This afternoon I had an incident at the trail head of Norawarren where I was threatened by an individual who said they were going to shoot me and my dogs if they were off leash and that he’d rip us apart with a shovel if they went on his land (for the record, my dogs were in the car and not running around loose). This person kept verbally threatening and assaulting me for about 10 minutes.
I don’t scare easily, but this has left me really shaken. A report has been filed with the police. Please be safe if you use these trails - especially if you have a dog and you’re a female. This was a very unsafe individual.
That is really shitty… sounds like a disgruntled local resident with property bordering the trail, should be easy enough to find for the police to have a chat with. There are only 12-15 places that have property bordering the trails there.
So shitty. Might be worth mentioning it to @Lawrence and Kaarin at MRWA…they might know who he is and/or they might want to keep an eye out for him in the future.
Having grown up in Herring Cove, there are still some residents who truly believe and act in this manner…They are few and far between these days but unfortunately they still exist…
They believe they own the land and anyone, or anything, on it is trespassing…and then something like this happens…Makes everyone down there look bad…
I agree with @Rolls, Lawrence and Kaarin from MRWA may know who it is or should be able to find out who it might have been…and then the police need to pay them a visit to let them know this type of behavior is totally unacceptable…
Thanks everyone. The individual is not a stranger to MRWA and has done similar things before to trail users. A police report was filed. I’ve also documented the event for MRWA/BMH and have given them permission to share about the incident to the local councillor/MLA/Parks Committee as they see fit. Unfortunately when the officers went to address the individual they discovered that the address on file is no longer current.
I don’t doubt that this individual would start an incident with anyone, but I’m also confident that small women on their own are a particular target. So while you may not have noticed anything like this in the past, it’s also very possible that it’s happening right beside you as you drive up and you’ve just not been aware. I don’t feel safe to go to this trail on my own anymore and it will be on my mind going forward regardless of the trail. Unfortunately all that can be done at best is a chat with a cop while myself and others who use the trail no longer feel it’s a safe option for them.
Jeebus, that’s disconcerting. I hope they track this guy down and charge him with uttering threats. I wonder if as a group we could compile some of these stories (eg some of the spiderlake incidents I’ve heard over the years) and bring them to someone bike friendly in the media to do a story (Colleen Jones at the CBC comes to mind as a possibility)
Sarah I’m sorry you don’t feel comfortable riding solo, feel free to message me if you want a riding partner, my schedule is a bit erratic but I’m often available randomly mid-day/midweek. I usually go at a medium-ish pace with my 2yr old lab/poodle.
Man, that really sucks! Thanks for the note, good to be aware of this kind of thing, I’ll sure be keeping my eyes open for this guy and if I have a disturbing encounter with him, I’ll be calling the cops without hesitation. There’s no excuse for behavior like that.
Want to go for a ride there this weekend with me? I’m quite happy to stand my ground and verbally put someone in their place regarding public-use trails.
Holy crap! That sounds horrible. Hope you are able to eventually shake it off and visit the trail again. I have yet to go there, hope this doesn’t become a regular issue.
This is really to bad, but all to common. I wish I had a solution to make women feel safe when alone on the trails, or streets or anywhere for that matter. I ride alone a lot and never have to feel what you had to feel.
There’s other people on the forum who can likely speak to this better than I can.
Nails/tacks on the trails, trail closed/hunting signs, trees cut down to come across the trail, and face to-face threats. Not just spider lake.
My point is, I think many of us have witnessed acts against trail users, with the likely target being mtb’ers, whether they are active or passive acts of trail sabotage up to face to face threatening like what happened to The original poster. If these were compiled together, it might make for interesting/eye opening reading both to us, but also the public in general.
Apologies to the original poster-I don’t mean to send things off on a tangent.
