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Old September 21st 14, 10:49 PM posted to rec.bicycles.soc
EdwardDolan
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Posts: 538
Default Our wildlands are not outdoor gymnasiums or amusement parks.

"Blackblade" wrote in message ...

Edward Dolan wrote:

Blackblade and his ilk are trespassers and despoilers of
nature. Here is an article I pulled out of my stream of such articles expressly
for him to read. Will it do any good? Probably not, but the truths stated in
this missive will be apparent to anyone with a functioning brain in his head. It
also assumes a heart and a soul, things which mountain bikers have ever shown to
lack. God Damn their rotten souls all the way to Hell and back!


You keep forgetting that I, too, am also a hiker and, perhaps surprisingly to you, I agree with quite a lot of what is written in the article. I have never advocated for universal access ... I've simply pointed out how ridiculous your ubiquitous assertions are. You don't want mountainbikers on ANY trails ... irrespective of wilderness designation.


And, since you take that view, you do exactly what I warned you about; you create extremism to counter it.


If you were prepared to concede that some of the trails where, clearly, you would prefer that there were no mountainbikers were open then, I suspect, the mountainbikers might be rather more open to accepting that other trails were off limits such as wilderness trails.


Of course, this all presupposes that people don't, as has been the case in the past, mis-use wilderness designation simply to try and get mountainbikers off historic trails. If all could agree a 10-year grandfathered rights clause I think that would resolve that one.


But, no, you take an absolutist position which means that even reasonable mountainbikers like me, who do enjoy hiking and do accept the 'cathedral of nature' proposition, find ourselves resolutely opposed to your selfish and irrational response to anything to do with mountainbikes.


If you want mountainbikers to act reasonably then you have to too. Fight us and, guess what, we fight back. Compromise and you will achieve far more of what you want.


My position is that there is an inherent conflict between hikers and bikers on trails just as there would be between bikers and motorcyclists on trails. It really has nothing to do with the ease or difficulty of a trail (although the danger factor is a good argument to use to get bikers off of trails), but to WHY you are on the trail in the first plaice. Purpose is everything. Very strange that you can’t see it from this perspective.

Unlike Mr. Vandeman, I am not opposed to bikers having their own trails. He is more right than I am of course, but that is the only compromise I am willing to make. Bikers use nature as a playground. With natural spaces becoming ever more rare, it is a desecration to use natural spaces for playgrounds for adults with toys.

The most precious resource in the world are natural spaces where what you can do and what you can’t do is closely regulated. Let everyone do whatever he wants and the resource is destroyed. Walking a trail is the least harm that can be done. I am far more right than you are. There is nothing extreme about my position on how we should use natural spaces. The only extremist here is you.

Mountain bikers are barbarians and have no right to be on any trail used by hikers – unless they want to get off their god damn ****ing bikes and walk like everyone else. When they crash and injure themselves, I rejoice! If and when they manage to kill themselves, I say good riddance to bad rubbish! Death to mountain biking!

“Tread softly! All the earth is holy ground.”
~ Christina Rossetti (Psalm 24),
from "A Later Life: A Double Sonnet of Sonnets"

Mountain bikes have wheels. Wheels are for roads.

Trails are for walking. What’s the matter? Can’t walk?

Ed Dolan the Great
aka
Saint Edward the Great


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