*** WARNING *** Booby Trapped Trails

Sorry if its a re-post.
Could also happen in Texas.

http://www.americanmotorcyclist.com...ls_in_Colorado_endangering_riders_hikers.aspx

Motorcycle Consumer News is reporting that booby traps were also found in Arizona.

I've heard of similar stuff happening on mountain bike trails. I've seen it posted up that it happened in the DFW area.

We came across fresh diesel on the dragon in a few curves one fall up there. First thought it was an over-fill spill but then realized it was in both right and left have curves and went all the way across. Talked to some locals that said hunters are sometime to blame, trying to discourage bikes around hunting season.

Vandals don't bury spikes into the ground. These perps intended to cause body harm. They are terrorists.

Imagine stepping on a rusty spike out in the middle of nowhere.

That's sad. One lesson we should have learned from wars over the past half century or so is that the vast majority of people who are hurt or killed by mines and boobie traps are not the intended targets. Most often, quite the opposite.

Something like this is equally likely to harm a mountain biker, who probably doesn't like the 4-wheelers any better than the perpetrator. Or a fast-packer, a backpacking minimalist who is wearing sneakers instead of boots and hiking at a near trot. Or a 6-year-old, on his first outing with Dad or Grandpa.

This is where absolutist positions by activists - from any point of the compass - has gotten us.

This kind of stuff has been going on for decades in western states. On one of the LAB2V rides a booby trap was set at the only place the ride could cross under a major highway. This is one reason why the BLM won't allow clubs to mark a desert ride until the day before, or release the roll charts and GPS tracks until the day of the ride. It used to be mostly environmentalists doing it, but these days it's likely as not hunters who don't like noisy motorcycles scaring off their quarry. Regional forums mention this kind of thing from time to time. I'm surprised this incident got this much press. Maybe it was because it is in Colorado or maybe it's because it was more than a well placed hole or a tree felled just beyond a blind curve.