Possible bike ban at Nisene, SDF

Brian HCM#1 · Oct 26, 2004

Thats just so F'ed up. I hate the Sierra club. :dead:

poguemothoin · Oct 26, 2004

You can contact Sandy Henn directly, she is behind the lawsuit, and listed in the lawsuit:

Contact Sandy Henn, ixnae@aol.com or 831 662-2843

bikenweed · Oct 26, 2004

Be sure that if you do call her, be very nice and extremely polite. I have been riding Demo and Nisene since 1997, and don't plan on stopping any time soon. My parents live less than four miles from Demo, and would hate to see Nisene get shut down due to angry riders yelling at some short-sighted Sierra Clubber. So if you do call, be as nice as possible, and PLEASE don't make the situation worse. Don't turn this into a www.safetrails.net sort of fiasco. Peace.

Damn True · Oct 29, 2004

More stuff:
Subject: Help Keep Nisene (and upper Demo access) Legal to Ride!

As some of you are already aware, a recent court ruling interpreted the
original Marks deed to not include mtn bikes ANYWHERE in Nisene Marks park -
not even the Aptos Creek fire road. This means the standard route into Demo
from the bridge and upper Buzzard Lagoon becomes illegal when you make that
right hand turn on to Aptos Creek fire road. (Note: Legal Demo access could
still be obtained by dropping down Hihns Mill from the dirt lot and climbing
to the ridge via any Demo trail, but you miss some sweet upper Ridge single
track!) This also means that all the hard work to open "appropriate" single
track in Nisene (on the Aptos side) has taken a huge step in the wrong
direction!

Information on how to help is below. Also attached are a couple relevant
links, including chatter about this whole thing on MTBR.

Feel free to forward this to friends and write a letter if you can!

Thanks,
J

----------------------------------------

Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz and other concerned individuals are urging
State Parks to appeal this ruling. We believe that the Court of Appeals will
enforce California's statutes, find the power of termination and related
restriction to have expired, and therefore reverse Judge Hersher's decision.
If successful on appeal, State Parks will be allowed to proceed with its
General Plan and allow mountain biking in Nisene Marks on fire roads and on
appropriate single track. The importance of this appeal cannot be over
emphasized.
It is important that we let the folks at State Parks know that we want them
to appeal Judge Hersher's ruling. You can write letters or e-mail:

David Vincent, Superintendent of the Santa Cruz District
Department of Parks and Recreation
Santa Cruz District
303 Big Trees Park Road
Felton, CA 95018
<http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=54744>
<http://www.mbosc.org>

Damn True · Oct 29, 2004

Brian HCM#1 said:
Thats just so F'ed up. I hate the Sierra club.

Ditto.
Hippies, I hate Hippies. All they do is sit around in trees and smoke weed.
Hippies suck!!!!!!!! It's just that simple.
Yeah!!!!! Hippies and terrorists are the samething.

scurban · Oct 29, 2004

man, I hate having to drive all the way up old san jose rd to get to the Demo forest, Its much easier to ride up the fire rd since I live 3 miles from the lower enternce to N. Marks state park. You know, when I was a kid, I used to ride my Honda XR 100 all over that park, the rangers didn't even care, in fact, most of them knew me. Then the Earth Quake hit. The epicenter really put that place on the map, the amount of traffic the started going there after the earth quake was amazing! It was pretty funny, I rode my XR up there with my Dad, (he was on a trail 90) the weekend before the Earthquake, and we even stopped and talked with the rangers for a while, we rode all the way up to Sand Point, it was a lot of fun. Later on thanksgiving, a friend and I decided to go ride up there, not more then a month following the Big Quake, and seeminly out of no where Hikers were yelling at us, and telling me that the Rangers (who a month previously could of cared less that we were riding up there) were going to hang me. One guy even tried to punch me? ......................... Now look at the place, they're trying to ban MTB's? what the hell? Having grown up in Aptos, and having N.M. basicly in my back yard, I have to say, things have gotten way out of control. I know its a state funded park and all, but where the hell did all these people come from? I really miss the good old days in Aptos before all the naturalists from god only know where came in and started telling us what to do. Its hard to not feel synical, I remember a time when you'd be lucky to come across two or three people total on a weekend in Nisene! Now you can't even ride up the lower part of the fire road with out nearly getting run over by some a$$hole in an SUV.
This is horrible news!

Damn True · Oct 29, 2004

The jacked up part is that bikes are only "allowed" in the lower portion that is within walking distance of the trailhead for the majority of users. Bikes are NOT allowed in the parts of the park that most people don't use (except for equestrians....get it?). So we cram the two user groups who have the most conflict and represent the VAST majority of users into the smallest area and leave the remainder of the park for equestrians (the smallest user group) to ride by themselves.

scurban · Oct 29, 2004

Damn True said:
The jacked up part is that bikes are only "allowed" in the lower portion that is within walking distance of the trailhead for the majority of users. Bikes are NOT allowed in the parts of the park that most people don't use (except for equestrians....get it?). So we cram the two user groups who have the most conflict and represent the VAST majority of users into the smallest area and leave the remainder of the park for equestrians (the smallest user group) to ride by themselves.

I've never understood that??????? Its very rarely that I see anyone on a horse, or even on foot up in the upper portion of the park. It just doesn't make sense.

dhtahoe · Nov 7, 2004

I love CA... A trail that I got myself into a little political battle over a few years ago over erosion just got turned into 240 condos. No erosion caused there!!!

bikenweed · Nov 7, 2004

So if I'm understanding this correctly, I need to send a letter to Dave Vincent, asking that bikes not be banned from Highland until the steel gate near the top? Or should the letter be more general, about the whole situation? I know Buzzard Lagoon road continues down to Eureka Canyon, and most mountain bikers go right at the intersection about halfway up, near the Nisene Marks sign. If Buzzard is part of this debate, are the going to close it to cars? Or is this threatened fire road just the connecter from Buzzard up to the gate? It seems like biking from the gate up to the lookout at Ridge Trail is now mandated for no bikes. However, I'm not sure which part of the lower fire road will be closed.

I'm going to invest in some stamps tomorrow, so let me know! Thanks guys.

WaveDude · Nov 8, 2004

Here's the info for letter writing in case you haven't found it yet:

dvinc@parks.ca.gov

David Vincent, Superintendent of the Santa Cruz District
Department of Parks and Recreation
Santa Cruz District
303 Big Trees Park Road
Felton, CA 95018

goin' medium · Nov 10, 2004

The people at Fox have stepped up and printed some T-shirts to raise funding for the legal defense fund. They also have a generic letter you can send in case you ain't good with writin'.

http://www.foxracingshox.com/ftt/

Buy shirts, give money, write letters.

GiantRider · Nov 17, 2004

I bought my shirt and sent my letter.Hope it does some good.

Possible bike ban at Nisene, SDF

Monkey

MMMMMMMMM BEER!!!!!!!!!!

Chimp

Turbo Monkey

Monkey

Monkey Pimp

Monkey Pimp

Turbo Monkey

Monkey Pimp

Turbo Monkey

Monkey

Monkey

Monkey

I LOVE NORBA!!!!

Turbo Monkey

Monkey

Chimp

Chimp

Monkey

Monkey

Monkey