[nct-l] Mountain bikes

At 11:12 AM 11/14/99 -0600, you wrote:

>My experience is that mountain bikes tend to do damage almost exclusively
>where the tread is either wet or steep, or both.  When it's wet, the bikes
>tear up the ground and make it very muddy.  When it's steep, the tires
>spin out and chew up the ground.  If the trail is built well, it will
>usually hold up to mountain bike use, except when there has been a lot of
>rain.  In wet periods, the trails should be closed to bikes.

It's possible to build a trail that will adequately hold up to mountain
bikes under most conditions. But will the bikers want to use it? My
experience is that the ones that cause the problems on hiking trails are
the ones that want to go like hell, tear things up, and not give a crap for
other people. If they have a trail that they can't tear up, then they're
not interested. Now, I'm not saying that mountain bikes aren't a legitimate
form of outdoor recreation, or that it's not possible to ride one safely
and non-destructively. Some people do. And, there are some people that ride
jetskis on the lakes that aren't out to make asses of themselves, either.
How do you educate the yahoos? I don't think you can, even with
enforcement. You just have to wait for them to grow up.

-- Wes


* From the North Country Trail List |  http://www.backcountry.net  *

==============================================================================
To:            NCT Mailing List <nct-l@backcountry.net>