Featured in the September 04′ Issue of BIKE Magazine

In January of 2003, myself (Brad Walton) and Matt Norris decided that we needed a new trail because the ones that we ride every day and take for granted were not good enough. As you all know, freeriding has evolved the sport of mountain biking to include more than just a singletrack trail in the woods. Now the heart of mountain biking revolves around just being out there with your friends having fun on whatever the terrain. The trails that we usually ride in the Wilson’s Creek area of the Pisgah National Forest are awesome, but despite having nearly 100 miles of trails to ride, we were in search of something new, more challenging, and more fun. We figured that if all the new videos and magazines were talking about these awesome trails popping up everywhere that include built stunts made of wood and big jumps and tree rides, that it would be a great idea to take that to our favorite riding spot. With the gaining popularity of this website (much before our trail building prosecution), we had a vision that maybe one day all the riders from NC that get on this website, that have found us and ride with us because of what has become of Hick Park, that maybe we could push rider interest deeper into the woods, where the terrain is steeper, longer, bigger. This would push the limits of our current trails.

I guess we got the idea from our trip to British Columbia, where mountain biking is the most popular thing to do. It seemed that everyone rode. Doctors, grandpaws, kids under 10, moms, the hot older sister, it didn’t matter who you are, there is a common bond in the riding community. The trails on the North Shore push the limits of every rider in the world, but there are all levels of trails, from very easy 4 foot wide hardpack gravel paths to the heights of the Ridiculator, a 200 foot long wooden structure 6 inches wide 20 feet above the forest floor. These trails are not just on the North Shore either. All across the province of BC, you can find these types of trails. The mountain bikers build the trails, ride them, and maintain them. BC is now the most popular destination world wide for mountain biking, and several communities where no economy existed before have turned into BC’s most popular tourist destinations, with their greatest economic dependency being a mountain bike. Every mountain bike video, magazine, and website in the world in the past year has references to mountain biking in British Columbia. This is what motivated us, the possibility for change, the popularity of the sport, the media telling us that people love it, that it is fun, that it is good. We obviously didn’t consider to look far enough into the legallity of these trails.

We decided to construct a new trail which would include various aspects of the best mountain bike trails we have ever ridden. We wanted it singletrack, we wanted it steep, fast, and technical, we wanted big jumps, huge berms, and ladder drops, with lots of rocks, and whatever the terrain would offer us. We wanted fellow riders to have a chance to use that new technology bikes are equipped with these days, to really have fun trying new things, the thrill of accomplishment in doing something that you were afraid of.
We knew we wanted it in Wilson’s Creek, but were unsure about cutting trees, digging roots, everything that goes into building a trail where there isn’t one. One day, I was riding up Mortimer Piedmont road to the Sinkhole trail and saw a little stint off to the side of the road where a truck had be driving up into a dip in the mountain. I figured I would check it out to see where it went. It was really steep, so I ditched my bike and took off on foot up a doubletrack side-hill cut. It didn’t take long for me to realize that the trail I was on was cut by the US Forest Service to extinguish a fire. Two years ago, a motorist attempted to make a 3-point turn on a one lane forest road. A tire went off the road and a rock sparked the gas tank, resulting in a huge forest fire that took over a week to extinguish. I don’t know how much land it was, but it encompasses all of lower Chestnut Mountain. The entire mountain side I was walking on was scorched, ashy and black. All the trees under a 6-inch diameter were dead. All the rhododendron was blackened and dead, there was no underbrush at all. The soil was black and rocky. The profile of the ridge was fantastic for a trail, and the technical features included big fallen trees to build stunts with, lots of open rock faces, good dense soil, and I knew this was it. I hiked to the top, and found every feature imaginable for riding a bike on. I told Matt about it, and we went to look at it, where we decided that was the place.

Since the trail users of Wilson’s Creek do all the trail maintenance, we figured it was okay to go ahead and build this trail. Unfortunately for us, a permit is required for any trail modifications. We told some people about it, and Brian Tunstill and Charles Moore decided to help us. The work went very fast, since there was already a trail there, and there was no brush to clear. We didn’t have to cut down any trees, and the dirt was very easy to move. After a few weeks, the trail was mid-Picasso. A real masterpiece much surpassing my wildest dreams of what I thought it would be like. Somewhere along the line, the word Nam turned up, short for Vietnam, which was fitting for such a location: it was charred black, like total devastation, and it was unknown territory, big and bad, scary. Nam became the name of the trail. Big 25-foot gap jumps, log rides, 5-foot high 50-foot long berms, ladder drops, steep rock faces, the works. Most of the trail flowed straight down the mountain, following the existing fire cut, we just added more into it and ventured off trail to include more technical features. It was as bad as it gets.

Nowhere in the building of the trail did we consider that we were wrongful in building it. I guess it was a combination of the rights of other users like horseback riders and hunters that made us think it was okay. Regardless of what we thought and what our reasons of defense are, we were wrong. Our trail was located in National Forest property. We didn’t ask the US Forest Service if we could do it. Our trail was also unfit for the mountain, meaning that we were planning on riding straight down the fall line, which would eventually erode the mountain into a trench. Even if we were to upkeep it like we planned, the mountain which I thought was charred and useless, turns out to be the most ecologically sensitve area in Wilson’s Creek. Our methods of trail building were not professional, and although we thought we were really good at it and that what we did was beautiful, we were actually further destroying the ecology of Chestnut Mountain.

On February 28, 2003, we were approached by USFS rangers at gunpoint while working on Nam, and we were charged with “Constructing and maintaining a trail on USFS property without a permit” and “Cutting and damaging timber, trees, and forest resources without a permit.” Our equipment was seized, and we were in awe at what had just happened. Apparently, the rangers had known about it for awhile, and were just waiting for the right time to catch us in the act. Pictures of our work had been posted on this website, as we were very proud of what we had done, didn’t think of it as being wrong, and couldn’t wait for all of our fellow riders to enjoy it. After a lengthy period of awaiting trial, we received a date for US District Court for prosecution.

The period during which we were awaiting trial, I just knew that the charges would be dropped since we didn’t know any better. Once again, we were wrong, and are being reprimanded for our actions. We are now banned from the National Forest for an indefinite period, we have been fined, we must complete a certain amount of supervised trail work and attend a trail building seminar to understand how innapropiate and damaging our methods were, and we are on probation. We were wrong to go about building a trail on property other than our own, in our own interest with complete disregard for any rules or regulations, federal or municipal. We did not even ask permission, and are fortunate that one day we will be able to return to the forest we love so much. Let this stand as fair warning to anyone else out there who wishes to build a renegade trail, DON’T DO IT!!! If the forest service allowed just anyone to go out and build on government land without permission, there would not be any land left. The National Forest is a sanctuary for wildlife and a gift for us city-dwellers who wish to relieve our stresses by escaping everyday ordeals. We have gained much appreciation for land, both private and public, through this lesson. We now know that what we did was wrong, and now you know it as well.

For anyone who chooses not to listen to our hard lesson, here’s what can happen:

We are extremely fortunate to have received a pretrial diversion, which allows us to make retribution to the US Forest Service and alleviate any further prosecution. This only happened because we were the first to commit this crime, and the government felt that we can make this a positive learning experience for us and for other public land users. In the future, now that this is a known ordeal, offenders caught building illegal trails and doing un-permitted trail maintenance may receive the prosecution we were threatened with, which includes but is not limitted to:

for each offense, 6 months imprisonment, $5000 fine, banishment from all National Forest property for 2-7 years. These are estimates only, it can be much worse. In Marin County, California, 3 men were sentenced to a year in prison and $50,000 in fines. If you’re not sure, DON’T DO IT!!!

—-Brad Walton, Matt Norris, Brian Tunstill, Charles Moore

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