Mountain bikers struggle for their piece of the trails at Portuguese Bend

Sharing the trail

mountain bike portugese bend

Mountain bikers Greg Scarich, Tim Howell and Berry Barbour enjoy a ride together at the PV Nature Preserve. Photo by David Rosenfeld

Mountain bikers, hikers, and even horses generally shared the trails in Portuguese Bend peacefully for the better part of two decades. Ultimately, however, the area was unprotected and was bound for development if not for the intervention of conservationists and the City of Ranchos Palos Verdes, which enacted a land-use moratorium that gave the Conservancy time to purchase land.

Despite common belief the hillside couldn’t be developed because it sat on an active fault line, much of the land was in fact owned by developers with big plans, said Ailor, who remembers seeing the drawings when he sat on the RPV planning commission.

“One person showed us a map and said there could be a few hundred homes in here,” Ailor said. “He fully thought that was going to happen.”

With preservation came changes. The jumps were removed, even though the city faced no legal liability, because more people were getting hurt and requiring emergency attention. People were hauling in power tools and building bridges and wooden ramps. The shear number of trails had become unmanageable.

By the time the trail use master plan took effect in 2008, the committee had spent two years sorting out the issues.

“The people were tired and the city was telling us to hurry up and get it over with,” said Braswell, who served on the committee with Cicoria at the time.

The City of Rancho Palos Verdes is expected to approve a new trail use plan later this year for the 190-acre portion of property commemorated last month. Amendments to the current trail use plan for the rest of the park will also be presented, said Ara Mihranian, deputy director of community development.

mountain bike portugese bend

Berry Barbour takes a turn at high speed on a recent ride. Photo by David Rosenfeld

Together with the National Park Service, RPV officials held public meetings last year for input on designating trail use on the new property. Enforcement is still a big problem, he said.

“One of the biggest challenges the city and the land conservancy is experiencing is making sure people stay on the designated trails and abide by the usage for that specific trail,” Mihranian said.

Braswell and fellow bikers with the Los Angeles mountain biking organization CORBA are pushing for more access. They worry this upcoming decision could shut mountain biking out for good to the vast majority of trails at one of the last great riding spots in L.A. County.

In many ways, it’s a minor miracle that in a county of 10 million people a wild space still exists for bikers to lose their minds on a network of single-track trails. Yet the posted signs on the trail depicting a bicycle crossed out are a constant reminder of the price of conservation.

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