Wellington Park, a near 44,506 acre park near Hobart on the Australian island of Tasmania, is warning bike riders to stay on marked trails, explaining that heat maps created by mobile phones are displaying off-track activity created by rogue riders.
According to a Facebook post from the Wellington Park Management Trust, heat maps show any off-track activity if you’re carrying a mobile phone with location services on, even if you aren’t actively running any tracking apps. Bikes are allowed on all open fire trails, roads and walking tracks that are approved for cycling, and every walking track has a sign indicating whether or not bikes are allowed.
sThey’ve had several illegally cut freeride mountain bike tracks pop up around the park, created by a minority of riders that put the future of further legit tracks at risk. Marking or cutting a track without a permit or taking a bike off permitted trails can land riders a fine of between $205 and $312.50 per offense.
The organization shared an image of a mountain bike heat map created by a mountain biking app, showing evidence of riders on non-existent and bike-banned routes, indicating that riders had gone off course. The Strava global heat map reveals a similar trend, with mountain bike routes existing in areas where no proper trails exist in the same area.
Creating your own trails or diverging from existing trails can damage the local ecosystem and make it more difficult for organizations to build proper, legal trails. Trail building takes more work than just cutting out a route, and most people truly don’t know what they’re doing. Leave it to the professionals and stay on trail.
