Hey everybody,
King County Parks found some unauthorized freeride trails at Raven Hill near Soaring Eagle Park in Sammamish a few weeks ago. Lots of jumps and structures -- with a few nailed to live trees. They were pretty upset because this is a reserved natural area next to a retention pond system and it was pretty heavily impacted. They started tearing everything down right away and because of the estimated cost to repair the damage, at least $10,000, they filed a case with the King County Sheriff's department. A deputy came onsite, assessed the situation and took all the tools into evidence.
At that point King County Parks approached Evergreen about the incident and we recommended a solution that would avoid involving the legal system. The county agreed so we'd like to see if the builders will come forward, work with us to clean up the mess, and do some legitimate trail work at Duthie (or Tiger, Soaring Eagle, Grand Ridge). This is a good solution to an unfortunate situation and will help show that mountain bikers support legitimate trails and are trustworthy partners.
Builders: Please contact me and let's get started. Evergreen wants to help and by working together we can build more legitimate trails that will last forever! That includes freeride stuff and some serious elevation drop. Theres opportunity out there and lots more on the horizon, but rogue building really does jeopardize that.
Everybody: if you know anyone who used to ride or build there, please forward this message on to them. Urge them to contact me.
No judgement or hand slapping. Let's just clean up the area and do some legitimate trail work... it's really going to be needed after that record dry spell... and rain is coming!!
Thanks,
Mike Westra
Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance
cell: 425-241-7806
email: mwestra@evergreenmtb.org
King County Parks found some unauthorized freeride trails at Raven Hill near Soaring Eagle Park in Sammamish a few weeks ago. Lots of jumps and structures -- with a few nailed to live trees. They were pretty upset because this is a reserved natural area next to a retention pond system and it was pretty heavily impacted. They started tearing everything down right away and because of the estimated cost to repair the damage, at least $10,000, they filed a case with the King County Sheriff's department. A deputy came onsite, assessed the situation and took all the tools into evidence.
At that point King County Parks approached Evergreen about the incident and we recommended a solution that would avoid involving the legal system. The county agreed so we'd like to see if the builders will come forward, work with us to clean up the mess, and do some legitimate trail work at Duthie (or Tiger, Soaring Eagle, Grand Ridge). This is a good solution to an unfortunate situation and will help show that mountain bikers support legitimate trails and are trustworthy partners.
Builders: Please contact me and let's get started. Evergreen wants to help and by working together we can build more legitimate trails that will last forever! That includes freeride stuff and some serious elevation drop. Theres opportunity out there and lots more on the horizon, but rogue building really does jeopardize that.
Everybody: if you know anyone who used to ride or build there, please forward this message on to them. Urge them to contact me.
No judgement or hand slapping. Let's just clean up the area and do some legitimate trail work... it's really going to be needed after that record dry spell... and rain is coming!!
Thanks,
Mike Westra
Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance
cell: 425-241-7806
email: mwestra@evergreenmtb.org