[billwagnon]

For the past few months I've been taking my dog to a nearby park. It's in an isolated area. The park is a big grass field, with one swing set, at the bottom of a hill. There are about 3 acres of woods that go up the hill to houses whose fences delimit the park. In the park are a couple of trails that run from people's gates to the field at the bottom of the hill.

Lately I've been setting up my own trail for mountain bike riding through the woods. I ended up with about 1/3 of a mile of trail with a couple good short climbs. The woods are covered in vines and there are several debris piles and brush piles, and sectioned logs where someone cut down a big tree and left in the park. Clearing the trail meant chopping some branches, pulling a lot of limbs out from the vines, etc. Also I collected a big pile of junk - tires, plant buckets, and plastic.

So...anyway, I first rode the new trail this past weekend. The whole time I've been in the woods I never saw anyone. This time, however, a couple kids came over to their fence and I said hi. My dog ran over to sniff them and we talked for about two minutes, then in another part of the woods I saw two other kids and said hi and got my dog and kept going.

So tonight I got off work early, and while it's still light and warm I go riding. I took a roofing hammer (hatchet) for various cleanup duties and stopped a few times to clear some little stuff. It's a short route, so I was just riding laps. I saw some people up in a yard when I was going downhill, then rode around again. This time, I saw a guy with a policeman in one of the yards. I was off the bike for a walky part, and the policeman told me to come over where he was, I finally got over because he didn't want me to take the easy path, he made me climb over one of the brush piles.

Then he started asking me a bunch of questions - why was I there, what was I doing. I was on my bike, with a helmet, bike shorts, hydration pack so I thought it was pretty obvious, but I know cops have a tough enough job so I was just "yes sir" and "no sir". I didn't have ID so they called in my SSN and I found out I have no priors! Another cop came and I said I thought it was a public area, and I was just riding my bike. They asked what was in the bag and I told them (including the hatchet) and they searched all of it.

Turns out, somebody freaked because I talked to those two kids on Sunday. It makes sense if someone freaks they would call the police and the police would talk to me; that part I understand. The cops said I was not allowed in those woods ever again, I said I thought it was a public space and they said it was, but if I was ever back there again I would be charged with trespassing. They said they had tried to catch me a previous time, too.

My question about all this is - what is this legal concept called? They really had no problem with me being where I was, or with me extending a trail. It was pretty much that I said hi to a couple kids. They said I can go in the grass part of the park. This doesn't sound like a restraining order or anything I've heard of. And I really wanted a nearby trail. The cops said I would have to get in my car and drive to a trail. I know better than to argue law (I apologized for taking their time) with the police but this all seemed really weird.