Rocky Butte - Access Issue with the BMX area?

[elaine]

Not sure how much crossover there is with those that climb and those that bike, but if you follow bikeportland.org at all, you'll see a story about how a neighbor in the area ( I'm guessing near the Grotto) with a bee in their bonnet who spoke up about the kids and their BMX course.

 

Understanding that the Butte isn't the most pleasant of places to climb anyways, I hope that the management at the Grotto and ODOT don't pull the access plug on climbers, too.

 

Both groups ( climbers and the BMX'ers), as well as some of the neighbors who live there, do help to some extent with the "other" recreational user groups of this site; the hookers, drug dealers, drunk teenage kids testing the law of gravity with their glass bottles ( and now throwing rocks at climbers), and the homeless who call the Butte home.

 

http://bikeportland.org/2010/03/24/bmx-riders-rally-to-save-jump-trails-near-the-grotto/#more-31113

[Joe_Poulton]

That spot should be a historical BMX spot... It was there when I was growing up 20 years ago...

[Dirtbag Packwork]

That's sad. With all the other shit that goes on there you'd think they could find some better to pester. Better they ride there than ripping up some planters or railings somewhere. Though they should be allowed to do that too. I've always wondered how those jumps were.

[billcoe]

I suspect that it is the closet thing to world class we have here for BMXers. Bicyclists have been offroading for decades around the Butte too. I noticed that the last time the X games came through, @ a year back, after the performance had ended, a couple of trailers showed up (in front of the complaining woman's house no doubt) with a bunch of sick world class riders just having a total ball. These kinds of activities and places are irreplaceable and great for the cities reputation as an outdoor mecca.

 

Maybe they can just move those massive jumps back in the woods a tad along the freeway. I've seen just regular guys launching and doing crazy full back flips on bicycles there. I suspect that having a road for ambulance access may be a mandatory requirement. Hope they don't shut that down.