If you’ve hiked anywhere in the Northwest, there’s a good chance you’ve seen an illegal trail. Often they’re quick shortcuts or paths to off-trail viewpoints. But in extreme cases, they’re longer, surreptitiously constructed trails that wind through public and private land.
The unauthorized trails can cause a range of problems in wild areas. As more and more people spend time in the woods, closing down these illegal trails has become increasingly difficult.
There's one case where wildlife officials and trail users are trying to solve the problem together.
It’s a cold grey Sunday afternoon at a remote spot called Four Corners south of Ashland, Oregon.
Just down hill, a truckload of mountain bikers pulls into the gravel clearing. They’re riding Catwalk – the legal trail.
But where Catwalk ends, an illegal trail, unofficially called Lower Missing Link continues up the mountain.
Rob Cain: “We’re at about 4000 feet. So you’ve got another 2200 hundred feet to get to Mt. Ashland.”
Rob Cain is the President of the Ashland Woodlands and Trails Association. Raindrops collect on his hair as he looks up the hillside at the narrow zigzagging slash of Lower Missing Link. It’s just wide enough for a mountain bike.
Rob Cain: “For the most part, until people put in this illegal trail, the only way to get up that direction was on the road.”
People build unauthorized trails for many reasons – in a way, says Cain, it’s simple economics.
Rob Cain: “The last time we had any new trails that were approved was I think in the year ’99 or 2000. So we’ve had a continuation of more and more bicyclists, hikers, runners and… More demand and no increase in supply.”
Illegal trails cause problems all over the Northwest. Trial builders often don’t consider wildlife habitat, says Morgan Lindsay with the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center.
Morgan Lindsay: “Wild animals like wide open wild spaces and so with any road or trail you're dealing with fragmentation of that habitat.”
Poorly constructed trails also contribute to erosion, harming streams and rivers.
And public agencies like the Forest Service have scant resources to patrol and close off unauthorized trails when they appear.
But now, at least in Ashland, wheels are in motion to solve some of these problems. At a packed public meeting, the US Forest Service presented a new trail system plan developed in close conjunction with the Ashland Trails Association.
Bikers, equestrians, hikers and trail runners first came together and decided what they wanted. Near the top of the list for mountain biker Nathan Granados is avoiding conflict with other trail users by creating bike-only trails.
Nathan Granados: “If I want to go out for a ride and just get in the zone, and bomb down hills, I can do that without fear of running over, or running into people, or scaring anybody.”
Then, the Forest Service came in and made adjustments to protect things like spotted owl and Pacific fisher habitat.
Siskiyou District Ranger Donna Mickley says she hopes trail users who helped write the new plan will continue to support it.
Donna Mickley: “I need the public to help me monitor and police that there aren’t ongoing renegade trails being constructed once we’re done with this project.”
Under the plan, about 25 miles of trails would be added to the Ashland watershed.
Although it’s noteworthy to consider - a substantial portion of those new miles aren’t actually new – they’re illegal trails like Lower Missing Link that are just being grandfathered in.
Donna Mickley could approve the new trail system this spring. Then members of the Ashland Woodlands and Trails Association will get to work, building some legal trails of their own.
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