Article content continued

“When she goes for a hike she has to jump for safety,” he said of her complaints about mountain bikers on the internationally renowned trails of Mount 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,” he said.

Kraal said his wife will contest the charges, but he acknowledged that she did alter the trails.

“She put some branches down to slow them down,” he said “But mischief and setting a trap — that is nonsense.”

Right now, Kraal said his wife, a retired goldsmith with no children, is too upset to talk publicly about her ordeal. “This is ridiculous,” he said of the charges. “She is not booby-trapping the trails.

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

Due to the extensive media coverage of the alleged trail vandalism, Kraal said, his wife will not be in court next week, instead sending her lawyer.

“She won’t appear in court,” he said. “She is too nervous to go to court.

“All she did was try to protect herself and her dogs, and hopefully get these mountain bikers to slow down. We hope the whole thing gets dismissed. It has nothing to do with criminality.”

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 Kraal’s release was that she not go into the trails on Mount Fromme, said Kraal.