SPOKANE, Wash. – Mountain bikers in Spokane are worried for their safety after an unknown suspect left threatening notes around the Beacon Hill trails.
At least one biker has been hurt after someone also poured grease on rocks in the area. The notes also threaten to pour concrete where people ride.
“Mountain biking is an inherently dangerous sport,” said The Bike Hub owner Jon Amend. “When you add in slippery things and dangerous obstacles, that makes it worse for us.”
Amend helps maintain the Beacon Hill mountain bike trails with the Evergreen Alliance.
“It appears we have a local or someone who is unhappy with some of the new trails that are getting put in,” said Amend.
These trails are not just used for mountain biking. Some schools nearby also use the area for cross country practices.
Spokane police, parks and recreation, and park rangers are all working together to investigate the trail vandalism.
Amend said he is disappointed to see the trails he works to maintain be treated so poorly.
“Most of what I’ve seen has been in the parks. The parks have given us permission to have trails and build trails in that area. We’d like to be able to use them,” Amend said.
Amend said one of his friends has already got hurt on the trails. He doesn’t want that to happen to anyone else.
“One of our trail bosses for the Beacon area, he went down,” Amend explained. “The picture he sent out, it was greased up the side. He went down on the rock pretty good, so it’s unsafe.”
One of the notes left on the trail said the run will never be reliably safe.
The president of the Evergreen Alliance East is hopeful someone will be arrested soon.
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