Worcester/Paxton Asnebumskit Trail Situation

[Inclag]

For any of you riders that live around the Worcester area, you may know about a very large, technical, and fun trail system that spans parts of Worcester and Paxton (some people recognize the trails because some are located off of Asnebumskit Street in Paxton by some radio towers). These trails are very fun and offer eveything from long sustained lactic acid burning XC climbing, to spaghetti like trail bike riding, to shuttable downhilling.

Well, since a bunch of my friends were there this weekend, it appears that there may be some issues at hand. The group of riders that I routinely ride with fall in that latter group of riders described above (we shuttle these trails) and it appears now that along an upper section of the trail system certain obstacles have been freshly cut and strategically put in certain locations on the trail and by all accounts they were put there on purpose.

Now this is where I will speculate, and if anyone can interject their thoughts I would love to hear them. Due to the placement of the logs and how they were setup, it appears that they were put in place to force people who shuttle to ride slowly. No logs were put in blind corners and none of them had sharp branches. However, some were put in corners in such a way that one would have to greatly reduce speed to get around them, and some logs were even placed length wise in the trails so that a rider would need to slow down greatly, but all of these obstacles could be ridden slowly or slower.

We have been riding these trails for years and have never had any issues. We occassionaly run into the random elderly bird watcher or hiker, and always stop and say hello and chat it up. A week beforehand a couple of my friends ran into some other regulars that ride these trails who also happen to apparently know a person that cuts trails in the area as well (which I don't know is legal btw). Everyone was real cool (my friends were psyched to see other riders and apparantly so were they) but now this... I would be hard pressed to say any hiker we know of (we have only seen one this year anyway and he was probably 75) would do this and because of the way these obstacles were setup, it appears that someone put alot of thought into what he/she/they were doing. All in all we suspect that it may be a fellow mt. biker that did this.

We always make sure to be follow any rules, be kind to fellow hikers and riders, and up until recently never had any issues. We do maintenance on the trails that we ride, and hope that this is a one time occurance and really hope that this isn't biker against biker hating. I hope if it does continue, we can at least find out who is doing this so that we are able to talk with him/her/them so that hopefully a compromise of some sorts can be reached.

I guess what I'm trying to accomplish by this is to make people that ride in that area aware of this issue and to keep an eye out for any suspicious activities since no one wants this problem, and to also try to open up some communication with whoever is at hand for this since there are indications that it may be a fellow rider(s).

[robdesigns]

Were any signs put up prohibiting bikes on the trails? I have never been there. But it sounds like it is close enough to my work for a lunch-time trip.

Rob

[Inclag]

Were any signs put up prohibiting bikes on the trails? I have never been there. But it sounds like it is close enough to my work for a lunch-time trip.

Rob



Nope. Up until this incident there have never been any other issues that I know of. In fact a couple years ago myself and some college friends were clearing some trails and a police officer approached us after getting a call. There is a nice overlook area that I guess high schoolers frequent and do things that people in high school typically do and he was surprised to see that it was some mountain bikers. There was no problem and everyone just moved along.

Fire me a PM if you need directions. This is a killer place and I'm more than surprised that for the size and location that it isn't frequented anywhere close to the number of riders than say leominster state forest/foxboro/nam/or lynn woods is.

[Tim]

Hey, first off, it wasn't me! I have ridden "Da Bum" once about 5 years and it's pretty nice, although I found the layout confusing. Question - were any of the obstacles place there to try and restrict flow down to one path? In other words, was someone trying to fix some trail "braids" that were being created, by your group or others?

I will frequently try to close off braids on my local trails - they tend to be rocky, and people seem to want to take shortcuts where the trail is smoother. Then the shortcut gets worn down and rocky, so people go even farther - it ends up with the trail being about 8 feet wide and a whole lot less challenging / fun. So I guess in a way, I'm going "biker against biker" when I try to restrict the trail to its original route.

Tim

[Inclag]

Hey, first off, it wasn't me! I have ridden "Da Bum" once about 5 years and it's pretty nice, although I found the layout confusing. Question - were any of the obstacles place there to try and restrict flow down to one path? In other words, was someone trying to fix some trail "braids" that were being created, by your group or others?

I will frequently try to close off braids on my local trails - they tend to be rocky, and people seem to want to take shortcuts where the trail is smoother. Then the shortcut gets worn down and rocky, so people go even farther - it ends up with the trail being about 8 feet wide and a whole lot less challenging / fun. So I guess in a way, I'm going "biker against biker" when I try to restrict the trail to its original route.

Tim




No, they were built from all I have gathered with the intent of making the trails difficult or more dangerous to ride fast. Yet they weren't the type of work that you would typically see of someone that doesn't want you riding on the trails which is why I would hate to think it is another biker. As it is we all ride DH so we love the challenge of riding over everything and the trail system honestly doesn't get high enough usage that there are major problems with people cutting easier paths. Towards the boynton park area of trails there have been a few areas blocked off (and rightfully so) due to drainage problems with alternate routs that have been built, but that is a completely different area and situation.

Maybe this is a one time occurance and that will be it. I guess I'll know better as the year goes on.

[kernel crash]

Maybe someone was trying to discourage ATV's from getting a head of steam in there.

[splat]

Maybe it s some one trying to make it more difficult on themselvs ? so they can learn how to do the obstacles and maintain speed ?

I'd like to find out some more information about this place, this is the first I'm hearing of it.

[BadDNA]

It's not too far from me, only 13 miles or so from my house to Asnebumskit Rd in Paxton. I might check this out some time, I'll let you know when I plan on going John.

[BrianK]

Does this trail system connect with cascades park in Worcester?

It matches the description and while Asnebumskit Rd is further north than I've ridden, it doesn't look too far from Silver Spring Rd which is a great drop-off place for people looking to do some decent downhill.

At one point I was in touch with some from the Greater Worcester Land Trust who either owns or at least manages the land I'm talking about. I haven't heard from that person in a while, but it may be worth checking out their website and trying to contact someone there. Ask if they know anything about it.
http://www.cyberonic.com/~gwlt/allland.html#CASCE

Anyway its within riding distance from my house, so I'll have to go check it out for myself to see where these logs are. I'd be willing to talk to someone from GWLT if you'd rather not.

[Inclag]

Does this trail system connect with cascades park in Worcester?

It matches the description and while Asnebumskit Rd is further north than I've ridden, it doesn't look too far from Silver Spring Rd which is a great drop-off place for people looking to do some decent downhill.

At one point I was in touch with some from the Greater Worcester Land Trust who either owns or at least manages the land I'm talking about. I haven't heard from that person in a while, but it may be worth checking out their website and trying to contact someone there. Ask if they know anything about it.
http://www.cyberonic.com/~gwlt/allland.html#CASCE


Anyway its within riding distance from my house, so I'll have to go check it out for myself to see where these logs are. I'd be willing to talk to someone from GWLT if you'd rather not.




Yep, that is the area. It does extend quite a ways. I'm moving back to the area this week, so hopefully I'll get to check out the area and see what's up since all the info I have so far is from my riding buddies. I guess if stuff keeps getting placed in the trails then I may look into taking some course of action, but for now I'll just watch and see how things turn out.

[Pedalphile]

I forwarded this to the person who probably knows these trails better than anyone around. His reply... (edited)

... The Bump is a quiet area that doesn't get bothered because we don't get in any body's face about the right to be there and ride. We keep it quiet because it is mostly Reservoir watershed land, or privately owned. If there is a big promotion to ride the trails, they could be closed easily. ... tell these guys to just go there and keep there mouths shut. We met them several weeks ago, invited them to Thursday nite ride, but they ride real DH bikes and push them back up the hill.
No one in our group intentionally put logs on the trails. There have been a few nut jobs over the years that try to do their own speed bumps if you will, but they usually give up since we remove them when we come thru.

Anyway, better to just let it be, ride them when you can and leave quietly and cleanly.

Rich

[Inclag]

I forwarded this to the person who probably knows these trails better than anyone around. His reply... (edited)

... The Bump is a quiet area that doesn't get bothered because we don't get in any body's face about the right to be there and ride. We keep it quiet because it is mostly Reservoir watershed land, or privately owned. If there is a big promotion to ride the trails, they could be closed easily. ... tell these guys to just go there and keep there mouths shut. We met them several weeks ago, invited them to Thursday nite ride, but they ride real DH bikes and push them back up the hill.
No one in our group intentionally put logs on the trails. There have been a few nut jobs over the years that try to do their own speed bumps if you will, but they usually give up since we remove them when we come thru.

Anyway, better to just let it be, ride them when you can and leave quietly and cleanly.

Rich




Cool, tell your friend thanks!

I'll be interested in seeing what these obstacles are since I'm moving back to the area this week. I about this this for a couple of reasons. The first being to make people aware of this since we as mountain bikers know how trail access issues can get out of hand when things like this start happening and I figured the earlier I could make people aware of the issue, the easier it would be to fix any problems (which hopefully there will be no more, like pedalphile has said in frequently has ocurred in the past).

The other reason (and I don't mean this to be disrespectful) was to try to get into contact with the riders my friends had ran into on the trail. My friend who had told me about doesn't think that it could have been the group they ran into because he said they were all really cool and psyched to see other riders on the trails, but besides that group the only other person they have ran into up there this year was a 70+ year old german accented man who we stopped to talk to since he was marking out some of the trails and was trying to find the yellow one.

I just want to find out what is going on and I figured that through some online forums I could somehow get in contact with some other group of riders that ride there (including the group my friends ran into).

We know that section of trails could be closed easily as well and that is one reason we are so careful (and why I am online writing about it). Likewise there are some trails that are in that area that are newer trails which can just as easily get bikers kicked out of the area.

In anycase, I know that my friend that brought this situation to attention to me has been doing some research into who owns the land in these areas as well as looking into who maintains the park trails as we are thinking about working on a proposal to try to allow us the ability to maintain, work on, and maybe build new trails within the area so that bikers don't have to be so careful about what is being done. In anycase if your friends are interested fire me a PM and we can get in contact.

[BrianK]

I rode cascades this afternoon and saw the new log crossings you talked about. It really wasn't too bad, I only saw 2 new crossings on the trails I rode and they both now had a nice dirt ramp smoothing them out (done by your friends?). The one hidden around the backside of a rock wall is a bit dangerous. I'm not sure why these were added. The one closer to the waterfall (blue trail) looks like an intentional speed bump before a some blind S turns.

Other than that, it looks like someone did a lot of trail work in there. Some of the trails have been swept of debris very nicely. A tough log crossing had the the very end of the log cut off to provide an easier route on that climb. I think its a great compromise as most of the log is still there. Blazes were also repainted on some trails.

So overall, things look great there abliet a little wet. Not sure what the new log piles are about, but they're now ridable. No major interuptions in flow of the trail.