Bikers Alarmed By Booby Trap On Marin Trail
WOODACRE (CBS SF) – The dispute between hikers and trail bikers in the Marin County woods has been going on for years.
But even veterans of the dispute are alarmed over the discovery of a spiked booby trap on a fire road trail near Woodacre. While there is no evidence that the strip was deployed by a hiking advocate, bikers believe it may be related to the decades-long dispute.
"It was pretty scary," Desi de Lenea, a San Rafael resident, told the Marin IJ. "We've never seen anything like it. That's why we had to pause. It was the first time something like that we both experienced."
According to de Lena, he and friend were cycling on the trail early this week when they found a 4-foot-long homemade spike strip anchored across the trail near White Hill Fire Road.
The strip consisted of a rubber strip containing more than 30 screws sticking out.
While it wasn't certain that the 7-inch spikes were targeting bikers, de Lenea told the paper they were "there for a purpose."
Tom Boss, off-road director with the Marin County Bicycle Coalition, likened the strip to a medieval weapon.
"It looks like something out of 'Game of Thrones,'" Boss told the newspaper. "We should get the message across it's not appropriate to put any obstruction across a trail, especially something like this that could cause injury."
Nona Dennis, who belongs to the hiker advocacy group the Foot People, says it the first she has even heard of a spike strip being placed across a trail.
"We're absolutely opposed to that sort of thing," she told the people. "We need to work out our differences by examining our mutual needs."