[pct-l] Bikes on PCT- enforcement NEEDED

[Jim & Jane Moody]

I'm not a lawyer, but I used to play one on TV (live City Council meetings, actually).  What you are referring to is "adverse possession", wherein someone gains a right to land based on the unchallenged use of it for a long time.  A typical situation might be a driveway across someone else's property that non-owners use to gain access to someplace else (say a lake or park) for many years, and where the property is not posted as "private - no trespassing".  Since riding bikes on the PCT is illegal and signed thusly, I can't imagine that simply violating a law without being caught somehow would cause that law to become void.  If I drive faster than the speed limit for a year then get caught, I won't get far with the defense that "I've done it for a full year and nobody made me stop." 



"Grandfather clause" describes an activity that was legal and ongoing, then became nonconforming after passage of an amendment to a law or regulation.  Here's an example - your house is 10 ft from the rear property line, which was the requirement when it was built.  Years later the City Council decides that the rear yard setback should be 20 ft and passes a zoning ordinance amendment to that effect.  Your house now does not conform to the Zoning Code, but you are protected against having to tear down and rebuild. 



By the way, if anybody needs an overpriced planning & zoning consultant before hiking starts back, let me know. 



Mango 



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Edward Anderson" <mendoridered at yahoo.com> 
To: pct-l at backcountry.net 
Sent: Wednesday, November 3, 2010 5:30:38 PM 
Subject: [pct-l] Bikes on PCT- enforcement NEEDED 

Hi All, 

We all agree that mountain bikes on the PCT are a serious safety hazard for 
other users, that their wheel tracks create channels for water to run down 
causing deepening ruts and erosion, and that, by law, they are not allowed 
either on the PCT or in wilderness areas. We who use the PCT, even though 
wheeled vehicles are unlawful, often meet them on the trail.  There are more of 
these confrontations every year.  Since there is no enforcement of the ban, and 
the word is getting out among mountain bikers (and motorcycle users) that they 
can go ahead and ride on the trail without consequence, we can expect that this 
problem will become greater each year.  And, as we have now become aware, they 
will be pushing to see the law changed so that the PCT and wilderness areas be 
open to wheeled vehicles.  So long as there is no enforcement, and all we do is 
deprecate their sometimes very rude, unsafe, and destructive behavior, their 
numbers will increase.  Here is a question for the lawyers on this forum: If 
illegal trespassing on the PCT is tolerated and it goes on for long enough, is 
there a time when the "grandfather clause" might apply?