DougG

I was riding my Giant Sedona along a local converted rail-trail the other day. I had just crossed the river over the bridge when I was startled by seeing a Jeep driving up the side of the railroad embankment! He had been playing 4WD back in there and was about to drive out. Well, the only way in and out of that spot was along the trail, which is closed to motor vehicles, so he obviously got back there by driving around the barriers.

Now I was ahead of him on the trail and he had no choice but to follow me out for the half-mile to the nearest road. At this point, the trail runs along a steep embankment that follows the river, so the only way that I could have let him past would be to get off the bike and scramble down the side of the grade, which I was not about to do. The guy did not do anything dangerous at this point -- he stayed well back and just drove along slowly as he followed. But if someone had come along in the other direction, they would have had to do something to get out of the way.

When I got to the road I could see where he had driven around the posts, so I stopped there and let him drive around them and of course I got his plate number. I happen to be a member of the group that promotes this particular trail, and the head of the group has a lot of local civic connections, so I emailed him about the incident and he passed it along to someone at the city. I eventually heard back that the Chief of Police called the guy and really ripped him a new one, and that the guy was not likely to drive back there again!

So score one small "victory" for keeping a bike route safe for riding.

eshvanu

Way to stay cool and handle the situation appropriately. Good example to follow, imo.

pj7

I may have known the guy in the jeep.

donnamb 

Well, then give him a whack upside the head from us.

pj7

hehe
I know a few guys in Troy and Rochester Hills who do some mudding and 4WD stuff and they are all part of a Jeep club. In fact, my employer sponsors the anual Jeep Jamboree somewhere around here.
If I find out it WAS one of the guys I know, I'll laugh at him for getting reamed. All of the guys I know that do this stuff are pretty cool guys though, so (assuming it was one of them) I don't think there'd be any sort of backlash from them for this.

sbhikes

Great story. Way to get the guy for driving where he doesn't belong and wrecking the environment.

deputyjones

I am sure there is a thread right now on greatlakes4x4.com where some Jeep guy is railing against the cyclists who turned him into the cops for merely exercising his right to use public land!

p.s. Actually the guys over there are pretty decent guys who would tell this dummy to quit being a jerk.

pj7

True, most (I'd like to say all) of the 4WD guys I've met are a bunch of *****cats. I was just discussing this with some guys from work who go mudding alot and they all agreed that if they were this person, who illegally gained access to land to drive on, that they wouldn't hold ill will towards the guy for turning them in.
But there's always a handful of idiots that would though.