguise names of trails by phonetically writting them out in forums or not tagging your videos doesn't really matter.

No disrespect to the ranger, but it shouldn't take very much detective work to figure out what's going on and it's not because people are not being careful with what they're doing. It's because these trails are sweet and there's a crapload of people out there riding all the time. Hiding that would be like trying to have a party downstairs while your parents are sleeping upstairs. It doesn't matter how careful everyone is, just having that many people there is going to make SOME noise.

So what's the expectation with this crackdown? People are going to stop riding there? I wonder where this huge mass of people is expected to go? Maybe to the legal downhill trails on the other side of town? Oh wait, there aren't any. Maybe everyone will just stay at home, drink beer and watch saturday morning cartoons instead.

Enforcement of the existing laws is not a good long term solution to the problems of errosion, shuttling and riders freaking out drivers on highway 9. Legalizing trails, working with existing riding groups (be it large companies that use these trails for testing or local clubs) to maintain the area, depening on users to help police their own along with rangers and installing infrastructure to create a more workable existance with the local population and envrionment are solutions to the problem. I'm rooting for MBOSC to help local officals see that light.
 
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Prettym1k3

Turbo Monkey
Aug 21, 2006
2,864
0
In your pants
It's funny that these trails are so popular to ride that everyone even knows the trails by name. Think about how some of these trails are named- none of them have GPS coordinants or directions in them (except for maybe one that I can think of), yet people freak out when you mention them by name. They are so freakin popular and so many people ride them that everyone including non locals know what you're talking about.......
The thing MBOSC needs the most is people to show up to meetings with City Council, etc. The California Government doesn't believe enough people want this land open. That's the main problem.

On a side note, now's the time to get these places open. Mainly because the trails already exist, and are already monitored by rangers, and have lots of documentation about where plant life/wild life needs saving, and where it doesn't. The faster and harder we fight now, the better.

And I talked with one of the brothers at Gamut. He's down to help out, and he talked to either RideSFO or SF Dirt Lab and they're down to help also.

We're increasing in numbers quickly.

-Mike