Don't be a Trail Idiot: You Get to Decide

You get to decide who is the Trail Idiot. Don't forget to Vote at the bottom.

I have been hiking this area for over three years for other projects and I have seen everything from illegal off-roading, and illegal hunting, and a whole lot of people who don't give a shit, including the people in charge of enforcing the laws. This area is a HIGH FIRE HAZARD area and there are signs at each trail entrance stating this. In 2017 there was a fire in this same area that destroyed 123 structures which included 60 homes and killed 49 horses and burned over 15 thousand acres.

Through the years I have gotten to know mountain bikers, people who ride their horses in the area, and the local homeowners who not only live nearby but use the trails. All of them have seen the same things and have reported them as well to Police, the Rangers, and the Fire marshall, and yet no one is doing anything about it.

The only time in three years I came across a ranger was when I saw one sitting in his truck in the middle of the fire road waiting for two guys on motorcycles. I was able to talk to him for a while after he realized he wasn't going to catch them. He gave me the contact info of whom I could call or email with pictures of any illegal activity I came across. After our conversation, I mentioned that he may want to go down the road and wait for the two guys at the truck and trailer they drove in on. The locals nor myself have not received a response for any of the reported items over the years.

The illegal dumping of trash is having an effect on the local environment. The rain is pushing the trash and chemicals into the local stream, and worst of all I have seen the local wildlife going through and eating the trash. I often see crows, coyotes, raccoons and foxes rummaging through the trash piles. Further up the trails, you can see remnants of the trash in their poop. I have seen pieces of bags, candy wrappers, and even crayons in the wildlife poop. Bears are in the area but are seldom seen. During the summer they will come down from the mountains for water and I have been seeing bear tracks around these trash piles. The more animals get used to the trash piles the more they will venture down to homes looking for food and this will only end badly for the animals.

The Following Information is numbered to coincide with the above map and is grouped by Jurisdiction and what parties enforce that area.

Los Angeles County (Sheriff and Fire Marshall)

	(1)	​On a weekly basis, there are truckloads of illegal dumping of trash and construction materials. The Locals have even seen the names of contractors on the sides of the trucks and reported it. Those same trucks keep coming back.
	(2)	A homeless camp(s) that started a few years back has grown to about 15+ people who dump large amounts of trash in the area and use the stream as a bathroom.
	(3)	Homeless bathing hole. They dammed up the stream to create a 3ft deep watering hole for bathing. There are shampoo bottles and toilet paper all over the place.
	(3)	​Shower, Shit and Shoot up. Occasionally you will come across a used needle near the "bathroom"
	(4)	​Trash that keeps growing from the watering hole users.
	(5)	This area had a few bags of trash a few weeks before christmas, but the day after christmas it grew in size.

United States Department of Agriculture (Forest Rangers)

	​(6)	​This area is popular for the dumping of stolen cars. I have come across 5 cars dumped here in the last 2 years. I ran into a guy who was making good money salvaging the stolen cars.
	(8)	This is where the gate used to be to keep Off-Road vehicles out. A few years back some people literally pulled the posts and gate out of the ground and pushed them down the hill.
	(19)	In order to get this far up the trail on a street motorcycle, he had to get around two locked gates which are both on private property, then past a sign that says NO motorized vehicles, and up about a mile on a rocky single-track trail. He is a previous Trail Idiot - the WTF Trail Idiot
	(20)	​This is the sign on the west side of the area that people see stating that vehicles and any form of fire are NOT permitted. It even has an extra sheet going into great detail about what the penalties would be.

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United States Forestry Service (US Forest Rangers)

	(7)	​​This is the sign on the east side of the area that people see stating that vehicles and any form of fire are NOT permitted. This is where 90% of the traffic illegally goes by and is right before the gate that was illegally removed.
	(9)	The remains of a stolen truck that was dumped a few years ago. I witnessed the Ranger chasing the two guys on motorcycles go by this "obvious" eye sore twice and yet it is still there to this day.
	(10)	​This is a popular location for both off-roaders and illegal hunters. It is the last 7 pine trees for many miles that survived the last fire and people like to hang out and drink lots of beer. Its popular with illegal hunters because it's a good spot to see the whole area right off the road.
	(10)	Once the beer starts flowing the panties start dropping. Someone misplaced their undergarments under the pine trees, you can find them in lost and found.
	(10)	​The Beer drinkers also like to smoke after sex and toss the butts into dry pine needles. No fire hazard here....
	(11)	​In order for this person to dump all this construction waste, he had to drive his truck through the homeless bath (#3 - watering hole) up 1.5 miles on a fire road, then 200 yards up a steep hillside (fire break) to dump.
	(12)	​This was a popular game trail but now has become an off-road trail for motorcycles.
	(13)	​A popular drink of both off-roaders and hunters is Red Bull.
	​(14)	​Cigarette butt the Full Package Trail Idiot left behind.
	(15)	​This is the guy from the last Trail Idiot post, the Full Package Trail Idiot
	(16)	​This is the beer can the Full Package Trail Idiot left behind.
	(17)	​The NO vehicles and trail blocking posts the Full Package Trail Idiot drove around.
	(18)	​This is sign number 8 in the area that says NO Off-road vehicles... and yet they all have motorcycle tracks going through the blocking posts.

It's hard to decide who truly is the Trail Idiot here. The people who break the rules put others in danger and ruin it for everyone else or Law enforcement doesn't lift a finger enabling the lawbreakers to continue and step up their game. The more illegal off-roading is allowed to go on, the more trash and the chance of fire there will be. Recently they have become bored with riding on the fire roads and trails, so they have started making new tracks up the sides of hills causing massive erosion problems to 4 hillsides

Let's just say for Shits-n-Giggles a Forest Ranger was to hang out at the East side "NO Motorized Vehicles" sign and wait for just 2 hours on a SUNDAY morning from 7 am to 9 am and give a ticket to each person on or in a "Motorized vehicle" that passes by him, he would have made $40,000 dollars in fines. I know this because 8 "Motorized vehicles" passed me on one Sunday in September 2022. Based on my 1 year tally of illegal vehicles on the road that I witnessed with my own two eyes, Uncle Sam could have made about $1,095,000 (219 vehicles) in fines. That was just for the vehicle violations, imagine if they added in the fire hazard, drinking, littering, illegal hunting, and firearms charges. All that money could have paid for 4 full-time Rangers to patrol the area in Range Rovers.

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"Even on Christmas morning, I came across 1 truck full of people and 4 motorcycles illegally off-roading on the trails."

I will let you guys decide on who is the Trail Idiot. Is it the Lawbreakers or the Law Enforcement or Both?

Place your Vote: Who's the Trail Idiot?

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If you want some extra Trail points, pack out some trash or perform some trail maintenance to fix damaged areas.

The great outdoors is there for everyone to enjoy. Do your part to see that everyone does, Safely.

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