Wheels Make The Mountain Bike Difference

As the Mountain Bike Wheels signs are posted, the group's members grow nostalgic for rides that once were legal. Harald Johnson remembers when he could leave the Will Rogers path for the Backbone Trail, which links various parks in the mountains. And Woody Compton pines for night excursions through Topanga State Park.

"We've done full-moon trips," Compton said, "and the hills are just these dark shapes. . . . We watch the moon come up through the smog and we climb up above the clouds and drop down below.

"It's a shame that the behavior of a few people means the rest of us have to give this up," Compton said.

Local park officials agree. They say they have nothing against the Mountain Bike Wheels itself. The state Parks Department has two mountain bikes for rangers to use on patrol at Topanga and Malibu Creek state parks. The Conservancy finances a mountain bike program at Point Mugu State Park for disadvantaged youths.

But the problems, rangers say, have been too dramatic to ignore. "There are quite a few wrecks," said Jeff Snider, supervising ranger at Point Mugu and at Leo Carrillo State Beach, which also includes some upland trails. "We've had broken collar bones and broken arms and lacerated legs and broken backs. We've had them collide with hikers. We've had them collide with people on horseback."

Sixteen bike-related accidents resulting in serious injury have been reported in the Santa Monica Mountains District of state parks. On a holiday weekend or when the weather is good, "we might have 400 to 600 hikers and 100 bicyclists" in Point Mugu's 15,000 acres, Snider said. If allowed on the trails, "a biker would cross paths with a hiker just about anytime."

The solutions suggested by Concerned Off-Road Cyclists, rangers said, are too complicated to implement. They have enough trouble enforcing the roads-only regulation.

No more than five rangers are on duty at Point Mugu on any given day and no more than two rangers staff other state parks in the Santa Monicas. They can't possibly watch every trail.

So far this year, rangers have cited about 15 people for riding mountain bikes illegally, Sederquist said. "We're sure more violations are occurring. We just don't see them," he said. In May, Pat Mullen and Kregg Koch of Thousand Oaks were among four teen-agers who found a ranger waiting at the bottom of a hill along a trail in the Point Mugu park.

Mountain Biking