The eternal dialogue continues with never any resolution insight. Blackblade aligns himself with the “responsible” bikers, but does he not know that a single rotten apple destroys the whole barrel. In actual fact, anyone who bikes on a hiking trail is a ”rogue” biker. Mountain bikers have got to go – ALL of them.

“I have met, from time to time, a number of "responsible" mountain bikers. I consider myself a responsible mountain biker although I do not ride on the mountains, either on the trails or on the fire roads of Marin. I only ride on paved streets and areas where biking is permitted.

In addition, while hiking on the trails my wife and I have sometimes encounter "responsible" bikers who treat us and the environment respectfully.

My main point, is that if we distinguish between responsible bikers and rogue bikers, eventually the responsible bikers, or the so-called responsible bikers, will have to step forward and start confronting their rogue counterparts. This will probably be a while in coming.

But more important is that the general public and our public officials start to make this distinction. I think I am making an original contribution in the debate here as most people simply don't make the distinction at all. The more our public officials realize the damage being done by the rogue bikers, the more they will understand that they simply have to crack down. The long history of wishy-washy measures will one day be behind us only when our public officials become willing to crack down on the rogue bikers.

You have a good point. But consider this from the point of view of the wildlife: would you rather be run over by a "rogue" mountain biker, or a "responsible" mountain biker? You would be equally dead, either way. That's why I harp on wildlife all the time. A "polite" mountain biker can still be harmful to the wildlife. For one thing, they greatly extend the human footprint into natural areas, regardless of how polite they are to other humans. I suspect that if you challenge some of your "responsible" mountain bikers on such issues, they will stop being polite. That's been my experience: they are polite only as long as they are getting their way. Try asking more of them, and see what happens....

Great letter! But I have yet to meet a "responsible mountain biker". I doubt that such a thing exists. "Rogue" mountain bikers are at least a very large proportion of mountain bikers, and a very large number of people -- enough to put many of them in every single park.”
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