This has great potential to turn into a rant but I will try to keep it from becoming one.
No body hates it more than I do when that big sign goes up over a trail. But when it does, please realize that that sign is the better of the two paths forward; the alternative is to have the trail decommissioned.
Im going to keep this no names to keep everybody protected but here is the recent scenario:
Builders fought very very very hard to keep a trail that is on private land from being sawed down. It was very close but in the end we saved the trail, at least temporarily, by making some other deals and by convincing the landowner that disclaimer signage would protect them. Builders begged the landowner to put those signs up as the chainsaws were going in.
Some probably well intentioned but very misguided individual, Im assuming a biker, recently removed the landowners disclaimer signage that the builders begged for. YES, they removed the only thing protecting the trail from the chainsaws! I dont know why but Im guessing to keep the trail, which they do nothing to help support BTW, more hidden. Its not impossible that its a disgruntled hiker wanting to piss off the landowner and make it look like bikers are being this disrespectful, but its probably a biker who thinks that they are doing good by messing with signs when they have no idea of the backstory.
New signs are going back up (at the expense and effort of the landowner BTW).
Please people, once a trail is found, the signage is the one thing that protects the landowner from the liabilities. There is no more trail without those signs.
