Trail vandalism and trail vandals.

If you look out of one of the windows in my house you can see our trail. An 8 pack leading into a berm and a steep downslope which turns 180* down and into the return track which brings you back to the start. The trail as a body keeps growing, new limbs form in the form of a berm on the run in, a pump track, a short (but very technical) downhill track, and even some board walks. We built all of this within the area which we are allowed (known as the long grass!) with none of it stretching onto the actual playing field with which it is next door neighbors, and therefore no obstruction or problems are caused by it. I assumed that it would be OK, people would leave it as it is and not interfere with any of it, parents of young children can watch us fly through the air and amuse their kids without us being of any annoyance to them, this was my biggest mistake.I looked out of my window today to have a look at the trail. I knew I wouldn't be riding for a day or two because of the weather but the pull of the view was just too much to resist. Taking a glance out across the playing field I looked out onto the sight that I had seen so many times before, at least that is what I expected to see. But today it was different, there was a ring of light around the top of the berm, gaps in it , and worst of all exposed wood which I haven't seen since we built it. Seeing this sight I went outside, armed myself with a spade, saw, hammer, and wheelbarrow (all the usual trail building weapons) and set off across the field fearing the worst. As I reached the trail my fears were confirmed; we had been victims of trail vandalism. Now, I know that I am not the first to experience this, and I am sure that I will not be the last, but this hasn't happened to me to this extent before and it angered me significantly.

As I set about making the berm more ridable - pulling out mangled bits of wooden structure, removing the bones of the limb that the trail had spent so long growing this winter, many thoughts came into my head. This was no off the cuff act of vandalism it was a large scale demolition process! This was no rickety weak structure that they had pulled apart, it was a solid framework that could support a fully grown man jumping up and down on it on his INTENSE M1 ! NO this was a malicious act of vandalism which at no point would I have expected in the quite, humble village of Hillesley, I now know better. As I pulled out the broken bones uncovering them through the hardened layer of mud that encased them I realized that the berm, in it's previous form, had only been in existence since February building up from a frame of wood with rubber tiles, to a fully fledged mound of mud shaped and carved to perfection standing around 2 feet high. We (me and Joe) had spent hours on this trail feature getting the angle just right so it spits you straight out into the jumps, carving the entrance so that you could pump off it, and yet it had been so heartlessly destroyed, only the lowest of the low would do such a thing, people with no creative element in their mind, primitive types who have a closer IQ to a stone age man than to the average 15 year old (me!). Thinking about it they probably have no emotion at all, but back to the point that does not excuse the act of destruction that they have committed. I would have taken my camera out if I was not so angered, but instead I entered into a phase of frenzied trail building fueled by the sight in front of me. Gradually my frenzy slowed as I repaired the berm, this time without a wooden structure, it had been reduced to a pile of earth. Luckily we had all of this mud, we had recently excavated it whilst building a pump track, without it we wouldn't have a berm at all and then I dread to think what we would have had to do.

To my surprise the berm was not the only heartless act that had been carried out. Carefully placed on the backside of each ramp was a lump of wood about 1 foot long and full of nails. Not only that there was also strips of glass (broken) laid in neat lines in the trough between each ramp. Now that's either an attempt to damage equipment or a brutal attempt to injure someone. Something tells me that primitive man is trying to catch wholly mammoths in Gloucestershire! It's not just us that use the ramps either, little children love to jump across the chasm of death (yes it does get annoying). So basically this whole thing could of ended rather badly.

Now I'm going to keep riding and building, and I pretty sure everyone else will too, it's just sad that an event like this has happened and yes the vandalism was bad enough but the logs and glass were just one step too far, it could have ended in injury which, I myself think would have been terrible. In the village we are regarded as mature, sensible people and our trails are never destroyed or questioned by anyone on the village council or the police, but if someone had got hurt due to the glass and logs this would have probably changed.

I can now relate to anyone who has had the same experience, and I sympathize for you. I am not by any means saying that I am the only one this has ever happened to, and just asking for everyone to feel sorry for me, I am expressing my views for others to see. Now I've just got to figure out what to do next to try and make sure that the same thing won't happen (but unfortunately I expect it will).

Cheers for reading this,

Aperture mtb.

A year so far.

by Aperturemtb

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