Re: Backcountry Meetings

One reason we can't all get along is that the coolest thing about mountain biking, the ability to zoom around curves and down hills, is the very thing that is dangerous and maddening to hikers. If you try to enforce rules sufficient to satisfy the hikers, you dilute the experience for the bikers. If you don't try to protect the hikers, serious injury can result to both bikers and hikers.

Another reason is that heavy bike use, such as in the Pinckney recreation area in Southeast Michigan, does serious damage to the trails and makes the hiking experience less than optimal.

For example, last December I was camping along a trail that is very popular among bikers. As I was lying under my tarp, near midnight, I heard a racket, looked out and saw a number of lights. Six or seven bikers then passed my campsite at close to warp speed, talking loudly among themselves.

I don't know the answer. I am unwilling to eschew an otherwise exceptional hiking area simply because of the bikers. That's why I carry a hardwood hiking staff and pray for a snowy winter.