He was riding on a fire access road (legal) but went off the end onto a walking trail. The punishment is severe so the National Park Disservice can scare anyone who actually wants to use the park for anything but their on-rails bus tours or whatever.
The fire road access isnāt the illegal activity, but the prosecutor wasnāt ājazzedā about it.
The illegal activity was him riding his bike on a walking path that - apparently - prohibits bike use. Iāve never been, but this is a walking path that takes you under the redwoods. So I assume itās a section of the park with a lot of pedestrian traffic (hence why they likely prohibit bikes).
The reason the NPS was able to prosecute was because he posted a video of himself riding a bike on the walking path that doesnāt allow bikes. And then published it to the internet.
Itās kinda like when California was on lock down for Covid and he flew to Florida for a bike race.
Was this a wilderness area? Was there a threat to endangered species?
I doubt he rode his bike for ājust 5 seconds.ā Maybe it was 5 seconds of video? But even if it was, all he got was a $350 fine, probation and had to take down the video. While jail is the maximum penalty obviously the judge was not going to āthrow the book at him.ā
He got his clicksā¦ which was the point and what he wanted.
Yea everyone should just keel over all the time, every time.
Never met the guy and donāt really care but flying across the country to race bikes during lockdown and making a video about biking on trails your not supposed to bike on is not exactly the highest of moral standards.
Is VC the national champion of getting in trouble for sneaking into Yosemite on a bike?
You mean by accident?
No, why would I?
Following completely reasonable rules during lockdown was not at all difficult for most people. Flying across the country to race a crit because your local races are cancelled is not what I would consider to be holding oneself to a high moral standard which is why I pointed it out.
Iāve watched a lot of his stuff, and usually find it entertaining. I didnāt realize he did that, and honestly kind of surprises me given how he presents himself.
I remember the video, and the park boundary is clearly marked, and noted as āno entryā with penalties for doing so listed on the sign.
If he hadnāt been so keen to post the content, no would would have known, because I donāt recall any park personnel present in the video.
I hope the YouTube clicks on the video were worth the fine, but letās be honest people in the US have gotten away with FAR worse things they recorded in the last four years. This particular infringement seems super minor in comparison.
Tyler, if youāre out there - all things considered - Iām glad things worked out as well as they did. Iām sure that even the slightest possibility of jail time would be tough to deal with. Hang in there.
FWIW, I believe he apologized for it and admitted he was being an idiot. And it was 4 years ago, so thereās been some time for personal growth and reflection.
Good to know. Iāve edited my comment to be slightly less critical.
Of course he did, after all of the backlash.
I mean Phil stated that what he was doing was not against the law and the cop was insisting that he was breaking the law. I would not compare Philās experience to this. Just my two cents
It seems like there are lot of people out here who have never set a toe out of line, made a mistake, or done something theyāre ashamed of.
Cāmon, the guy was facing jail time for something as illegal as jay walking. It was a mistake to post it on YouTube, but see above.
Again, he was never facing jail time. The punishment noted was the maximum penalty. He never would have been put in jail for this particular offense.
That is just VC blowing this up for clicks.
Of course we all haveā¦ but weāre not promoting it for clicks.
Perhaps because people are being killed by drivers on a regular basis and everyone has their favorite not-charged-with-homicide story?
When you feel like āthe authoritiesā are not doing their job when itās about saving lives and you encounter this kind of nonsense, itās hard to take that particular side of āthe rulesā particularly seriously.
But maybe thatās just me.
P.S.: VC annoys the sh*t out of me.