[pct-l] Bikes on the PCT

[Amanda L Silvestri]

One day a few years back, I was hiking through the hills south the Tehachapi wind farms.  The trail there is rutted with dirt bike tracks and I could not tell what was the PCT and what was a bike trail.  At one point I had become lost and had to go cross country on a general bearing.  Eventually I rediscovered the trail.  

Not long after reacquiring the trail, I was reclining along side it with my legs extending onto the trail, taking a short rest, when I heard the sound of dirt bikes approaching.  Not wishing to be run over I got up.  There was a long branch lying next to me and I picked it up, straddled the trail and stood there holding the branch in both hands, my arms handing down to either side. The branch spanned the width of the trail.

Well I must have presented quite a sight because when the bikers approached and caught sight of me standing there, they slammed on their brakes and desperately tried to turn around before reaching me.  One went down a hillside a ways before he was able to complete his turn and join his companion in a general skedaddle.

Oh course, I had no intention of hurting anybody.  At most, I would have lectured them about no dirt bikes being allowed on the PCT.  They must have had guilty consciences and they fled before their feared punishment could be inflected by the Mad Hiker.  :)

Shepherd