Ran the Jeep trail up at Knoxville today. It was nice and scenic - really just a dirt road that's a little rough in places. I was in 4H most of the trail just for kicks, it was unnecessary though. I drove through a lot of burnt out areas on the way which is pretty in its own chilling kind of way.
I must say that I'm terribly embarrassed by my fellow Californians who appear to be utterly incapable of drinking a beer and not throwing the cans all over the trail (they also felt the need to dispose of the cases in the middle of the trail too). Additionally, pretty much every sign (including the "no shooting" signs) were completely massacred by irresponsible individuals who clearly don't care about our public lands. In my experience, these types of things don't happen nearly as often in the Sierras but seems to be endemic to Sonoma, Napa, Mendocino, and Humboldt counties. It's a shame. I can't help but think about all the comments you hear about trails being closed and how it's terrible/a crime/insert rant about the government. Frankly, during my drive home, I was pretty livid. There's a reason why trails keep getting closed and why both communities get a bad reputation. Maybe the correct public policy is that we simply close public lands that are being abused until the community learns to behave themselves. I imagine things will finally change when the entire state only has a handful of trails open. Traffic on those trails will be worse than trying to cross the Bay Bridge during rush hour.
I know that I'm ranting in a forum where the vast majority of you all are perfectly responsible and care about our public lands but I can't help but think that maybe we don't deserve to have access when others in our community treat public resources like this.
