Zach Urness

Statesman Journal

Just days after the grand opening of a trail specially designed for mountain bikers at Silver Falls State Park, a group of horseback riders reportedly inflicted damage on a pathway they are prohibited from traveling.

The Catamount Trail, a 4.5-mile route in the park’s backcountry, was created in part to ease tensions between mountain bikers and equestrians in a place where the two groups are sometimes at odds.

However, on May 2, a group of seven equestrians rode the length of the trail in what Salem Area Trail Alliance coordinator Beth Dayton called “an act of intentional vandalism, carefully timed to follow the very public opening of the trail.”

The Catamount Trail was constructed and financed by volunteers of the biking group SATA. It has specially designed bike features, such as banked turns, and is only open to mountain bikes and hikers. Three signs — at the trail's west, east and main trailhead — clearly indicate horses are not allowed.

New mountain bike trail opens at Silver Falls State Park

The horse riders left deep footprints and did “considerable damage” to the trail, SATA said in a Facebook post. Volunteer work will be needed to repair the damage and there is discussion of adding an offset fence to keep horses off the trail, Dayton said.

“The worst thing about this action is not so much the physical damage to the trail surface, which can be repaired in time, but the effect this might have on polarizing opinion and inflaming passions when in reality, the majority of both mountain bikers and equestrians understand that there is room on the trails for all of us,” Dayton said. “It is sad to think of the very few individuals who would like to use this as an excuse for confrontation and finger-pointing.”

According to reports, seven equestrians were seen on the trail Monday. When approached by a mountain biker, they reportedly refused to allow him to pass or leave the trail.

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Cindy Ahlbrecht, chair of the Silver Falls chapter of the Oregon Equestrian Trails, condemned the action and emphasized that no one from the group was involved.

“No one from our group would intentionally do damage to a trail. We put in lots of volunteer hours working on trails and know how much work it takes,” Ahlbrecht said. “Even if we were unhappy about a bike-only trail, we would never intentionally do damage to it.”

Ahlbrecht said there was some frustration about a bike-only trail at Silver Falls and the speed with which it was created.

“The bike trail appears to have been fast-tracked,” she said. “It was originally designated to be a horse trail.

“So while there’s a little frustration, we want to work together with all the user groups.”

Dayton echoed the same sentiment.

“We all need to remember that the person on the bike and the person on the horse are just that: people,” Dayton wrote in an email. “Whether you recreate in a shiny helmet and Lycra or leather chaps and a wide-brimmed hat, we all need to look out for each other.”

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Zach Urness has been an outdoors writer, photographer and videographer in Oregon for eight years. He is the author of the book “Hiking Southern Oregon” and can be reached at zurness@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6801. Find him on Zach Urness or @ZachsORoutdoors on Twitter.