[pct-l] Re: my bike story

[payslee@yahoo.com (payslee)]

>I met two bikers about 20 miles south of Mt.
>Hood near a lake they swore they had access to because
>the PCT was a "shared trail" with another bike trail
>around a nice lake (sorry, I forgot but it was a big
>beautiful one just a rock's throw off the trail to the
>left).  I was on for a distance record day, so didn't
>give much energy toward their misdoing.

That's Timothy lake, and there are bikes there all the time, although
it is posted against them. But the ones I have run across there are not
"real" bikers usually, they are people who are car camping at one of
the four campgrounds that this section goes past. I have never *not*
seen bikes when I've hiked here, but usually they are so incompetant
and punishing themselves that I don't have the heart to scold them.

The last time I was there I passed a very large, out of shape dad and
his two small children, a boy about seven, and a girl of four or five.
They had no water, although it was brutally hot, and the little girl
couldn't manage the trail (her bike had training wheels) so the Dad and
she were walking, he pushing her bike ahead and pulling his bike behind
him. He asked me how far it was to one of the campgrounds, and when I
told him three miles, he just had a look of despair. I tried to
convince him to cut across to the paved road that parallels this
section about a hundred yards off, but by that time his son had gone on
ahead and he was trying to catch up with him.

That's the kind of people this section gets. Couples where one partner
has convinced the other to try this, and they're glaring at each other
as they walk up (or down) the slight hills, people dirty and not happy
about it, people wondering why they're there. I don't worry much about
"repeat offenders" here.

Besides, real mountain bikers would scorn this section of trail as much
too easy, and there are a lot of trails around here that *are* shared,
and just as pretty, so it isn't usually too much of a problem. In fact,
it's such a nice day, I might have to take my bike out for a spin right
now.

-payslee



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