Run could have been disastrous
Man spots tripwire across trail at Topeka’s Skyline Park
As Christopher Brown raced through the Skyline Park trails during his early morning run Sunday, something shiny caught his eye just ahead.
It was a thin tripwire tied between two trees near the trail’s parking lot.
“It kind of surprised me,” said Brown, of Topeka. “I do see pictures or sometimes you’ll see videos on Facebook of other trails that people try to put something on the ground to trip people up or that type of sabotage, but you never think that you’re going to see it personally.” Brown said he looked around to see if the wire was there to maintain anything or hold a tree up. When he realized it was simply a tripwire and the person who set it up could be watching, he decided to take another lap and investigate it later when the sun came up more.
“I didn’t see anybody else in the trail,” Brown said. “So, I didn’t think anybody would run on top of it and get hurt. So, I looped back around.”
He continued to look around the trails as he walked to see if there were any other traps but didn’t find any. Once he returned to the tripwire location, he took photos and removed it.
Informing others about dangerous tripwire found on Topeka trail
Brown let other trail runners in a shared group chat know to keep their eye out. After that, other people began posting on Facebook about the incident.
Multiple posts asked trail goers to keep an eye out and tell Shawnee County Parks and Recreation and the Top City Trails Alliance (TCTA) if more traps were founds.
TCTA president Rick Bean said he’d
never seen anything like this before on a Topeka trail. He said putting up the tripwire wasn’t OK, especially because children cycle and run though those trails.
“If a biker or runner was going a pretty good speed and hit that thing (the wire), I think there would be some significant injuries to that individual,” Bean said. “The unfortunate thing obviously is we want to protect all out trail runners and all our bikers and hikers. To have something across the trail deliberately done like that is uncalled for.”
What’s being done to maintain Shawnee County trails?
Parks and recreation administrative superintendent Eric Van Becelaere said the trails are maintained daily by park employees and will continue to be checked. He also asked trail goers to call park police at 785-251-6831 if they find any more traps.
Bean said people going through the trails need to be aware of their surroundings and be as careful as possible.
“You hate to have to ride the trail really slow the first time and try to figure out if there’s any booby traps or whatever and then have fun,” Bean said. “It’s too bad it’s come to that.”
Brown said the experience won’t stop him from continuing to run through the trails and noted that people just need to be vigilant.