A 64-year-old woman charged with setting booby traps on trails at North Vancouver’s Mt. Fromme has become a recluse, afraid to leave home because of the publicity surrounding the RCMP probe, her husband says.

On Tuesday, charges against Tineke Kraal were approved and she is to appear in North Van provincial court Feb. 4. The Upper Lynn Valley resident is charged with setting or placing a trap with intent, mischief to obstruct the enjoyment of property and another count of mischief in endangering a life.

Her husband, retiree Ronald Kraal, said Tuesday his once-active, outdoors-loving wife is having health problems because of the charges and has just hired a lawyer.

“My wife is in really bad shape over all this,” Ronald said. “I have never seen her cry this much.

“They’re making a mountain out of a molehill. When she goes for a hike, she has to jump for safety,” he said of her complaints about bikers on the internationally renowned trails of Mt. Fromme. “Most of the mountain bikers are nice people, it is just a handful of idiots.

“Some of the mountain bikers come down the hill like gangbusters and she is super afraid of the dogs and herself getting hit.”

And while he said his wife will contest the charges, Ronald said she did alter the trails to slow the riders.

“She put some branches down to slow them down,” he said.

“But mischief and setting a trap — that is nonsense.”

Ronald said Tineke, a retired goldsmith with no children, is too upset to talk publicly about her ordeal.

“My wife doesn’t want to talk about this — we just hope this goes away.”

Because of the extensive media coverage, Ronald said his wife will not be in court next week, sending her lawyer instead.

“She is too nervous to go to court,” he said. “All she did was try to protect herself and her dogs and hopefully get these mountain bikers to slow down.”

Among the conditions of Tineke’s release was that she not go onto the trails on Mt. Fromme, Ronald said.

North Van RCMP Cpl. Richard De Jong said police acted after they were provided with video footage of trails being sabotaged in the Lower Skull and Quarry Court trail areas.

According to De Jong, the two trails had been vandalized from August to December 2014.

“It was endangerment to the public,” he said of the vandalism.

Tineke was arrested Jan. 4 at 5 a.m. at the Quarry Court trailhead.

North Shore Mountain Bike Association (NSMBA) president Vince Beasse said they were concerned about someone getting seriously hurt because of the significant trail tampering.

He also points out that mountain biking on Fromme has changed tremendously over the past decade. He denied there was a war in the woods and said for the most part, hikers and bikers get along in the extensive trail network, many of which are maintained by the NSMBA.

“For the most part, all the trail users up there get along,” he said.

Since they moved into the Upper Lynn neighbourhood in 1990, Ronald and Tineke have attended many District of North Vancouver council meetings to voice their opposition to the bikers on Mt. Fromme.

Upper Lynn Valley resident Monica Craver has also since 2005 voiced her opposition to the bikers. She remembers Ronald and Tineke as far back as 2005 showing their support in her anti-bike campaign.

“I know them because they were involved years ago when we were fighting for Mountainview Park,” Craver said.

“It all got so twisted,” she said of the war in the woods a decade ago.

But, she said, the issue remains as more bikers flock to Fromme.

“It is the Wild West out here,” she said. “The mountain bikers are an aggressive bunch and there is still conflict. We are fighting for some sort of civility up there. I have had it with these mountain bikers.

“These mountain bikers are no angels.”

jcolebourn@theprovince.com