From the Idaho Panhandle

Mountain Bike Access Threatened by Cyclists’ Own Cars

By Cate Huisman, 5-14-10

	The author cycling at Canuck Pass. She drove to this trailhead, but she doesn't drive to the trailheads west of Sandpoint.

A common kernel of self-knowledge here is that we all want Bonner County to be the way it was when we arrived, either from some distant origin or by being born here. We know we need development because it brings us jobs and money, but we don’t want change. We want to be able to continue to do what we always have done, where we always have done it.

In a specific local instance of this issue, mountain bikers want to park their cars where they’ve become accustomed to parking them. They’ve been taking advantage for years of de facto public access to the hills west of town, where a growing network of trails threads through a lot of privately owned but sparsely occupied land. And they’ve parked their cars where the trails intersected with roads.

Occupation of this land is increasing, however, and owners are not necessarily comfortable with the two-wheeled trespassers. One access point was lost several years ago when distant owners built a fence, reputedly to reflect concern that passing cyclists would sue them if a cyclist were hurt on their land. Last summer another access point disappeared as an owner figured the absence of cyclists would help to sell the vacant lot through which the cyclists had been passing.

In response, the Pend Oreille Pedalers bicycle club was formed several years ago, and it has been doing an admirable job since of securing legitimate access for cyclists (hikers and horseback riders also benefit), as well as constructing and maintaining trails, and rerouting them as necessary if landowners request. An ongoing bugbear has been parking for the cars of cyclists accessing the trails, and it is about to come to a head.

Before the land was occupied as it is now, cyclists could park their cars along the road where the trails took off, and no one was around to mind. Now, owners are starting to be around to mind. The PO Pedalers have encouraged their members for years to park in the lots for public parks at the base of the hills, but this requires them to ride uphill a mile or so on pavement.

Apparently, an annoying number have been reluctant to do so. Landowners have begun to complain that cyclists are parking along roads where parking is specifically disallowed. If too many such vehicles are parked too long or too often at trailheads, we could lose access to those trailheads, and possibly even to the trails behind them.

The Pedalers have re-upped their exhortations to their members to park at the bottom and make the short ride up the pavement, and no doubt many will comply. But how they are to convey their concerns to non-members and to our many out-of-area visitors is an open question. We need to do whatever it takes—posting signs, towing offending cars, making sure trail maps show areas off limits to parking—to make sure that all cyclists, not just club members, obey the injunctions.

The development hiatus provided by the current recession will end, and more people will want to develop their land. We’ll have our hands full just maintaining the access we have, and we can’t risk losing any more.

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