"Blackblade" wrote in message ...

You've not shown that. YOU reject it but you're hardly
objective, or that civilised given your penchant for profanity.

Edward Dolan wrote:

What constitutes a superior ethos? Just one thing. The
judgment of your superiors.

Well, I think I am superior to you ...

No, I mean OUR superiors ... outside of ourselves – or maybe you think they don’t exist? That is how all art is evaluated too. What you and I like or don’t like is not that important in the grand scheme of things. We have to defer to OUR superiors because their judgment and wisdom is superior to ours. There is a vast literature of wilderness treatises and tomes written by experts whose knowledge and wisdom dwarfs our poor efforts.
[...]

When choices conflict, and the merits of the activities are
similar, then what is needed is compromise. Something I suggest you
consider.

I have compromised, by allowing cyclists to have their own
trails separate from hiking trails, something Mr. Vandeman would never
permit.

It's not your decision to make Ed ... you don't own the resource.

It doesn't matter who owns the resource. It has to be managed according to best practices for the greatest benefit of us and future generations.

How ? That's a ludicrous statement. I don't want to go base
jumping but I am fully supportive of others' rights to do so if they wish.
I'm not promoting an activity, I'm promoting freedom of choice.

"It amounts to the same thing. I want others to do what I do because it is
safe and fun. It will not injure or kill them." - Ed Dolan

You are clearly missing the point ... suggest you go back, re-read and think some more. Permitting others to make a free choice does not equate to promotion.

It most certainly does promote it if you know something is dangerous and yet allow it. Regulation is at the heart of all governance.

I was almost tempted to let this slide as it's so
ridiculous. When you tackle someone on the American Football or Rugby
fields you are doing what you are supposed to do. It does sometimes result
in injury. You are NOT intending to fall off a mountain bike. That
just happens sometimes.

However, the statistics don't lie ... there are way more serious
injuries from American Football and Rugby (and many other sports) than mountain
biking.

Statistics lie all the time because they never precisely
measure what they purport to measure. Reports from the field are what matter and
they prove that cycling on hiking trails is extremely dangerous. This is glossed
over by the mountain biking community so that even kids, women and the elderly
are encouraged to go mountain biking. The only ludicrous one here is
you.

Well, all the "reports from the field" that your pal Vandeman can come up with equate to a death rate of 0.00123 per million miles travelled ... making mountainbiking a pretty safe endeavour. Even the reports from your supporters don't support your proposition.

The reports are numerous enough and broadly-based enough to absolutely support the proposition that mountain biking on hiking trails is extremely dangerous. No one, not even you, know how to read numbers presented as a statistic.

However, you are quite right to compare mountain biking to
rough contact sports. Hiking on the other hand has never been considered any
kind of sport as far as I know. It is simply an actively, good for body and
soul.

Sport is good for body and soul ... I suggest you try it. Not everyone wants to amble slowly ... perhaps you have forgotten what it is to be young ?

Enjoy any sport you want. Just don’t do it on a hiking trail.

Separate trails for cyclists are the ONLY solution. I do not
want cyclists on my trails anymore than you want motorcyclists on your trails.
Sparsity of use has nothing to do with it. Hikers and cyclists are DOING
different things on the trails and in fact are there for DIFFERENT purposes.
Therefore, different trails are called for.

They are not yours !!!! Nor mine for that matter. Cyclists and hikers are participating in a recreational activity. There is only so much resource to go around. Therefore, they are going to have to SHARE sometimes ! Not all the time, but sometimes.

There is plenty of resource to go around. Bikers are Johnnies come lately to trails. It is up to them to get their own trails. Moreover their trails do not need to be in pristine wilderness areas. Hell Bells, that is way too good for their ilk. I have previously suggested that abandoned city dumps would be a good area for them to exploit. Another idea would be for ski resorts to develop trails for them which is already happening in a few areas.

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 injury 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