Mass Audubon is anti-bicycle

Yesterday I did not ride to work. Commuting is great and all, but I felt that a harder post work ride was in order. As luck would have it, I got stuck working late and did not roll out of the parking lot at work until 7. The parkways in the Blue Hills were pretty quiet by then, so I rode over Chickatawbut Road to the Quincy side. Usually there's a lot of traffic using the road to bypass the highway, which is too bad, because the variety of climbs over there is nice.

On the way over, I noticed that the gate at the bottom of the access road leading to the top of Chickatabut Hill was open. As I noted in the comments last week, while shorter than Big Blue, this is a very steep climb. I wasn't warmed up yet, so I went right by, and first took in the climb up from Wood Road, and then went down to Furnace Brook to do the gradual climb all the way up Wampatuk Road and back to the overlook area. I covered this 3.3 km @ 2.3% in 6:56, and as I recall seven minutes was always my benchmark. I then did a loop around the Blue Hills circuit race course before heading back over to try the "other" access road.

Now, for background, the Blue Hills is a 7000+ acre reservation under the control of the Mass DCR. There are several parkways, open to motor vehicle traffic, running through it. After dark some of these are gated and closed. Mountain biking on reservation land is regulated, and mountain bikes are prohibited from all areas east of Route 28, which includes the Chickatawbut Hill area. But I'm on my road bike, and in Mass we are allowed to ride anywhere cars can go, with the exception of limited-access highways.

At the top of the Chickatawbut Hill access road, there is an old Nike missile radar site which has been converted into a park camp of sorts. It has a chain link fence around it. The property is owned by the state, but for some reason this camp and the Trailside Museum are under the control of Mass Audubon, which is a private group. So anyway, I've ridden this paved vehicle road for years anytime the gate was open. Once reaching the top, since the chainlink fence sits at the steepest part of the climb, if the gate is open at the top then I'll ride right though and roll around the small parking lot to catch my breath before heading back down.

So last night I head up, surprised the gate is open at night, and I even see a car heading down. The climb is only about 500 meters long, but it's over 15% for about half of that. It takes me 2 minutes to reach the gate at the top, which is wide open. I go right through, finding about a dozen cars parked there. Obviously there's something going on inside one of the camp buildings. Now it's 8 pm, and I'm a lone rider on a road bike, just quietly rolling through the parking loop recovering a bit. As I start to head down, this kid (well, guy in his twenties) is sprinting across the grass, chasing after me like I just stole his wallet or something. He flails his arms and runs out into the roadway to cut me off, summoning me to stop. While not identifying himself, he proceeds to lecture me about using this roadway, tells me there is a camp up there, and that bicycles are not allowed. The emphasis was on bicycles. I was really in no mood to engage this clown, because if he was hyped enough to drop what he was doing and chase after a quiet cyclist who was obviously leaving anyway, well he's some kind of nut.

Regardless, I was quite dumbfounded and so I said "hey dude, outside the fence is park property." He then tells me, well, "it's all park property, we just don't want bicycles up here." Now, this guy had to know the difference between a road and a mountain bike, and even a second grader could see that my only "crime" was riding a bike on a road that was (tonight anyway) open to motor vehicle traffic. Sure, it's "authorized vehicles only" but so is the other access road on Blue Hills. Bottom line is that it's not mountain biking, it's not trespassing, it's public land. Yet somehow, the Unhappy Audubon Camper feels that the since the state has for some reason granted them use of the land, he is entitled to kick other citizens off of it. This incident lead me to look around the web and find out more about this group, and sure enough, every single info page for areas under their control contains the line: "Do not bring motorized vehicles or bicycles onto the site." Odd, because Mr. Supervisor of Young Boys in the Woods Way Up on the Hill obviously drove his fucking car up there. If you are financially supporting these elitist snobs, please stop. Thanks for reading.