Bicyclists and Hikers Battle Over Access to Mountains Trails : State parks: Only fire roads in the Santa Monica Mountains are open to bikes, a policy that pleases many but infuriates riders.

Several hikers were enjoying a quiet walk in a local state park recently when a man on a bike materialized without warning, swooping around a blind curve on the steep mountain trail. Startled, the hikers hugged the side of the hill as the biker rolled by on the ravine edge of the trail.

The hikers, some of whom worked for the California Department of Parks and Recreation, were angry about the incident. Not only was the rider’s sudden appearance frightening and intrusive--the hikers felt as if the sanctity of their nature outing had been violated--but it was also against the law: Bikes are not allowed on trails in the Santa Monica Mountains.

The rider could not be caught for comment. Had he been, he probably would have offered one of three explanations for his presence: 1) There’s a law? 2) What’s the difference between a fire road and a trail? 3) These are my mountains too.

For the past several years, ever since all-terrain mountain bikes became a popular recreation toy, there’s been trouble in them thar hills, especially in the popular Santa Monica Mountains. Hikers and equestrians, environmentalists and just plain nature lovers have ganged up against the new kids on the mountain, lobbying local state rangers and the National Park Service to restrict bikes to fire roads only.

Hikers call it much-needed segregation to protect them and the environment from what they perceive as menacing two-wheel machines. But bikers say it’s discrimination. “We’re not wild, testosterone-crazed people riding irresponsibly,” said Jim Hasenauer of Van Nuys, a founder of the local Concerned Off-Road Bicyclists Assn.

Created in 1987, CORBA has been trying to gain acceptability and legitimacy for Los Angeles-area bikers, but it has been an uphill ride. The hikers and equestrians, with stronger ties to the land managers and influential environmental groups, have had more clout with decision-makers, Hasenauer said, making the mountain-bike policy in the Santa Monicas traditionally among the most restrictive in the state.

In 1986, local rangers closed all trails to bikes within the 60,000-acre Santa Monica Mountains District--three years before the state adopted a similar no-trail policy for all of its 150 or so mountain parks. Today, responding to backlash from the mountain-bike community, the state is slowly loosening restrictions on bikes, but local rangers are still taking a hard line, Hasenauer said.

“In the Santa Monicas, the state has been incredibly uncooperative, incredibly antagonistic, confrontational and unwelcoming,” he said. “The bicyclists have had to fight for every concession. We’re in worse shape now than in ’86.”

The National Park Service, which oversees 17,000 acres of parkland in the Santa Monicas, also restricts bikes to fire roads. Except for designed wilderness areas in the San Gabriel Mountains, the U. S. Forest Service allows bikes to use its trails, as well as fire roads, in the 1,000-square-mile Angeles National Forest, although there is on-going discussion to keep bikes off certain trails.

Before the bike boom in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, bikers rode trails without restrictions and coexisted with the other users in the Santa Monicas. But all that changed when the number of bikes hit “critical mass,” Hasenauer said, “and the reaction of hikers and equestrians went from pleasant curiosity to concern to ‘We’ve got to stop this problem.’ ”

Hasenauer, a professor of speech communication at Cal State Northridge and a Sierra Club member, has butted heads with Daniel C. Preece, superintendent of the Santa Monica Mountains District, which has under its jurisdiction the major state parks in L.A.: Point Mugu, Malibu Creek and Topanga.

Hasenauer said Preece has not only placed unfair, unwarranted restrictions on bikers but has reneged on promises to open trails to bikes. After the state instructed its 135 district superintendents to do a trail-by-trail analysis to identify which trails should be open to bikes, CORBA gave Preece a wish list of eight trails in the Santa Monicas, including three approved by the Santa Monica Mountains Trail Council: Bent Arrow Trail in Topanga, Guadalasca Trail at Pt. Mugu and Lookout Trail in Malibu Creek. “Preece promised us a compromise,” Hasenauer said. “We thought he’d give us those three trails and maybe throw in another one.”

The state had set up criteria for determining whether trails should be opened for bikes. Among them: if a trail was needed to complete a loop, and if the local mountain-bike community was involved in maintaining trails and educating bikers. CORBA felt all the elements were in place to meet the criteria, but to Hasenauer’s dismay, Preece announced 16 months ago that the district’s policy would not change: Bikes would still be banned from trails.

“Preece characterized it as a compromise,” Hasenauer said. “He told us, ‘We could have closed the fire roads.’ We were outraged that he had the audacity to call a no-change policy a compromise.”

Preece said, “We’ve tried to do what we thought was the right thing. We had our staff walk those trails and study them. They found solid technical reasons in each one that made them inappropriate for bicycles, except for the Guadalasca Trail,” which the private owner of adjacent land did not want opened.

“We feel there are adequate opportunities for bicyclists to enjoy the mountains,” he added. “But the bicyclists don’t see the opportunities they have. They only see the opportunities they’re lacking.”

But CORBA also sees opportunities denied. In the Santa Monica Mountains, the state controls 100 miles of trails (a trail is 60 inches wide) and 50 miles of fire roads (which are wide enough for vehicles), but not all fire roads are open to bikes, “and that’s a big frustration to us,” Hasenauer said.

“There’s a fire road that circles the whole La Jolla Valley, about a six-mile ride around a nature preserve,” he said. “But the state biologist says bicyclists will go riding off through the pastures, so the road is closed to us. That’s ridiculous.”

What also rankles CORBA is that equestrians are allowed to use about 50 miles of trails in the district, even though it’s generally acknowledged that horses do more damage to the trails than bikes, especially after rain.

“Our philosophy is, if a horse can ride that trail, then a bike can,” Hasenauer said.

But Preece said, “Basically, every single trail has some portion of it that makes it inappropriate for bikes, either being extremely steep or narrow or having blind curves.”

While reports of bikers injuring hikers are infrequent, Preece said, bikers are inflicting damage on themselves, perhaps indicating reckless or careless riding. During peak seasons over the past few years, he estimated, bikers average three or four serious accidents a week in local state parks, including some back-country mishaps that require helicopter assistance.

The tight restrictions on bikes, of course, have made the anti-bike crowd happy. “People who don’t want to share trails with bikes,” Preece said, “don’t have to.”

But exactly who are these people? CORBA said it’s mainly the hard-core purists, longtime hikers who don’t want to share. “Some of the traditional users who have made great contributions to the mountains in terms of acquiring and building trails think of them as their trails and we can’t be on them,” Hasenauer said. “They’re used to the mountains being their own private country club. That’s just selfish and unfair.”

Ross Blasman of Newbury Park, head of CORBA’s Mountain Bike Unit, believes that the conflicts between bikers and hikers have been exaggerated. “To the upper echelon within the so-called leadership of the user communities in the mountains, bicycles are a big issue,” he said. “But in the parks, on a day-to-day basis, bicycles are not an issue.”

According to statistics kept by the Mountain Bike Unit--a few dozen riders who patrol in pairs on weekends--there were 12,000 visitors to local state parks from Jan. 1, 1989 to July of last year, 58% of them hikers, 38% bikers, 4% equestrians. But out of the thousands of area cyclists using L.A. area state parks, only 200 are active CORBA members--who follow a strict “cyclist responsibility code.”

And if every biker had CORBA’s values, maybe hikers wouldn’t be so sensitive. But on weekends in every park, it is easy to spot some bikers riding too fast on fire roads and illegally using the trails, sometimes in a dangerous, obnoxious way, clashing with and infuriating hikers.

“Hikers don’t like to be harassed and intimidated,” said Ron Webster, a trail builder and veteran hiker. “One of the most important functions of a state park is providing a place where people can walk around and enjoy nature. It’s not right that someone on a bike should be able to disturb those people and keep them from doing what they’re there for.”

Bikes are so unsettling to hikers, Preece said, “that many people have stopped coming to the park because of them.” Preece, however, can only support his assertion with anecdotal evidence: “I’ve been told this by people,” he said. “They used to bring a group once a month or once a week to hike but don’t any more because of mountain bikes.”

With a limited staff, Preece doesn’t place a high priority on catching trail-using bikers--he estimated that only 25 have received citations in the last two years. The violation is a misdemeanor, but it is not very likely, Preece said, that a violator will receive the maximum penalty required by state law: up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Some individuals in the anti-bike faction, however, don’t think the state is going far enough. They would like to see a 5-m.p.h. speed limit on bikes when hikers are present--and even a ban on bikes entirely in the Santa Monicas.

“Somewhere along the way, you have to get control of this situation,” said Webster, a Sierra Club member who originated “Sundays in the Santa Monicas” hikes in the ‘70s. “Bikes make it very uncomfortable for hikers.”

Hasenauer, however, thinks it is time for both sides to bury the hatchet. “We don’t want to spend our time fighting the land managers and the hikers and equestrians,” he said. “We want to spend our time working with them to protect the mountains, build a multiple-use trail system and stop development. It’s the developers who are the real enemy.”

CORBA’s Cyclist Responsibility Code

* Yield the right of way

* Control your speed and pass with care

* Give warning well in advance when overtaking horses and hikers. If necessary, stand off to the side to let oncoming horses go by, and talk to riders as they pass

* Stay on designated roads and trails

* Don’t disturb wildlife or livestock

* Pack out litter

* Respect property--minimize impact by avoiding muddy trails, excessive braking, or crosscutting switchbacks

* Know local rules

* Plan ahead

* When possible, never ride alone, or at least let someone know where you plan to go