[pct-l] What do you say to mountain bikers on the PCT?

[JB de Anza]

First, thank you, Eric, for putting so much thought into an issue that you
essentially got dragged into with an otherwise simple post.

I tend to agree with Dan Jacobs who sees little or no value in trying to
lecture anybody on the trail, especially with information that you're
probably convinced they already have. And that's especially true for
specific issues like safety or erosion where, depending who you're talking
to of course, you are likely to get an earful of rebuttal citing various,
albeit limited, studies and existing science that tend to contradict the
assertions you are making about those issues.

I like Dan Jacobs' list of potential backcountry pleasantries, but if you
feel compelled to tack something critical onto the end of your greeting you
might as well keep it as friendly as possible like, "By the way, did you
know that this particular trail is actually closed to bicycles?" But keep
in mind that if that is in fact new information to the cyclist you are just
as likely to inspire them to pedal home and start advocating for access to
the PCT as you are to discourage them from ever coming back. After all,
they were on the PCT for a reason - likely the very same reasons you were
there and you have to ask yourself how happy you would be if someone was
telling you to stay away.


On Mon, Oct 28, 2013 at 5:38 PM, Eric Martinot <eric at martinot.info> wrote:

> As the original poster for this thread, I had no idea of the intensity
> of responses that awaited, and feel somewhat responsible, and perhaps
> never should have made the original post. So I feel compelled to respond
> in some way. At the same time, I really hope this thread could just be
> closed!  (And this post probably isn't helping.)
>
> My literal question, "what do you say to a mountain biker on the PCT" is
> still left essentially unanswered behind all the politics and opinions
> about sharing trails with bikes, legalities, law enforcement, etc.
> Perhaps the question is best left unanswered in the spirt of HYOH.   But
> I really was looking for specific quotable, civil,
> one-human-being-to-another phrases to use, in addition to chatting
> politely and respectfully about other things as I would with any other
> hiker. I just don't want to be personable with someone and then leave
> out the obvious elephant in the room, which is that they are not
> supposed to be there.  OK, I understand about risking physical
> confrontation or angry expression. From further consideration, and with
> some benefit of the posts thus far, here are two or three that I might
> try in future encounters:
>
> "While I respect and admire your wish to enjoy the wilderness on your
> bike, and am happy to share the wilderness with all others, and always
> love to meet people on the trail, please stay off the PCT in the future
> and use other trails.  What you're doing is illegal, dangerous and
> erodes the trail."
>
> "Have a great ride, and I honestly mean that, but please stay off the
> PCT in the future."
>
> "It's a great trail, isn't it? But legally its reserved for hikers, and
> with valid reasons related to safety and trail erosion."
>
> [Speaking only to myself, as a crazy person would, and not to the biker]
>  "oh boy, another mountain bike on the PCT that I can report to the
> Forest Service, won't they be glad to hear about this, heh, heh."
>
> And further thoughts based on the posts in this discussion.
>
> 1. There is the political side, which a lot of posts have addressed --
> the ongoing multi-decade "battle" over trail use in general among
> hikers, bicyclists, and others -- plus the role of law enforcement, the
> Forest Service, etc.  I really wasn't thinking of that in my original
> post, but I suppose mostly because I didn't think that anyone could ever
> do anything effective about it, and thus there was no point to
> reporting.  (If the PCTA had some program to monitor and report, I'd
> probably be inclined to feed info into that more than I'd be inclined to
> report anything to the Forest Service.)  And reporting was far from my
> mind, I'm not going to stop on the trail, take off my pack, take out a
> pen, or turn on my phone/camera and unwrap it from all the plastic bags
> its wrapped in, etc.  Anyway, I have a new perspective on reporting to
> think about, from all the posts. And I see that its also tied into the
> political agenda to "keep bikes from becoming legal on the PCT," an
> issue I had no idea existed before today.
>
> Two points continue to stand out, safety and erosion.
>
> 2. As for safety, the PCT is unique because any collision resulting in
> serious injury might take place literally a day's walk or more from
> anywhere, so its not the same as a collision on a typical hiking trail.
> On the other hand, during those two days of my encountering 18
> bicyclists along Section L, there were no close calls, no real
> "incidents" of any kind, just hiker and bicyclist passing each other,
> usually with me stepping aside.  If the passing had happened on a
> particularly blind corner on a downhill stretch, yes, it would be
> dangerous, but basically, for those two days, seeing there were bikes on
> that particular section of trail, I treated the issue the same as any
> other trail hazard: take precautions and be careful. So for those two
> days, I kept a lookout in places where bikes might be coming downhill at
> me, and was prepared to step aside quickly if necessary. (The fact that
> I felt this necessary might have angered me, or others, but it doesn't
> have to.) I've traveled in many places where people and bikes coexist on
> the same pavement, and watch out for other, such as in Germany, where
> some sidewalks without dedicated bike paths are shared, but everyone
> knows which side is which and keep out of each other's way (except the
> tourists), and in Japan, where low-speed bikes and people routinely
> share the sidewalks and look out for each other because bikes generally
> don't use the streets in heavily urban areas.
>
> 3. As for erosion, I think this is really the crux of the issue for me,
> why I pondered the issue so much and posted about it.  I'm very
> concerned that the PCT is not being maintained adquately, given so many
> parts of the trail that are badly eroded and far from the original trail
> standard. I want the trail to still be there in 30 years when I'm hiking
> it for the 4th time! And I don't see huge government budgets devoted to
> this in the future, so more and more the trail may rely on volunteer
> maintenance.  If bicycles accelerate the errosion, undermine the
> volunteer work, and generally make the trail more difficult to hike,
> that is of great concern to me. But are there really enough bikes on the
> trail to do that?  From some of the posts, it seems for certain sections
> of PCT the answer is yes. But overall, is this really not a big deal
> because the quantity of bikes is so small?  Is keeping bikes off the PCT
> fundamentally an erosion and maintenance issue?  This is a practical,
> dollars-and-cents question. I still don't know, but I see this issue
> being lost among all the other agendas and opinions.
>
>
>
>
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