[pct-l] Illegal Mountain Biking on the PCT - Now in video form

[Maxine Weyant]

A few things come to mind watching parts of these videos.  One is that the trail erosion is very deep, on the uphill parts and the bottoms of the downhill sections the trail tread is about 1-2 feet below the top of the "sidewalls".  Yes there are also deep ruts in the center but the entire width of the trail is eroded pretty deeply in some sections.  (see the Hesperia, CA videos--once they're off the actual roads.)  
The last video, not filmed on the PCT, shows numerous diagonal and perpendicular side-trails, also common around heavily used Mt Bike trails.
Also in the last video, (described as "not the rider's fault") shows a MTBiker soaring down lots of hills and popping over a hill and colliding with someone.  The camera is fixed to the biker so you just see him careening down, hitting the person and then continuing down the trail and wiping out. If you read the comments below the video, the poster is saying he'd hit a hiker mom.  The next post is from someone who says it serves "the bitch right" for being where she was at the bottom of the hill.  The 1st poster notes that she was actually bending down to pick up her child, and that he had hit him too.   
I'm really not trying to fuel the flames here, and I know that only a small proportion of MTBer's are like this, but if even only 5% of the cyclists that could end up on the PCT were like this, it would be disastrous, and wrong on so many levels.   Dys-feng shui-nal
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A few MTB riders have recorded their illegal PCT rides and put them on YouTube.  Especially with the first two videos, they know what they are doing is illegal.  If anyone contacting the authorites needs videos and finds the videos deleted, I have screenshots and hi-res downloads of each video too. 

BLT to Pioneer Mail (this one is blatant)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQWe3NcmplE

PCT Riding near Ashland:
"A quick Sunday poach of the PCT"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILEhluMbhPE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujTVanzKrWg

PCT Riding near Hesperia, CA:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpTt0Ij3c9A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCmtJEG2Am4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3SOSdD5T6I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-z0YIWyjohE

PCT Between highway 173 and Silverwood:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUcdEee_70g

Furthermore, although these are not on the PCT, you can see how ridiculous the notion of "multi-use" trails are:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhuhodTbUds

(Although this one isn't the rider's fault obviously, this collision could have just as easily been a hiker on a blind corner or bottom of an incline)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTHUQlZrxBI


Craig