Palmer Mill Road Side Paths

[Charley]

H is a downhill mountain bike trail. There are tire marks, not footprints, and it looks like they built jumps and stuff. The top, at Larch mtn road, looks to have been intentionally concealed: no brush is cleared and branches are strewn around.

I'm not surprised. It would be good to make an official trail network here, because that would reduce the "rogue" trail building.

The wooded, gently sloping areas between Devils Rest and Palmer Mill Road, and between Sherrard Point and Devils Rest, would be excellent for a mountain bike trail network. The areas are close to Portland (reducing vehicle miles traveled for a large user group), have an already highly impacted landscape, and have good topography for trail loops.


An aside:

It is kind of a weird that local hikers seem to have little concern over new trails being blazed in the hillsides of the Gorge, given the hue and cry that has followed the discovery of similar unsanctioned trails blazed for mountain bike use in nearby Portland. I know none of the situations are exactly the same, but the parallels of Forest Park and Riverview are instructive.

The poorly designed trails at Riverview have remained in place, and Amanda Fritz' mtb exclusion order remains, 8 years after the Management Plan was adopted by the City Council.

After a multi-year controversy over equitable use of Riverview and Forest Park, the City paid for a City-wide Off-road Cycling Master Plan. That was finished over five years ago, and I've heard boo since 2019. Opponents successfully argued that close-in areas of Forest Park were too crowded with hikers to allow safe access to mtb riders and that the more distant areas of Forest Park were too wild and untrammeled to allow ecologically responsible access. Heads I win, tails you lose!

I don't support unsanctioned mtb trail building and riding because I think that illicit use both reduces pressure on local land managers to satisfy this need officially, and provides an easy talking point to mtb opponents, who need only point to these "rogue trails" as evidence that mtb riders aren't responsible.

I'm not bothered by most social use boot trails, and I understand that the root of this controversy is "user conflict," not environmental impact. That said, the double standard does bother me.

[Christminster]

You're referring to River View Natural Area. It's across the Willamette from Sellwood, just south of the bridge.

The rogue trails there stopped after the first clampdown, about five or seven years ago. Then a couple years ago a few new trails popped up. I was sort of ok with it at that point, but this past couple summers they've gone really berserk. It only takes one monomaniac. I think I've seen him, whacking brush back and forth like he's got the bit in his mouth.

So there was a hue and cry? I hadn't heard, where was it?

As for trail H, I've had another thought about it. If you look at a map, paying attention to topography, H is a logical, convenient place to make a route. If there are more "hidden" trails, maps may suggest where they are.