Downhill cyclists in Felton near the University of California, Santa Cruz campus might need to find a new place to ride.
The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office has said deputies will enforce “no trespassing” laws on a private road in the upper portion of the Forest Lakes subdivision. The road, Toll House Gulch Road, has been used heavily for several years by downhill cyclists being shuttled to the top of a popular downhill cycling destination on California State Parks land between the UCSC campus and Forest Lakes.
Bob Wolfe, the president of the Forest Lakes Homeowners Association, approached the sheriff’s office in June about an ongoing problem of large vans and trucks carrying downhill cyclists up the private, homeowner-maintained roads, with no regard for Forest Lakes residents. Wolfe has also said the parks land adjacent to Forest Lakes is watershed property and is being torn up by cyclists who dig into the hillside to build jumps and widen trails to accommodate downhill riding.
“Damage to the watershed property is what really interests us,” Wolfe said.
Cyclists are unloaded on Scenic Drive at the top of Forest Lakes and ride mountain bikes, specific to downhill riding, down to Highway 9. Once they reach the bottom, they pay a shuttle to drive them to the top for another trip down. State parks officials have acknowledged that the downhill riding damages the land and is not allowed there.
The shuttles have nearly hit some residents and drive too fast, residents said, and the roads have suffered as a result of the extra traffic.
“Forest Lakes is going to place signs up there, and the only people who have access to it are property owners and guests of property owners,” Wolfe said.
Sheriff’s Sgt. Jim Ross said his deputies and the volunteer citizen patrol have made more than 100 area checks on the road since the complaints started and will enforce “no trespassing” laws in Forest Lakes when needed.
Ross noted that it was determined that UCSC does not have an easement right for people to use Forest Lakes as a byway to the campus, which verifies that Toll House Gulch Road is indeed private property.
Wolfe said that many of the cyclists are from out of the area and know is as “world class” downhill cycling, even though it is on state parks land.
People can also reach the slopes from Empire Grade Road, above the UCSC campus, but Wolfe hopes that discontinuing the shuttles through Forest Lakes will cut back on riding in the area.
Downhill cycling requires special bicycles with advanced shock absorbers in the front that cushion riders as they plunge down steep hillsides. Wolfe said he met four bikers from Los Gatos who were respectable young men who said they bought their bikes for $8,000, and he enjoyed watching them ride down the hillside.
“It looked like so much fun,” Wolfe said. “But with the damage being done, we just can’t have that. I just hope state parks can do something.”
