While dirt biking around Basalt Mountain with his friends last month, local rider Bill Keenan almost lost his head — literally.
And the backcountry accident has some wondering whether tensions between dirt bikers and hunters are mounting.
According to the 37-year-old local equipment operator, a single piece of barbed wire was tightly strung between two aspen trees at neck level on Dead Cow Trail near Red Table Road and Cottonwood Pass. Keenan said he avoided certain death that day by springing from his bike just in time to partially block the razor-sharp rope.
“It was terrifying! I was going over 30 miles per hour, saw the wire from about 3 feet away and I jumped off my bike,” Keenan said. “If I wouldn’t have done that, it would have cut my head off!”
According to Keenan, he took a majority of the force to his upper torso and arm — saving his life, but scarring his body. His plastic chest protector was cut in half, and he sustained a nasty laceration on his limb, he said.
Thankfully, Keenan said, he did not require professional medical attention. But unfortunately for the well being of his sport, Keenan believes it was a hunter who hung the barbed wire in an attempt to deter off-road riders from using the area.
“It was near-death sabotage,” he said. “It was definitely done by someone trying to hurt riders. We knew it was muzzle-loading season, but we decided to go [riding] anyway.”
A state official said similar incidents have been reported, but are very uncommon.
“From time to time we hear of conflicts between hunters and other recreation users,” said Colorado Division of Wildlife spokesman Randy Hampton. “Conflict between users is very serious when it happens, but it hardly occurs.”
Hampton has worked with the DOW for five years and said this was the second such incident he’s been called about during his tenure.
“The big challenge in situations like this is dealing with it second-hand,” Hampton added. “It turns into a ‘he said/she said’ thing that is more difficult to investigate.”
“I know we’ll never find out who did it,” Keenan said. “But, hopefully, we can make the trails safer for everyone.”
A local hunting store owner disagrees with Keenan, saying it is off-road motorcyclists who are making the local terrain unsafe.
“My issue with the dirt bikers is that they are rude and cause havoc,” said Nate May, owner of Outlet Guides in Marble. “I would like to see motorcycles banned because they are the ones that cause problems for people hiking, Jeep tours, campers, hunters — just about everybody.”
May said he has had several bad experiences with off-road dirt bikers.
“Generally, every time I go out these people come by on these motorcycles, making all this racket, and cause a big wreck with my mule train,” he said. “The horses start bucking, running off, and the gear falls off and gets damaged. ‘Annoying’ is not really the word. I don’t think you can print how I feel.”
Irene Davidson, U.S. Forest Service district ranger for the Aspen-Sopris District, asked an obvious question: “A lot of hunters use ATVs,” she said. “What would upset them about a motorcycle?”
According to Keenan and May, quite a bit, actually.
kai@aspendailynews.com