Mountain Bikers' Bad Manners

This kind of behavior is so common that I know of two cases where it
has happened during an official trail inspection for deciding whether
to open trails to bikes. Of course, in both cases, it decided the
issue: they voted to close the trails to bikes!

Mike


From: "bob"
Date: Sun, 2 Sep 2007 20:37:15 -0700
Subject: Tolt

I rode Tolt today and wasn't alone; there were other creatures on the
trail:). I was greeted by a Vulture and Snake in the parking lot;
what a
way to start the ride:) Next came the cyclocrossers; whoooooooooosh
and up
the hill they go; how do they do that?

The next part is a gray area for me, I might be wrong or out of line;
I'm
sure you'll let me know:) I'm not sure what others do when they meet
hikers
on the trail because I rarely-if ever go on other people's rides; yawl
ride
too fast for me.

Anyway, my style is to either stop or slow down enough to say hi how
are you
when I meet hikers on the trail; I go out of my way to be respectful.
I
watched a couple guys blast by two groups of hikers today; both with
kids
and dogs.

We were at the top of IAB and IMO, there was no reason they couldn't
have
stopped and yielded the right of way to the hikers; after all, hikers
and
other trail users have the right away. Not these guys, they just
blasted
past everyone. Their dog was running ahead of them and that might be
part of
the reason they didn't stop; the hikers had dogs too, but theirs were
on
leashes. At the very least, I don't think the riders left a good
impression
on the hikers.

I'm not sure what other people think, but as I see it, more and more
people
are going to be using local trails; especially the parks. Most people
do not
ride mountain bikes; we're a minority. I know many of you have been
saying
this for longer than I've been riding, but I think it's very good
business
for us to go out of our way to be courteous to others on the trail;
you
never know who you're going to meet. My 2 cents.

I've got a question about trail work at Tolt, feedback please:) From
the
5-way, I usually head down the South-east road and start on Mystery; I
usually take one of the three trails that branch off in different
directions. I rode the same way as I have for the last few months, but
when
I came to one of the trails I usually take, I found that it had been
blocked; just wondering who's blocking trails and why? The trail
wasn't just
blocked with a log or pile of branches, there was brush piled all up
and
down the trail; somebody didn't want any one riding or using that
spur; my
question is who's blocking the trail like that and why?

I'm not sure where I rode today, but I ended up on some new (to me)
trails.
I went up the road next to the entrance of Vicious Quail and took the
first
trail on the left. I took what seemed like several different trails
and
didn't have a clue where I was. Not sure how I ended up on the trail
that
goes down to the look out, but that's what happened; I followed the
trail
and popped back out on the South Road right in front of the little
trail
that leads to Erik's bridge.

As I was heading down IAB, I passed a small group of riders, one of
them was
holding onto a small black bag. The sack appeared to have something
inside;
it was moving around as if whatever was in there was alive; I swear I
heard
something screeching from inside. Do you think there's a chance the
Attack
Bird was in the sack? Maybe somebody will have to ride Vicious Quail
to see
if the crazy bird is still there.

Bob h
--
I am working on creating wildlife habitat that is off-limits to
humans ("pure habitat"). Want to help? (I spent the previous 8
years fighting auto dependence and road construction.)

Please don't put a cell phone next to any part of your body that you are fond of!

http://home.pacbell.net/mjvande