Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site varian.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxj!houxm!ihnp4!zehntel!varian!fred
From: fred@varian.UUCP (Fred Klink)
Newsgroups: net.bicycle
Subject: Re: Mountain Bikes & The Environment
Message-ID: <240@varian.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 24-Sep-84 16:26:01 EDT
Article-I.D.: varian.240
Posted: Mon Sep 24 16:26:01 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 26-Sep-84 19:21:12 EDT
References: <173@oliveb.UUCP>, <321@hoxna.UUCP>
Organization: Varian, Walnut Creek, CA
Lines: 27

Last weekend we we're hiking one of our favorite day-hike
trails at Point Reyes National Seashore (north of S.F.),
going up a very steep, narrow and wooded section of trail.
The only sounds were the birds, the leaves rustling in the
breeze and the sound of our footfalls.  Suddenly, above us we
heard an incredible mechanical rattle and someone shouting
"Excuse me!".  We stepped into the bushes (probably poison oak!),
and a mountain bike and rider hurtled past down the hill.
We stepped back onto the trail just in time to leap back for
another one.

My time on wilderness trails is quality time for me to get
away from the world.  I found this incident just as disturbing
and maddening as I would a dirt motorbike or a snowmobile in the
same circumstances.  I agree with the Sierra Club-- mountain bikes
do not belong on hiking trails.   At Point Reyes and elsewhere in
this state there are numerous 
wide, well graded dirt roads that I'm willing to share with cyclists
and equestrians.  But narrow, steep trails should be the province of
hikers only.

I'm a cyclist who does thousands of road miles a year.  I happen to 
think cycling is the finest sport going.  But I also feel that it has
its place and the backcountry ain't it!

						Fred Klink