Mountain Bikers Do Respect Nature

* Re “Bikers Leave Wake as They Break Trails” (Sept. 4):

As an avid mountain biker, I must take issue with your article. While I do not condone the cutting of illegal trails, the tone seemed to be that mountain bikers are just a trouble-causing bunch of scofflaws who do nothing but trash pristine wilderness. Nothing could be further from the truth.

In my experience, mountain bikers as a group have far more respect for the wilderness than any “armchair” environmentalists who bemoan the loss of the wilderness around us. Developers are responsible for that.

Mountain bikers take great joy in the way the bikes allow us access to the incredible spaces and vistas. And bikes are a low-impact way of accessing the wilderness. Only hikers are less damaging to trails.

I have ridden Aliso Woods and the Cleveland National Forest for years now, and the most damage I see is caused by equestrians and people driving in cars and trucks.

I imagine that if mountain bikers were to defecate in the middle of the trail we would be banned immediately. Why are horse owners allowed to foul the trails in this manner?

And who is the idiot responsible for allowing motorized vehicles back into the Cleveland National Forest? For years, we respectfully rode all over this area and it was always clean and beautiful. Ever since vehicles were allowed back in, it has gotten steadily trashier. Recently, at the top of Black Star Canyon at the Main Divide Road, there was garbage everywhere, obviously brought in by car. It was never like this before the roads were opened to cars. I too am upset about the loss of wilderness around us. But mountain bikers are not the cause.

BOB McCARTER

Aliso Viejo

* So it was time for another mountain-bike-bashing article, which as always completely misses the big picture. If the reason behind this article was true concern for our “sensitive habitat,” it seems that there were a few issues missing.

Each hole on each of the numerous golf courses in the area erased more sensitive habitat than all the illegal trails combined. Not one word about the hundreds of hours of volunteer work done by mountain bikers through organizations like Trails 4 All, IMBA and the Warrior Society to maintain the trails in these areas.

The article mentioned how bikers had been spotted in El Moro working on an illegal trail using machetes. Well, each day a small army of men can be spotted raping the entire hillsides right next to El Moro using bulldozers.

The rangers conclude that we (the MTBikers) just don’t care, but nothing could be further from the truth. Stand back for a moment and look at the big picture, and you will see that we love the wilderness as much as you do, and that we are your allies, not your enemy.

FRANK HERMANSEN

Laguna Beach