THE DISCOVERY of a mile-long illegal mountain bike trail in Forest Park last week created an uproar and threatened a years-long process to build new, legal bike trails in the sprawling park.

Though plans to open up more trails in Forest Park to mountain biking will roll forward, the controversy makes clear Portland Parks and Recreation’s inability to exert control over Forest Park.

At 5,156 acres, Forest Park is 50 percent of all of Portland’s parkland—but employs only one full-time, year-round park ranger.

Without enough watchful eyes, one or more mountain bikers managed to carve out a mile-long path, move boulders to build a small dam, cut down live trees, and build a series of jumps in an ecologically sensitive part of the park.

“It is not only illegal, it is tragic,” said Parks Director Zari Santner at a tense meeting last week of the citizen Forest Park Singletrack Cycling Committee, which is tasked with recommending how to open up 20-30 new miles of Forest Park trails to bikes. “The reason we convened this committee is because we were fearful of something like this happening.”

Police are investigating who built the trail, which the parks department estimates as causing $80,000 in damage.

Currently, only 30 miles of Forest Park’s 70 miles are open to bikes and only one-third of a mile are the narrow “singletrack” paths mountain bikers prefer. “We need to figure out how to make facilities that are more attractive to bikes, so people don’t ride on trails that are illegal,” says Tom Archer, who sits on the city’s committee and also directs mountain biking group Northwest Trail Alliance. Archer condemned the illegal trail harshly in a letter to members last week.

The trail raised serious concern for environmental experts because its builders hacked through the north section of Forest Park, where there are few invasive species and many wild animals. “If you were to go out there and look, you’d see fresh elk scat and hair,” says Parks Natural Areas Manager Astrid Dragoy.

BikePortland.org Editor Jonathan Maus headed out to the illicit trail last week and agreed that the damage was substantial.

“It looked like someone came in with a weed whacker,” says Maus. But despite the impact, Maus thinks the debate over the trail has been overblown. “It’s easy to understand why people are getting hysterical about this, but it’s an isolated, illegal act,” says Maus. “The park is suffering from lack of enforcement in general—not just in relation to mountain bikers.”

Committee member Frank Selker made a similar observation at the meeting last week, noting, “The biggest threats to the park are invasive species and lack of funding.”

Sarah Shay Mirk reported on transportation, sex and gender issues, and politics at the Mercury from 2008-2013. They have gone on to make many things, including countless comics and several books.

14 replies on “Trail and Error”

  1. Yep, one Ranger year round, and another 18 or so part time during the summer. The problem is that they are all worthless. All they do is harrass the homeless in the parks. The Ranger program should just have all of it;s funding eliminated for better use elsewhere.

  3. No, idiots are the ones who won’t give up the pretense and the illusion that such “control” is even possible or desireable.

  4. So what’s with the picture for the story?. It’s a kid on a BMX bike from back in the late 70’s / early 80’s so far from the root of the story it’s funny.

    I agree there was damage and everything else but come on 80k in damage? Come on now.

  5. How did forest park ever survive the last million years with out our help? This has to be stopped, the monetary value of nature will be dashed if we dont keep people out. I have a great solution, we will solve all of forest park’s problems by staging a mass-suicide somewhere preferably off the planet so we dont cause a terrible environmental impact.

  6. How did this happen?

    Maybe some mountain bike-friendly reporters knew about the trail, but sat on the story so they wouldn’t lose face with their friends or be responsible for “killing something they love.”

    [Sarah, I can feel your eye-roll!]

  7. “THE DISCOVERY of a mile-long illegal mountain bike trail in Forest Park last week created an uproar… “

    i just think it’s funny that the mercury is reporting this as a new story, OPB/NPR and all of the local news channels reported this story a month ago.

  8. So, you manage a park and have a certain way/location preference for the creation of singletrack bike trails. Maybe you should get to building them that way. Sit around for years dropping promises with your thumbs up your asses and people will make their own trails. Sounds like everyone has been having such a nice discussion for so long that the parks forgot that they actually can do something productive.

    -“But we don’t have any funds or a big enough staff to do anything”.
    Bet you could find hundreds of cyclists that would volunteer to build every inch of that track for free and over a weekend. Send your one full time employee out there for a day with a site plan and tie some ribbons on trees where the trail should go. I bet you could even get some free help from a trail designer who would love to bike on the trail. You may have to move a rock or two and potentially disrupt the whole ecosystem.

  9. I hate mountain bikers. I know, I know, ‘it’s a rush!’ (and ‘bikes are kewl!!!’)but when you almost mow down my small family as we are quietly walking in the park actually appreciated nature as opposed to zipping along at a breakneck speed to fast to see what’s around you…it’s too much. Makes me want to leave small strips of nails…or set up ‘clotheslines’ for them.

    Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaahhhaaaaaaaaaaaa.
    I’m so lonely.

  10. OneOfYou, has it right.

    I used to live in the forest park area off of Skyline and would ride all over the place. Now while I never had the balls to get a group of friends together to build an illegal bike trail I would have and would still jump at the chance to build one as a volunteer.

    As for the regulation of the park; the more active the park is with users and the more the community takes ownership of it the less likely there will be unwanted people in it (the homeless being the least of my worries). And this is not a urge for the gentrification of the park area but rather a social contract between users and city officials that will ensure responsible use and preservation of this wonderful area for all people who wish to use it in all the ways that it can be used such that it will not detract from its splendor and will maintain the areas that are ecologically sensitive.

  11. most mountain bikers want to do this right. give us the chance, tell us where we can and we’ll build the trails. we’ll share it with hikers and dogs and elk and whatever. the fact that a few young jerks went out there and did this does not mean the mtb community was part of it, approved, turned a blind eye, or whatever.

  12. I’ve been hiking Forest Park at least once a week for around a year now and have not had any real issues with bikes. I do have issues with runners. I find them much more of a nuisance and a threat to the park. Don’t care that running is deemed more acceptable than mountain biking.

  13. Just kill the ranger program and move that money into better use, such as ivy removal. The Portland Rangers are totally worthless. Their supervisor is a lazy retired Portland cop and the rangers just go around making life difficult for the homeless.

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