Ranger faces harassment after illegal mountain bike tracks shut down

Hobart ranger harassed after illegal bike tracks shut down on Kunanyi/Mount Wellington In short: Ranger Ben Masterman says some mountain bikers have begun to use walking tracks on Hobart's Kunanyi/Mount Wellington, after illegally cut tracks were shut down. Some of the walking routes have been modified to deter mountain bikers from using the tracks. Some within the mountain biking community say the bike trails on the mountain are too easy, outdated and in disrepair. The closure of illegally cut mountain bike tracks on Kunanyi/Mount Wellington has led to harassment of park staff, a Hobart park ranger says. In the past year, half a dozen unauthorised tracks have appeared across the mountain overlooking Hobart, according to Wellington Park Management Trust ranger Ben Masterman. The popular reserve offers a wide range of walking tracks and some mountain bike trails, which are maintained by Hobart City Council. This year, a number of incidents had raised alarm bells for the Wellington Park ranger. Mr Masterman told 936 ABC Hobart that six illegally made tracks made by a small group of riders had been found this year, all of which had since been shut down. Loading..."It seems to have upset some of them,"Mr Masterman said. "And they've taken to doing things that are a bit unsavoury." He said the group of mountain bikers had begun to use walking tracks instead in pursuit of more challenging routes, leading to several "near misses" with unsuspecting hikers. "It's a real test of skill and they're admittedly very good riders and the bikes are very capable and can be stopped very quickly," he said. "But not if they're in the middle of the air, at head height, crossing a walking track." Several routes which were improperly used have since been modified to deter riders. Mr Masterman said he had become the target of harassment from a small cohort of mountain bikers. "People have been ringing me and basically kind of leaving harassing messages and sending offensive pictures,"he said. Calls for more trails near Hobart Tasmanian trail developer Robert Potter said it can be difficult for major cities to develop new trails due to conflicting land uses but there were "good opportunities" to improve access to mountain bike trails near Hobart. While he now works at a planning and strategy level for mountain bike trail developments, Mr Potter said he "took the usual path" many young riders followed. "I was building trails illegally on neglected or forgotten pockets of land around where I lived," he said. "Because the sorts of trails that I wanted to ride didn't exist at the time." He said because Hobart was situated so close to vast, mountainous terrain, he believed there was an expectation from many riders that more trails should exist on the mountain. But despite that expectation, Mr Potter said an unsanctioned, informal network of trails in South Hobart was currently doing the "heavy lifting" for recreational mountain biking routes in Hobart. "Without that, there would be a far greater demand placed on the public land on Mount Wellington," he said. Tasmania has become a highly regarded mountain biking destination in recent years with tourism-oriented trails appearing in remote pockets of the state, but Mr Potter said there were few recreational trails near Hobart and Launceston. It is a sentiment shared by others in the mountain biking community. "If you look at the legal trails actually in the Hobart region, there's really only a handful," Daniel Wilson, a long-time mountain biker who moved to the state to be closer its world-renowned trails, said. Mr Wilson said the few legal trails on Kunanyi/Mount Wellington were outdated or too easy for many riders, and in varying levels of disrepair. "I don't think anyone actually wants to ride walking trails. No-one gets a buzz out of that,"he said. "It just sometimes gets to the point where the walking trail is actually the better way to ride your bike down the hill." He said if more authorised mountain bike trails were built in the area, he believed there would be fewer people riding on walking trails.