It's the wild, wild west at Birchbank Mtn! I (Teresa) spent the entire afternoon repairing blazes that had been painted over and brightening up all the others. As I climbed up the river bank to the loop part of the trail (after passing a labyrinth of new ATV trails a foot deep) I noticed some guys having a war. Another Airsoft game, oh for joy, because I just love being surround on the trail with guys in camo holding big guns. And I especially love the thousands of neon-colored non-biodegradable BB's they leave all over the park.
I spoke to the kids, who were based out of the encampment marked by big wooden spools just off the trail, and took a video of them all. I'll be forwarding that to the Police.
It's not just the Airsoft Games, or the ATVs, or the partying, but the vandalism that comes with it all. Near the Airsoft encampment the official white trail blazes were covered over with gray spray paint, as was one of our open space signs. Clearly someone didn't want the general public to know this was open space or where the trail was.
I spoke to the kids, who were based out of the encampment marked by big wooden spools just off the trail, and took a video of them all. I'll be forwarding that to the Police.
It's not just the Airsoft Games, or the ATVs, or the partying, but the vandalism that comes with it all. Near the Airsoft encampment the official white trail blazes were covered over with gray spray paint, as was one of our open space signs. Clearly someone didn't want the general public to know this was open space or where the trail was.
The picture below shows a pair of offset blazes marking a very important turn ahead, all covered over with gray.
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did you contact the owner of the properties that the trails exit on to? It has to be clear that they are there and were made by someone who lives there especially the one with the tree fort.
ReplyDeleteWe have not contacted the owner yet. While you're out in the woods behind someone's house you can't tell which address it is until you either drive by or look at a map later on, something I did in the office today. And it's not a good idea to just march into someone's property from the back.
ReplyDeleteOk - I am soooo sorry. My little girls and I wanted to hike in the back and they got lost because the trail wasn't marked very clearly. So, we thought we would make a "pink" trail. We marked over the old looking whitish marks and honestly didn't realize this was part of public open space - we thought it was just trails marked by old neighbors or something. The house with the tree house is not responsible for the pink. We are not, however, responsible for any other damage as my girls are 5 and 9 and don't have any of that other stuff you're talking about. Please accept my sincere apologies; it won't happen again.
ReplyDeleteOK Anonymous with the two girls: Any chance on cleaning that up for us so volunteers don't have to do it? These blazes need to be carefully spray painted over in a flat dark gray.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that you may beleive that those marks were left by us airsofters. I'll have you know that we would never think of defacing the property in any way. Those "neon" BB's are not used anymore as we advised the players using them to not. The regular white bb's are biodegradeable and we all use them. We apoligize if we suprise you or scared you with our weapons (That are marked with Orange tips). We feel that as long as we treat the space with respect, we should be allowed to use these woods.
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