"Blackblade" wrote in message ...

Ed, you've never provided one iota of proof for this
supposition. All serious hikers DON'T agree with you ... because I know
several that don't and that therefore invalidates your statement.

Edward Dolan wrote:

I have never known a serious hiker who thinks it is a good
idea to share trails with bikers. What casual hikers think doesn't matter of
course.

But, Ed, as you admit yourself, you don't know many other hikers because you are by nature solitary. I do know serious hikers who also mountain bike and I also do know hikers who are entirely sanguine about bikers on trails provided that they are polite and considerate. As such, I can refute your statement that 'All serious hikers ..' simply because there are, as I've just related, some that don't conform to your premise.

Nope, they are NOT serious if they will put up with bikers on trails. The fact that I am solitary has nothing to do with what I can determine about others. Hell Bells, the ONLY people who know anything about women and marriage are Roman Catholic priests and hermits like myself. We have not been corrupted by contact with them.
[...]

I do not have to interact with large numbers of hikers because
I see them hiking alone on trails just like me. They are doing exactly the same
thing I am doing. I then told you why I prefer to hike alone by relating it to
the writers of travel books. It was you who thought it strange that I should
like to hike alone. You will remain ignorant all of your life if you don't take
seriously the explanations of why others do things the way they do.

Firstly, just because they are doing the same thing you're doing ... hiking alone ... does NOT, by any stretch of the imagination, mean that they are thinking or experiencing the world in the same way as you.

What else could they possibly be doing except communing with nature?

Secondly, I don't think it's strange to want solitude. I do too occasionally. Where did I ever say I thought it was strange ?

You questioned me about it as though that was a reason why I would not know anything about social types like yourself. You are still doing it oddly enough. I am like a fox who knows many things based on extrapolation You are like a hedgehog who only knows one thing based on personal experiences.

What I did say is that it's not for you to dictate to anyone else how they enjoy themselves; whether they are solitary or social, whether they hike or ride, it's not for you to dictate. You bridle at the thought that I might castigate your mode of recreation, when in fact I didn't, and state that I should take your explanations for your behaviour seriously. Well, if you want that I suggest that you extend others the same courtesy; some of us want to enjoy riding. It does not make us barbarians and thugs .. simply people who wish to enjoy ourselves in a different way. Perhaps, again, you should heed your own advice and try to understand others.

If I didn’t take you seriously I would no longer bother responding to your posts. It is easy to dictate to others when they are in grievous error. ... and I KNOW I am in the right. My problem is that I understand you perfectly. You are in fact a barbarian - a regular Genghis Khan. You want to do what you do regardless of how it effects others. What is so difficult to understand about that?

I am not a social butterfly like you and I would never want to
be either. I do most things alone because I can best experience them that way.
Otherwise, it is nothing but social interaction. If that is what I want, I can
go to a bar ... or join a club. But, like Somerset Maugham, I am not a clubbable
man.

Secondly, I am not impugning your desire to hike alone. What I am doing is simply pointing out that your motivation for doing so is entirely immaterial to the point of the argument.

You brought it up to begin with, not me. Serious hikers hike alone – just like serious writers of travel books travel alone. Bikers on trails generally are in groups because it is a sport, not a pastime. Do not bring up immaterial subjects if you do not want an argument about it.

And, further, your desires do not automatically trump others. I might want to go to my favourite restaurant and enjoy it quietly. That doesn't mean I try and ban others just because it happens to get crowded and busy sometimes. Sometimes, you have to accept that your wishes are constrained because there is only so much resource to be shared.

Your freedom to swing your arms ends where my nose begins. Your biking on trails interferes with hikers. It destroys the hiking experience. You need to be constrained in what you can do. It is what rules and regulations are all about. You can share the trail resource by walking like everyone else. There are zillions of miles of roads for cycling available to you. Your restaurant analogy doesn’t work because I won’t go to restaurants that are noisy and busy ... just like I won’t hike a trail that is overrun with bikers.

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 biking!

“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