"Blackblade" wrote in message ...

So, no, we are not at all the same .. you're bigoted, prejudiced,
monomaniacal and think you should be privileged over everyone else.

Edward Dolan wrote:

I have given every good argument there is for banning bikes
from trails in the course of several threads on this newsgroup You have given no
arguments at all, instead blathering something about data and statistics.

No, Ed, You've yet to come up with even one 'good' argument for a ban. You seem to think that just stating something counts as a good argument ... bereft any objective backup it's just your opinion and therefore worthless.

Review my every word in my every post. Also, try to get on a recipient list to receive messages in your email from hikers and equestrians. You are deaf, blind and dumb to what is being disputed.

You want to do what you want to do regardless of how it effects others.

No, Ed, that's not true. I proposed that compromise was needed to ensure that everyone gets some, not all, of what they want.

You want to ride your bike on SOME trails that include hikers. That is a conflict of usage based on purpose. Positively no exceptions. Bikers need to get their own trails far removed from hiking trails. That way all conflict with hikers is removed.

You certainly are right when you call me prejudiced. That I am
about hiking trails and who has any right to use them.

At last, some honesty.
[...]

Mr. Ed Dolan belongs to a universe of hikers and equestrians
who think and feel exactly the same.

I am quite sure you do. Fortunately, for the rest of us, it's a very small universe and getting smaller by the day.

I do think there is not as much hiking as there used to be some 40 years ago. It has fallen off because there seems to be less leisure for it with the economy being the way it is. But the biking universe isn’t what it used to be either. Mountain biking will go the way of the Dodo Bird. It is essentially a fad.

If I were to become like you then I would rather be dead.
You are wholly negative and don't give a damn about anyone else.

I care about hikers and I don't care about bikers on trails.

And, if that's your attitude, then why should bikers care about you when they become the majority users of a trail ?

That is never going to happen. Bikers are actually their own worst enemies. They will make trails unusable by everyone, including themselves.

You seem to think that your desires trump everyone else's ... you
want to annex the entire trail network for one, highly specific, use and damn
everyone else.

I want the traditional uses to continue until the end of time.
Just because some jerks came up with an idea of a bike that can ridden off road
does not mean they have to be accommodated on hiking trails.

What an idiotic statement ... nothing continues to the end of time. The trails you are so vigorously annexing for one specific use now were not instituted for that use so you were, once, a non-traditional use too. The world changes; you can either see that as an opportunity or rail against it as some latter day Canute. I see you've chosen the latter option.

Every day some jerk is coming up with something new to inflict on the environment and lots of other jerks think it is cool. Unfortunately for them, the environment is limited as to what we can do with it for a good purpose.

You should read a little something about the history of the mountain bike. It was invented by some of the greatest morons (true scalawags) ever to walk the earth in the golden state of California. They merely wanted to go downhill fast on a bike. It was like downhill (alpine) skiing That is the sum total of it. Now you know to what class of idiots you belong.

I've tried to be polite but, really, you are becoming beyond the
pale ... you're like the geriatric who used to play football in the street but
now appears shaking a fist when the young do the same. Life is to be lived
and things change and move on ... either accept that or step aside.

What you want to do with your bike on trails is NOT being
polite. You are a transgressor, an interloper and basically a scoundrel. There
is no good reason in the world why the traditional uses of trails should change
to accommodate you and your ilk. The trails are there for walkers. Either walk
them like everybody else - or go to Hell!

I'm not asking anyone to change ... I'm not saying you can't do your activity. That your mind is so fragile that simply having bikes in your vicinity seems to upset your mental equilibrium is NOT MY PROBLEM.

It is not possible to enjoy a hike (a walk in the woods) if bikers are doing their thing all around you. Even one biker is too many.

I am confidant that hikers and bikers are going to continue to clash until everyone, including the bikers themselves, see the wisdom of separate trails. I have compromised enormously by allowing bikers to have their own trails. In an ideal universe, bikes would be restricted to roads – never allowed off-road.

Mountain bikers are barbarians and have no right to be on any trail used by hikers – unless they want to get off their god damn ****ing bikes and walk like everyone else. When they crash and injure themselves, I rejoice! If and when they manage to kill themselves, I say good riddance to bad rubbish! Death to mountain bikers!

“Tread softly! All the earth is holy ground.”
~ Christina Rossetti (Psalm 24),
from "A Later Life: A Double Sonnet of Sonnets"

Mountain bikes have wheels. Wheels are for roads.

Trails are for walking. What’s the matter? Can’t walk?

Ed Dolan the Great
aka
Saint Edward the Great