‘I may pour concrete’: Saboteur vandalizes new Beacon Hill bike trails with grease, threatening signs

A saboteur is making mountain biking even more dangerous at Beacon Hill by damaging trails and threatening more vandalism as the city of Spokane makes improvements to the popular area’s parking lots and trails.

Just east of Minnehaha Park, a person has poured grease across a rock feature that caused at least one rider to slip and fall. The vandal has claimed to have buried spikes on the trail to puncture tires.

Why? The person scrawled a long message bemoaning expansion of mountain biking trails in the city’s best-known bike park.

“I have endless time to mess with this loop… Obstacles, caltrops, hidden spikes. Hell I may pour concrete,” a sign posted in the area read. The threatening note was affixed to a tree near the site where trails are planned to be constructed by the local chapter of the Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance, a nonprofit that works in concert with the city to build and maintain the trails as part of a $2.9 million project that also includes Spokane County.

The signage called the trail project “Destruction in service of two-wheeled amusement,” and was accompanied by vandalism of a nearby trail with what appeared to be grease, according to a post to the group’s Facebook page.

The slippery substance was spread across a rocky outcropping, which caused rider Harley Dobson to take a spill.

“The slip got me this morning,” Dobson, trail coordinator for the group, wrote in a post to the page.

The Spokane Police Department received reports on Friday, according to Julie Humphreys, communications manager for the Department.

Police will investigate the case, but it has not yet been assigned, she said.

Because of the ongoing investigation, Chris Conley, president of the nonprofit Evergreen, said he could not discuss details of the vandalization.

“Somebody was injured, and that’s all I can comment on it,” Conley said. “We’re going to let the police do their investigation and hopefully find the person that is responsible and get it stopped before it escalates.”

As it is part of a new project, the area does not yet have sanctioned trails, he said. The group began some preliminary work to the trails about two weeks ago, at which point the threatening notes began to appear.

In response, city workers made postings to the area that address the saboteur and anyone with information about the case, according to Fianna Dickson, spokeswoman for parks and recreation.

“We posted signs asking people with questions or concerns to contact us in an effort to better understand some of the frustrations or concerns, as well as to receive any information,” Dickson said. “But we really rely on law enforcement at this point for the investigation.”

During the planning phases of the project, called Make Beacon Hill Public, Garrett Jones, director of parks and recreation, said there was little pushback from the public.

“This effort really goes back to around 2008 when some of the master planning started happening for Beacon Hill and Camp Sekani Park,” Jones said. “As far as community engagement, open houses and hearings when the public had a chance to comment – it’s all been very positive.”

According to Conley, the section of trails is planned to be completed this autumn.

But the person hanging signs wants the area left alone.

“Back off. Let the rest of us have our share,” a sign reads. “This run will never, ever be reliably safe.”