Over the past two months, Jerry Williams' blood has been boiling.

The avid hunter from Lititz just about exploded Monday as he walked an illegal trail through State Game Lands 145 outside Mount Gretna, that clearly was being used by people riding mountain bikes.

Trees up to six inches in diameter had been recently cut down by a chainsaw.

Bicycle tire tracks gouged the mud in low-lying, wet spots.

And large slabs of rocks had been purposefully positioned to create ramps off large boulders.

"This really makes me mad," said Williams, 67, a semi-retired handyman. "This land was paid for by hunters, and these people are acting like it's theirs."

The groomed trail, which Williams said was built over the past two months, winds for about a mile through a wooded section of SGL 145, south of Route 117, to the west of Mount Gretna.

"I'm worried this is being set up for a race or something," Williams said. "This isn't just a one-time trail made by one or two guys."

It's illegal to cut such trails in any State Game Lands, according to Cheryl Trewella, the Pennsylvania Game Commission's information and education supervisor for the southeast region.

And it's illegal to ride mountain bikes anywhere but on designated trails, unless using the bike to get to a hunting spot.

That's been a Game Commission rule since 1996, when the agency kicked mountain bikers and horseback riders off all but a few, designated trails on State Game Lands across the state, due to overuse.

Wildly popular in the local biking and equestrian communities, the Gretna game lands was at the center of that move by the Game Commission, which claimed such users were damaging natural habitats with their riding.

Initially, the Game Commission designated only the Horseshoe Trail through SGL 145 for bikes and horses.

That move provoked angry protests, including a silent ride by some 500 horse owners, from Colebrook to Mount Gretna on Route 117.

Many bikers and equestrians went to Game Commission meetings and begged the agency's directors to reconsider.

Eventually, the biking and horse-riding communities worked with the Game Commission to open up a few more trails, pledging to police themselves and to help fix damage that hooves and tires might cause.

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Every mountain bike rider in the area is familiar with that fight, said Mike Farrington, owner of Green Mountain Cyclery in Ephrata.

"They know full well they're not supposed to be in there," said Farrington, who was unaware of the recent activities at SGL 145.

"It's a few people who always ruin a good thing for everyone."

Trewella said local Game Commission officials know about the new trail, although they might not yet have seen the very recent activity to extend and clear it.

Williams discovered it while walking through the property about six weeks ago.

"It wasn't much at first, so I didn't think much of it," he said. "But every week I went back, it got bigger."

Williams said he notified the Game Commission about the path, which heads south off the Horseshoe Trail, winding through boulder fields and across small streams.

In some places, every tree and piece of brush taller than a person's knee has been cut in swaths up to 10 feet across.

And the path itself has been cleared down to bare dirt.

"There's just no excuse for that," an audibly irritated Farrington said during a phone interview.

"There are plenty of places where you can legally ride in Mount Gretna, and if that's not enough for you, there are three (mountain biking) parks within an hour and half of us."

Game Commission officials will be watching the area, Trewella said, and riders caught on non-designated trails, as well as anyone seen cutting paths, will be cited.

"This is a problem that pops up from time to time, but it's not something that's chronic or widespread right now," she said.

Williams just wants the destruction in his favorite hunting spot to stop.

"What the heck are people thinking?" he said.