In my town, it's a gate that was put across a 30 foot length of sidewalk that connects two parts of our bike path network in town. The alternate route makes you cross a busy four lane road where people routinely speed. The bikers and runners have lost several court cases, and I find the gate morally reprehensible before you get to any legal arguments. I attended a "bike race" organized in protest earlier this spring. The gate's still there but it was cathartic to do something.
Ugh! Was the gate installed by adjacent home owners? Or by the town? And out of curiosity, how could one go about finding it? Now I’m curious to see this thing for myself. I wish I could have seen the race in-person. What a cool idea.
I'm not tech literate enough to drop a pin in the comment section, but 251 S Kensington, Riverdale IA will get you there. Street view is too low-res for you to read the "Smile, You're On Camera" sign. It's a tiny town with a massive aluminum factory that butts up against the bigger city I live in. As I understand it, gate was installed by the City at the behest of adjacent homeowners, one in particular. The excuse was littering, but I say excuse because I doubt that based on our local trails being, frankly, surprisingly well-kept. I think fondo is the more accurate term, teams ride laps and keep track of how many they've done. Very informal, like I said, more protest than actual athletic event. I don't participate in that kind of thing often (I know, I'm trying to do it more), but it was good to be a part of.
Miles, great reporting. And good writing. Always appreciated. I believe it is a right of citizenship to claim back right-of-ways wherever they have been compromised. Clam flats in Hingham, public property to the high water mark until new property owners decided they took exception to that freedom. Shell fishing rights from the earliest days of the Pilgrims! Shell fishing prevailed but not without legal fees incurred.
Thank you, Jeanne! It might exist already, and I'm going to look for it, but I'd love to read a book about the unsung heroes of land/water access who went out on limbs, paid a price for it, and went largely unrecognized when the wider public embraced the ideas they introduced. I just finished watching ANDOR (shockingly good TV series about how the rebellion in the original Star Wars trilogy gets started) and this is actually a theme that's pretty integral to the show. How the people who sacrifice the most in pushing for change, by pushing when it's most dangerous to do so, are often overlooked or forgotten.
I was reading your story about the road in Freedom, Maine and thinking "has he heard about Estabrook Road"? I live in Concord and am well aware of that controversy. A couple of months ago I was walking another trail through conservation land that I would frequent once a week. The trail joins up with another trail that crosses the back property line of several houses that has always been used by people in the neighborhood, and I have never had a problem before. The last time I was there a woman ran out of one of the houses and accosted me, informing me that I was trespassing. I tried to reassure her "just passing through" and she told me I was breaking the law. I wished her a good day and continued, but sadly I can no longer utilize that trail.
I'm not sure whether to love how many of us immediately thought "ESTABROOK ROAD" when reading the story about Heather Donahue and be dismayed by it, given how prolific that situation with public access and private usurption has become. During the first year of the pandemic, I remember thinking how refreshing it was that the battleground towns like Concord and Lincoln didn't close the parking lots for their woodland trails, in the way that a lot of north/south shore towns banned beach parking to intimidate non-locals. I spent a lot of time on those woodland trails, and now I'm realizing how lucky I was to have avoided encounters with territorial homeowners.
Ah I love this story! Go Heather! Wild about the billboard/loudspeakers. What a CHOICE to disturb your own peace like that.
I feel like we encountered a lot of this tension on the Cohos Trail, although struggling to remember the specifics: If I recall correctly, there was at least one section of trail that had gone through someone's private property until they sold, and the new owners kicked the trail off and forced a longer road walk. I remember the campground owners nearby being a little salty about this, although I *think* in this case it was because the new owners were "from away" and it was an issue of outsiders removing access for locals... I'm not sure there would have been as much local irritation if the new owners were themselves local. (Main difference is there likely wasn't an expectation of historical access, unfortunately, although who knows really. But it was probably too far out in the country to have regular, long established use.)
And then it went the other way, too: The day we couldn't follow the real trail because there were multiple unleashed and seemingly aggressive dogs barring our way, so we cut up towards a house a bit ahead of the scary dogs and spoke with the new owners (also from away, I think, or at least from Boston or something lol) of a Christmas tree farm who were EAGER to let us cut through their woods to find the trail because I think they wanted to foster goodwill amongst local neighbors. Said they'd be giving xmas trees away to locals, but were just as nice to us when we said we were from NYC.
Right? The way that people will knowingly shoot themselves in the feet as long as it means keeping others pinned down is really something. Kind of reflects a lot of what's happening to our country these days, IMO.
I was wondering if you were going to refer to the aggressive and unleashed dogs that seem to have given a lot of Cohos Trail hikers trouble! Was this in Pittsburg? The stories that I've heard are scary; enough that I might just skip that part of the trail if I hike the whole thing eventually. The detour that you used and the amenability of the other homeowners really demonstrates how the experience of being outside can be saved or ruined by a single person who owns property. Seems like we can have reasonable property rights without having land access and safety hinge around the whims of individuals like this.
Regarding the trend where a new owner buys a piece of land through which a trail runs...and cuts off access...you may have heard this already, but climbing Mount Cabot (northernmost NH 4,000 footer) used to be a relatively doable 5-ish mile day hike. Now it's a 12+ mile day hike due to an adjacent landowner deciding that he no longer wanted the public using the access trail that ran through his property. Crazy shit.
In my town, it's a gate that was put across a 30 foot length of sidewalk that connects two parts of our bike path network in town. The alternate route makes you cross a busy four lane road where people routinely speed. The bikers and runners have lost several court cases, and I find the gate morally reprehensible before you get to any legal arguments. I attended a "bike race" organized in protest earlier this spring. The gate's still there but it was cathartic to do something.
Ugh! Was the gate installed by adjacent home owners? Or by the town? And out of curiosity, how could one go about finding it? Now I’m curious to see this thing for myself. I wish I could have seen the race in-person. What a cool idea.
I'm not tech literate enough to drop a pin in the comment section, but 251 S Kensington, Riverdale IA will get you there. Street view is too low-res for you to read the "Smile, You're On Camera" sign. It's a tiny town with a massive aluminum factory that butts up against the bigger city I live in. As I understand it, gate was installed by the City at the behest of adjacent homeowners, one in particular. The excuse was littering, but I say excuse because I doubt that based on our local trails being, frankly, surprisingly well-kept. I think fondo is the more accurate term, teams ride laps and keep track of how many they've done. Very informal, like I said, more protest than actual athletic event. I don't participate in that kind of thing often (I know, I'm trying to do it more), but it was good to be a part of.
This IS reprehensible wtf.
Miles, great reporting. And good writing. Always appreciated. I believe it is a right of citizenship to claim back right-of-ways wherever they have been compromised. Clam flats in Hingham, public property to the high water mark until new property owners decided they took exception to that freedom. Shell fishing rights from the earliest days of the Pilgrims! Shell fishing prevailed but not without legal fees incurred.
Thank you, Jeanne! It might exist already, and I'm going to look for it, but I'd love to read a book about the unsung heroes of land/water access who went out on limbs, paid a price for it, and went largely unrecognized when the wider public embraced the ideas they introduced. I just finished watching ANDOR (shockingly good TV series about how the rebellion in the original Star Wars trilogy gets started) and this is actually a theme that's pretty integral to the show. How the people who sacrifice the most in pushing for change, by pushing when it's most dangerous to do so, are often overlooked or forgotten.
I was reading your story about the road in Freedom, Maine and thinking "has he heard about Estabrook Road"? I live in Concord and am well aware of that controversy. A couple of months ago I was walking another trail through conservation land that I would frequent once a week. The trail joins up with another trail that crosses the back property line of several houses that has always been used by people in the neighborhood, and I have never had a problem before. The last time I was there a woman ran out of one of the houses and accosted me, informing me that I was trespassing. I tried to reassure her "just passing through" and she told me I was breaking the law. I wished her a good day and continued, but sadly I can no longer utilize that trail.
I'm not sure whether to love how many of us immediately thought "ESTABROOK ROAD" when reading the story about Heather Donahue and be dismayed by it, given how prolific that situation with public access and private usurption has become. During the first year of the pandemic, I remember thinking how refreshing it was that the battleground towns like Concord and Lincoln didn't close the parking lots for their woodland trails, in the way that a lot of north/south shore towns banned beach parking to intimidate non-locals. I spent a lot of time on those woodland trails, and now I'm realizing how lucky I was to have avoided encounters with territorial homeowners.
Ah I love this story! Go Heather! Wild about the billboard/loudspeakers. What a CHOICE to disturb your own peace like that.
I feel like we encountered a lot of this tension on the Cohos Trail, although struggling to remember the specifics: If I recall correctly, there was at least one section of trail that had gone through someone's private property until they sold, and the new owners kicked the trail off and forced a longer road walk. I remember the campground owners nearby being a little salty about this, although I *think* in this case it was because the new owners were "from away" and it was an issue of outsiders removing access for locals... I'm not sure there would have been as much local irritation if the new owners were themselves local. (Main difference is there likely wasn't an expectation of historical access, unfortunately, although who knows really. But it was probably too far out in the country to have regular, long established use.)
And then it went the other way, too: The day we couldn't follow the real trail because there were multiple unleashed and seemingly aggressive dogs barring our way, so we cut up towards a house a bit ahead of the scary dogs and spoke with the new owners (also from away, I think, or at least from Boston or something lol) of a Christmas tree farm who were EAGER to let us cut through their woods to find the trail because I think they wanted to foster goodwill amongst local neighbors. Said they'd be giving xmas trees away to locals, but were just as nice to us when we said we were from NYC.
Right? The way that people will knowingly shoot themselves in the feet as long as it means keeping others pinned down is really something. Kind of reflects a lot of what's happening to our country these days, IMO.
I was wondering if you were going to refer to the aggressive and unleashed dogs that seem to have given a lot of Cohos Trail hikers trouble! Was this in Pittsburg? The stories that I've heard are scary; enough that I might just skip that part of the trail if I hike the whole thing eventually. The detour that you used and the amenability of the other homeowners really demonstrates how the experience of being outside can be saved or ruined by a single person who owns property. Seems like we can have reasonable property rights without having land access and safety hinge around the whims of individuals like this.
Regarding the trend where a new owner buys a piece of land through which a trail runs...and cuts off access...you may have heard this already, but climbing Mount Cabot (northernmost NH 4,000 footer) used to be a relatively doable 5-ish mile day hike. Now it's a 12+ mile day hike due to an adjacent landowner deciding that he no longer wanted the public using the access trail that ran through his property. Crazy shit.