ZippyThePinhead

The golf course is bordered on one side by the river. Apparently there was some recent nastiness...

TrojanHorse

It's getting to the point where I'd rather ride through Compton than Santa Ana.

surfrider

That's the next 'block' north of where the bike thefts (and muggings) were happening a few months ago, and on the other side of the river from the trail (where it passes by Spurgeon School, known gang turf). Any info on what it was? domestic diagreement, robbery in the parking lot? I still ride the SART through that area, I just keep my guard up and don't ride a conspicuous bike.

fat_bike_nut

Geez, the more I keep hearing about that middle stretch of the SART, the less I want to ride it anymore. I already stopped riding north of Warner Ave. when the bike thefts started, and I really miss heading up to Yorba Regional Park via the SART as well. Guess I'll have to enter via Garden Grove Blvd. again if I ever want to head north, which sucks because the route I take to get on the SART from Warner Ave. is far less dangerous for me on a bicycle (as difficult as it may be to believe)

Surfer34

I moved out of CA 2 years ago but I still come back to visit. I dont worry about criminals anymore when I ride but I do worry about bears and mountain lions, lol.

TJClay

I ride Sart on a regular basis. I keep my head up thru those areas, dont ride at night or during the week by myself. The weekends are very busy and if you go thru that area as a group i doubt you would ever have any trouble. Even if you're alone there's always other riders that you can stay near for safety. I really think the danger is way blown out of proportion. The odds of getting hit by an unattentive driver on the streets are far greater then getting jacked on the river trail.

ZippyThePinhead

+1. Exactly. I posted mainly to help people with their risk calculus. If I'm out riding on SART, I'm just going to make sure I am not going between, say, the 405 and Edna Park when it is dark, especially if I am riding alone.

No idea. Don't care to know. Probably nogoodniks up to no good.

There are mountain lions aplenty here, as well. A friend of mine was riding in CHSP a few weeks ago and saw a juvenile mountain lion on the North Ridge Trail.

jmX

This is why I stick to Angels Stadium->Corona section during my weekday workouts. It gets boring, but I don't have to worry about getting jumped from the bushes, and really my weekday rides are just for exercise.

On the weekends, I'm more likely to take my chances and head to the beach on the SART. Of course, the last 2 highly publicized SART incidents have been on Saturday and Sunday during daylight hours...so I don't really know how smart I'm being.

PS, Sadly I'll admit that I laughed when I read one commenter on the story who posted "Hole in one!" to the golf course shooting

surfrider

The shooting happened in the neighborhood outside the northeast corner of the golf course at Jackson and Washington Streets - the Santa Ana River is on the course's southeast, so its about as far away from the Santa Ana River as you can get (and the SART is on the opposite side of the river,too). Kind of silly for the OC Reister to headline it as happening at the golf course itself. Kind of (unfortunately) 'par for the course' in that neighborhood. Not something that I'd consider to be related to the SART

Cyclcist11023131

Right and wrong TJ. I say this because I was hit by car last Sunday as I was stopped at a light, one foot on the curb, pushing the walk button. Texting and hitting people is a felony. The police took her away in handcuffs sobbing. Luckly I jumped right as she slid underneath me. I counted two backward rolls and had visions of landing on my feet when the car lurched to a stop. She had hit the light pole. Screwed me because I went from a roll to sliding off the roof and landing hard on my face. I have dealt with post concussive syndrome all week. So it is a hundred times more dangerous now because of those damn devices than it used to be. Now the wrong part. Those young men out there just west of the golf course and north from the park are smoking crack. They have little glass pipes and are lighting the bottoms of them. I run a construction business and lose a few employees a year to this stuff. It literally steals your soul. So they will attack when they feel like it. Traveling in a group or not. When they need money for some more, you are a traveling Cash sign. I can't believe that the local police don't at least try to do something about this pitiful situation. I have dodged them, ran right at them, and turned around and rode thru another way. Just don't flash a weapon or they will shoot you. Then they will run. Try to identify one of them and you realize they all look alike. Same clothes, shoes, hair, t-shirts. Like Zombies they have no souls. No face. No reason to be.

lilpoindexter

Glad you are ok.

rooftest

Bingo.

eja_ bottecchia

That's pretty serious.