Sharing the Trail

I remember there was a MTBR forum thread a while back about trail users and the last one was about the Park Rangers/Policeman giving tickets for not yielding to trail users. Wow, that was truly crazy and over the edge! A bit of Police state reaction in my opinion.

I always try and stop for non bike users but we all know that most of the time they step off the trail for us and tell us to go on by. Sometimes when you tell them to come on by they still tell you the same. An interesting relationship.

I wanted to share a old and new interaction that I have dealt with in regards to trail users.

The new one took place a week or so ago. When I am riding up one of my local trails I always bump into this one man and his 2 dogs. One dog likes to bark at me but thats the extent of it. The dog is not vicious in any sense of the word. I always say hello and how are things going and almost all the time I stop for a bit and let him pass. Its not like the world will end cause my aerobic levels have dropped. The other day he stopped for a short chat and he told me "you are the most courteous mountain biker I have ever dealt with". Wow, I was kind of stunned. It did feel pretty good of course! I introduced myself and learned his name and his dogs names. I now have a new friend.

Years ago (15+) in Palmer Park I stopped and let a Elderly couple pass me. They thanked me and said no biker had ever done that for them.

Its amazing that if we can try and do this as much as possible then perhaps we can keep as many trails as open as possible. And we can keep the other trail users with friendlier feelings about the mountain bike community.

We are always going to have some bad eggs on either side of the trail user community, but we are at the bottom of the rung as mountain bikers and its our community partnership that needs to be kept enrolled with the user groups that we deal with.

Peace.

IMBA - Rules of the Trail

1. Ride On Open Trails Only.

2. Leave No Trace.

3. Control Your Bicycle!

4. Always Yield Trail.

5. Never Scare Animals.

6. Plan Ahead