So, as some of you might recall, I'm fairly new to mountain biking. Things have been pretty busy, so
my only rides this month have been three loops around Betasso, a fairly moderate 3.5 mile loop that
nevertheless kicks my butt =)
Anyway, the last time I was there, a lady from park services was surveying bikers about their
interests and needs. I thought this was pretty cool. We got into a discussion about the
Betasso policy, which is that bikes are not allowed on the trail Weds and Sat, and in addition
to this, bikes are only allowed to go one direction on the loop (the direction is reversed
every month or so).
This policy seems all right to me -- it means that if hikers really hate dealing with bikes, they
don't have to, and it means that hikers only have to keep an eye out in one direction for bikes. It
seems to me that it should reduce trail friction, which must be good for everyone ...
To my surprise, the park services lady said that a lot of bikers were quite upset about these
policies. It seemed to me that it's in the bikers' own self-interest to be able to avoid
antagonistic hikers (as well as avoiding antagonizing hikers). On the other hand, she pointed out
that many of these bikers had been doing their thing since before there were any restrictions at all
... so maybe they perceive a gradual erosion of rights that will lead inexorably to a total lack of
bike trails in the entire region. I can certainly see where that would become a real fear, and maybe
I'm naive not to feel the pressure.
So, what do you folks think about policies that restrict bikes to certain days, etc? In this
particular case, bikers can use the trail 5 days a week, and one of those days is on the weekend.
Two anecdotes that may be relevant:
1) The first day that I rode this trail, my fiance and I slowly approached a gaggle of
variously-aged children and their chaparones. An older woman thanked us profusely for going so
slowly, which makes me wonder if she's more often been treated to bikers plowing right through
the group.
2) While my parents were visiting, I took them for a hike around this same trail. We chose the
direction counter to the bike direction specifically so that we wouldn't have bikes roaring up on
us from behind. We encountered no hikers and many bikers, most of whom were courteous and
friendly, but there was one pair that were going the wrong direction and zooming right up on us
in precisely the fashion we'd tried to avoid. As the guy in the lead zipped past, I called out,
"Hey, aren't you going the wrong way?", to which he responded completely unapologetically, "They
change it every couple of weeks -- I can't keep it straight." His companion at least had the
courtesy to look a little shame-faced. Mind you, the direction is posted quite prominently at the
trail head, and there's a big "WRONG WAY BIKERS" sign a couple of hundred yards into the trail,
just in case you hadn't noticed the first one. There is an alternate route into the trail, but
even if they had used it, I believe they would still have ridden past both signs. This kind of
behavior made me wish that there were such a thing as bike license plates ...
These two anecdotes suggest to me that the bike-free days aren't a bad idea at all ... though, if
the bikers in the second example aren't willing to follow instructions on trail direction, they're
probably not terribly likely to follow other policies, either.
-- monique
PS -- Is there any such thing anywhere as bike-only trails? I'm betting not ...