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Old September 25th 14, 05:31 AM posted to rec.bicycles.soc
EdwardDolan
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Posts: 538
Default Our wildlands are not outdoor gymnasiums or amusement parks.

"Blackblade" wrote in message ...
[...]

Edward Dolan wrote:

My position is that there is an inherent conflict between
hikers and bikers on trails just as there would be between bikers and
motorcyclists on trails. It really has nothing to do with the ease or difficulty
of a trail (although the danger factor is a good argument to use to get bikers
off of trails), but to WHY you are on the trail in the first plaice. Purpose is
everything. Very strange that you can't see it from this
perspective.


Your purpose is recreational ... just as mine is. You don't NEED to be there any more than I do. We both choose to be there because we enjoy it. You are presuming that your recreation is superior to mine .... but you have no logical basis for doing so. Hiking and biking have similar environmental impacts so there is no objective measure for preferring one over the other.


We are doing two entirely separate things when we are using a trail. You are doing a sport. I am doing an appreciation of nature, which can only be accomplished by moving slowly on your own two feet. They don’t mix. You disturb and destroy what I am doing just as a motorcyclist would disturb and destroy what you are doing, although he is also doing what you are doing - engaging in a sport - but on a different level. All recreations are NOT equal. The expert on environmental impacts is Mr. Vandeman. I am the expert on what trails are for based on philosophical considerations.

Unlike Mr. Vandeman, I am not opposed to bikers having their
own trails. He is more right than I am of course, but that is the only
compromise I am willing to make. Bikers use nature as a playground. With natural
spaces becoming ever more rare, it is a desecration to use natural spaces for
playgrounds for adults with toys.


An hiking is what ? A job ? !!! Get off your high horse and accept that you, too, are pursuing a recreational pastime not doing anything that benefits nature ... hikers create similar levels of erosion.


You can do what you do in a million different places. I can only do what I do in a few rare places left on this earth where the natural scene has not been corrupted by mankind’s constructions and practical usages.

“All recreations are NOT equal. The expert on environmental impacts is Mr. Vandeman. I am the expert on what trails are for based on philosophical considerations.” – Ed Dolan

The most precious resource in the world are natural spaces
where what you can do and what you can't do is closely regulated. Let everyone
do whatever he wants and the resource is destroyed. Walking a trail is the least
harm that can be done. I am far more right than you are. There is nothing
extreme about my position on how we should use natural spaces. The only
extremist here is you.


Ed, you froth at the mouth at the mere mention of mountainbikes and they cause you "mental torture". If that's not extreme I don't know what is.


I have a mountain bike myself which I ride on the gravel roads here in Nobles County, Minnesota. The only extremist here is you.

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


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