[pct-l] Document and report illegal MB's on the PCT

[Barry Teschlog]

Scott Iceberg wrote:

"What action do you expect to be the result of taking pictures and reporting mb'ers?"

Reply (to hikers and equestrians, not trolls, on why reporting these scofflaws and documenting the damage they do is important):

Simple.  If the Law knows where the scofflaws are, the Law will know where to focus their limited enforcement resources.  A pattern may be evident with enough reports - as in the MTBers tend to go to a certain area on certain days of the week, or tend to go here and not there.  YOUR report to the PCTA or Forest Service may be the final piece of the puzzle that lets the Law wield her sword of justice on these scofflaws.  Pictures and video also will document WHO is doing the deed - get nice clear shots of their faces, jerseys, bikes, etc.  You're collecting unimpeachable evidence of a crime.  Your pictures and video also record the destruction that is being done to the public lands.

On one of my local hiking areas, Tiger Mountain (just east of Seattle) the scum MTBers like to poach some of the hiker or hiker and equestrian only trails.  Never mind that there are MTB trails just for them on part of the mountain, but they feel entitled to rip up the hiker trails as well - cutting switchbacks, digging holes in the trails with the high pressure tires in soft ground, rutting the trail, churning it to mud, sending silt into salmon spawning streams, etc.  

In any event, the GF and I had an encounter with a dozen of 'em a few months back.  After I got home, I called it into the land manager, who hadn't been aware of the poaching going on at that location.  He appreciated the dozens of pictures of the damage I sent him.  He had to spend thousands in public monies diverting his understaffed field crew from higher priority areas to do remedial repairs on the damaged trail to prevent further erosion.  Of course, the local Seattle area MTB club / advocacy group, Evergreen, didn't do squat to fix the mess their constituency made - they just left the mess for the pubic crews to clean up, or the hiker volunteer trail crews.  Yup....gotta love that sense of stewardship from the MTB clown college crowd - if they actually cared about taking care of the public lands, Evergreen would have jumped to get THEIR volunteers up there to fix it.

Knowing where the criminal MTBers were entering and exiting the trails (based on the tracks), it was pretty easy to deduce their access points after taking it over with the land manager.  I now have the phone number of the law enforcement ranger for that area.  Next time I encounter the poachers, I'll phone 'em in and there is a fair chance Johnny Law Enforcement Ranger will be waiting there at the exit point with his badge and gun to cite or arrest each and every one of them.

Also - it was a fun encounter when the most militant of this batch (typical for thug MTBers) threatened me and the GF with violence for calling them on their illegality.  He also stated we should be grateful that he didn't simply run us down.  I may as well be grateful that a thief didn't break into my  home and steal from me.  One has to LOVE the MTBer "logic".  Hikers & equestrians - this is par for the course with these MTBer thugs who poach closed trails, PCT and otherwise.

And Ernie - I call 'em like I see 'em.  Jerk's are jerks, losers are losers, clowns are clowns, scum is scum, thugs are thugs.  MTBers who poach trails that are closed to them EARN these adjectives and more by their actions in laying waste to our public lands (and threatening to kick my ass when I call 'em on it).