The Tradition Continues On Moraga's Painted Rocks

This won't surprise anybody who has lived in Moraga for awhile.

During the dark hours of night this past week, somebody spray painted "Stomp The Mats" on one of the white rocks that sit on a hill above the Rheem shopping center.

The message was an obvious reference to Friday night's football game between Campolindo High and Miramonte High.

It joined the "Hell Year" slogan and various graffiti now on the prominent rocks that look over the intersection of Rheem Boulevard and Moraga Road.

It's a tradition that goes back decades.

Moraga Police Chief Bob Priebe said the rocks were painted when he arrived on the force in 1979. It had apparently been going on for years before that.

"It's something that caught on and is probably never going away," said Priebe.

The assumption is Campolindo students occasionally enter the grazing land at night by slipping through the barbed wire that surrounds it and then hike up to the rocks.

They spray paint the boulders before a passing motorist or police officer sees them.

The act may seem like harmless fun, but it is trespassing and vandalism.

Once in awhile, a group is caught. One girl was nabbed "white handed" in 2011 when she and some friends scattered as an officer saw them walking off the hill one night. She did community service as her punishment.

Most of the time the culprits sneak in and out without being noticed.

Priebe said most people in town don't encourage the behavior, but they also don't get too upset about it either. It's somewhat of a rite of passage in Moraga.

"Our major concern is they don't get hurt," said Priebe.

He added it's also not practical to constantly patrol the area or set up a stakeout.

"That would be a lousy use of resources," he said.

Roger Poynts, the owner of the property, has much the same attitude.

His main concern is the paint cans and other trash that are sometimes left behind.

"Stopping them would be a difficult and impossible task," he said. "I just wish they'd be better citizens and clean up their mess."

Every so often, a volunteer group will go up the hill and clean up.

There is also the safety of the animals that roam the land.

Scott Carr, the rancher who leases the acreage from Poynts, has said his cows occasionally escape through a part of the fence damaged by the spray-painting trespassers.

In any case, the tradition is likely to continue as long as the rocks are up there.

When's the next big football game?