CARLSBAD -- Within the next few weeks, a land management company expects to dismantle some of the illegally assembled, much-used mountain bike pathways in a region nicknamed "Flightline" near Carlsbad's airport.

Whether officially approved trails will replace the informal network is uncertain. Area mountain bikers are lobbying heavily to retain access to the steep, densely vegetated valley just northeast of the intersection of Palomar Airport Road and El Camino Real. But the county of San Diego, which owns part of the land, isn't committing to what the area's future will be.

"We're working with both sides of this issue -- the conservation people and the mountain biking people -- to come up with an equitable solution to this problem," county airports spokesman Bill Pollack said last week.

Pollack said there's no timeline for a decision but that "we are working aggressively on it."

People on all sides of the issue agree on two things: First, the bikers never had legal permission to build trails on the county land or a privately owned parcel next door, and, second, property owners essentially ignored the situation for decades.

'Sanitizing' the trail

Calling the Flightline region a unique recreation area with coastal North County, area mountain bikers argue that the county should keep the existing trails until they are replaced.

"We'd like to put the cart behind the horse," said Ryan Dynes, an Oceanside mountain biker who has been helping to publicize the issue.

Pollack refused to comment much beyond the words contained within a prewritten statement Thursday, but a biologist working for a company that is managing the land said the county wants some trails gone from its 100-acre parcel as quickly as possible.

These trails, which include wooden ramp structures and extensive hillside slope stabilization efforts, are a liability nightmare, biologist Markus Spiegelberg said. He took county employees on a tour of the area and vividly recalls their reactions when they saw spots on the hillside where metal rebar had be used to keep the trail path in place.

"As soon as the county saw this section they went, 'Out of here,'" he said, pointing to the rebar section early last week. "They did not like it at all."

"The rebar should go," agrees Minette Ozaki, vice president of the San Diego Mountain Biking Association.

She said, however, that the county should consider improving the existing trails rather than destroying them. She added that area mountain bikers are very concerned that the county may replace the homemade trails with ones that are a lot less fun to ride.

"The trail users really want to avoid what they call sanitizing the trail -- (creating) something you could push a stroller on," she said.

Industrious trespassers

Spiegelberg stressed that his center wants to work with the mountain bikers. However, he emphasized that bikers didn't have permission to be there in the first place.

"We're not anti-mountain bike," he said. "What we don't like is vandalism and trespass."

Trespassing also is an issue for TechBilt, a neighboring property owner. TechBilt is constructing the Carlsbad Oaks business park on part of its land. The remainder is set aside as a nature preserve.

"There's no mountain biking authorized on our property," company vice president Ted Tchang said.

But that doesn't mean mountain bikes aren't regularly seen in the region. Bike trails have snaked through the area for years. Recently, more high-tech trails have started appearing, he said.

"They've been very industrious, but unfortunately they didn't have anybody's permission to do that," Tchang said.

Spiegelberg said he started noticing a newer, more impressive trail system through the steep, county-owned parcel in 2005 after work began on the TechBilt's business park. Mountain bikers used to access the Flightline region through part of the TechBilt property, but now that area is under construction, so bikers have built a new pathway into the county-owned parcel. There's a trailhead next to Carlsbad's Public Safety Center Complex on Orion Street.

It's that newer trail section that the county wants removed, Spiegelberg said.

Growing pains

The mountain biking community is divided over how to handle the situation. Groups including the San Diego Mountain Biking Association are urging members to stay out of the area while the access issue is being debated. The association has posted a sign at the start of the new trailhead urging people to stay out.

"Trespassing will hurt our case and will cause permanent closure of Flightline," it states. "The police have informed us that if you are caught riding these trails, they will confiscate your bike and hold it as evidence against you."

However, during a midday visit last week, at least one mountain biker was making the roughly 2/3-mile circuit.

Local riders say it is an incredible course because it's steep, it's challenging and it's convenient. There's really nothing like it in the region, they say.

"That's why a lot of people are so passionate about it -- because it is close," said Dynes, who has been mountain biking for a decade.

Oceanside resident Brian Howard said he was going twice week because it was less than a mile from his job in Carlsbad's business park region. A former professional skateboarder, he said he finds it ironic that mountain biking is going through the same growing pains that skateboarding did years ago.

"I grew up as a skateboarder looking for a place to skateboard," he said.

Doug Mann, a mountain biker who lives in Rancho Carrillo to the east of the Flightline region, credits his regular trail rides with shaving 20 pounds off his frame in four years.

"To be able to get off work and ride on a trail near the house is very convenient," he said.

The area is unique enough that it has rated mentions in national mountain biking Web sites, enthusiasts report. And an online petition seeking to save the region generated 800 supporters in the first week, Ozaki said.

Contact staff writer Barbara Henry at (760) 901-4072 or bhenry@nctimes.com.