The past few Thursdays I have ridden with a great group of guys and gals from the bike line team and some of the del trail spinners. The group is more diverse in rider ability than the usual rides I haunt. This is a strength of the ride for me, and fits perfectly with my Thursday night. The ride is very fri
endly, very fun. Fred is funny as shit. The group moves along at a great clip, and despite my efforts to sit in more, I still think I end up riding way too fast, but that is all part of riding in groups.Like probably 90% of the mountain bike population winter time means night riding. Yeah we all know technically, it’s not legal, because all parks close at dusk. We also accept that we know the areas that are patrolled, and we stay out of them. For the most part, we figure who the hell is gonna care is about a gang of middle aged folk, dressed in lycra, with mag lights duct taped to their helmets, riding through parkland after dark.
Hmmm. Well, I guess County Park Game Warden Erica Oligher minds. And last night after almost 2 hours of single track bliss, and hanging on for dear life as Johnny, Eric, Jaimie lead the group through a wonderful loop, she cruised up to tell us how much she minded. As we gathered for a quick regroup, we all watched in horror as we saw an SUV cruisin
g up the gravel road towards us. We joked that it was some kids parking, then we saw the blue and red flashing in the night.The cheerful and jovial group got real quite, real fast. Having picked up a ticked for night riding 3-4 years ago. I was not happy at the thought of having to pay a $250 ticket for tonight’s tryst in the woods. Emerson says that if you disagree with a law, and you choose to ignore it you have to be willing to face the consequences, and protest loudly. Failure to do this is cowardice. Frankly, $250 was making me feel pretty yellow. But at the last second, I bowed my head, and prepared myself for my punishment. Ole Ralph Waldo would have been proud. Luckily for my wallet, County Game Warden Erica Oligher saw the sheer size of our group and figured she’d better save her ticket writing hand, and directed us out of the woods and back to our cars. As we rolled out, we passed another game warden pulling a huge trailer. My guess was to confiscate bikes? What was their plan, take all our bikes and leave us to walk out of the woods?
In the end we all recognize that night riding is well, illegal. Further we recognize that County Game Warden Erica Oligher was very cool letting us off the hook. And while we all felt a weird punch in the gut after being busted, because most of us have been night riding here for close to 10 years. We also rejoiced in the fact that our ride was almost over anyway, and Day Light Savings time starts this Weekend! So Next week at the same time, If we see County Game Warden Erica Oligher, We’ll all smile, wave and continue on our way unabated. VIVA LA REVOLOUTION !
respect
fm
7 comments:
Sometimes I wonder why the govn't wastes time and money saving ourselves. If people want to ride at night, let them ride at their own risk. Dude if they fall and get hurt and are stranded out there overnight, then it's Darwinism pure and simple. They should have a proceed at your own risk after sundown sign.
ride on dood,
Flashing lights are always a buzz kill:) Darwinism..... funny shiat.
You've been linked fatman, good luck dis weekend.
Peace
When I was riding through the parking area, I noticed a County Police Officer was parked up on the gravel road close to the entrance. I kinda thought there was something going on, but then I thought maybe he was just taking a break from his usual job as he was eating something at the time (too easy to say eating doughnuts, so I will not say that).
At least this is the last week of night rides with lights!
Nice...I've had that problem in the past. If you have to drive to the ride start don't park at the usual spots where rangers will be checking...and waiting for you at the end of the ride.
A couple of times we've turned off the lights and gone into stealth mode when the heat was on, but we've learned to avoid the patrollable areas.
From my new digs I've been doing a couple of early AM rides per week, including this morning 8-) and not had any hassles.
The past few weeks I've only needed the lights for the first 30 minutes.
Night riding rocks and night/sunrise rides are an amazing way to start the day.
Criminals we may be, but I'd argue we're making the world a better place by riding our bikes in the woods in the dark like a bunch of crazy mofo's.
Word.
OH Marc!
This brings back memories of riding in Loch Raven in Baltimore at night and being a dumbass and trying to ride the connector road to the next trailset. While our group was not caught on the trails, the nice county cop did point out that since we did not have the required reflectors and rear lights to be riding on the road, we would need to walk out of the park and back to our cars.
It was a long, cold, dark walk, and she sat in her car behind us for the whole hour it took us to walk back. The upsode? It was during this long walk that I discovered that if you drag your SPD cleats as you walk they made cool sparks as they hit the road surface. . .cool sparky shoes are fun!
Long live the fight!
xo
m
I've spent more time riding in the dark without lights in the past few years. It's kinda fun - outside of a few wrecks. One night with Fort James really stands out. The wardens were after us and knew we were there. They just couldn't see us. Usually, and luckilly they are lazier than we are. It reminds me of Camp Rodney, hiding from the truck's searchlight when I was a boyscout. Opps I'm seeing a pattern.
The shear bliss of having a friend who lives directly across from the secondary parking lot of my night ride haunt. I can park 30 ft from the trail head and have nothing look odd. Also, never see rangers past midnight.
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