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