Traditional competitors for access to trails in open space all over the West, horseback riders and bikers are learning to get along as part of a new program to promote harmony while patrolling the Fort Ord public lands. If horse people and bike riders can get along, Addington said, it avoids the necessity of assigning separate trails for each, which in turn eases enforcement problems and access conflicts. The idea is for each group to become familiar with the other's idiosyncratic habits. One of the first rules mountain bike riders learn is to never follow behind a trotting or galloping horse. They call themselves the Monterey Bicycle Equestrian Trail Assistance team, or BETA team, and are evenly divided between equestrians and bike riders.
Volunteers provide their own horses or bikes.
They are not armed and do not have arrest powers, but can summon rangers with the radios. Already, Addington has many more local residents eager to volunteer for patrol than he can accept. Word has gotten out, he said, what a jewel the eastern half of Fort Ord is, with its twisting, rolling trails and roads for hiking, biking and horseback riding. The area now under the Bureau of Land Management's care includes some of the last undeveloped natural land on the Monterey Peninsula, with 35 species of rare plants and animals. It has the look and feel of what it must have been like 100 years ago, with mature coast live oak forests draped with moss, and vernal pools dotted with resident and migratory birds.