[pct-l] Forest Service to consider allowing mountain bikes on the PCT

[mkwart at gci.net]

The Colorado Trail allows mountain bikes in non wilderness areas. I thru 
hiked it last year--my observations:

1. Most of the trail users were day use mountain bikers. They were 
intent on going fast and getting a good workout covring many miles in a 
day.I only came across two mountain bike campers--one was riding at 
night with a headlamp, covering an amazing distance (40+ miles) in a 
day.
2. It was hard to hear them to get out of the way. Although the onus for 
communication lies with the mountain bikers to yell out, they often were 
going so fast, intent on maintaining a fast pace, that they did not do a 
very good job. I was usually the one to step aside, although the 
regulations said that the mountain bikers should be the ones to yield to 
hikers.
3. Trail sociology will be impacted--I found out it was not a good idea 
to greet them on the trail. When I was taking a break on the side of the 
trail and said "Howdy" to one going uphill 10 feet in front of me--he 
was so startled he almost lost his balance. After that I rarely greeted 
them--just let them blast by. But I did have some good conversations 
sith some who were pushing their bike over a particularly rough piece of 
trail.
4. I routinely got in the habit of looking back up the trail on steep 
dowhhill stretches to anticipate groups of mountain bikers blasting down 
the trail.
5. With mountain bike use will inevitably come mountain bike races--I 
encountered some mountain bikers prepping the trail for a race above 
Breckenridge. I was gone before the race happened, but can imagine the 
potential for impacts on hikers to be great. This should be considered 
in any input to the Forest Service. I did experience a mountain  bike 
race while hiking on the Arizona Trail, but the contestants were so few 
(the race was from the Mexican border to Utah) that it posed no problem.

My experience was not overtly unpleasant, but the Colorado Trail does 
not go through highly populated areas like the PCT. There could be trail 
tread damage. Allowing mountain bikes could also be one step toward 
allowing motorcycles--which the Colorado trail also allows. They really 
cause a lot of trail tread damage (lots of damage in meadows and wet 
spots on the trail) and are a noisy nuisance. You can hear them coming 
for miles. The motorcycles wear down the soil on the trail tread, 
exposing rocks, making the trail a cobblestone-like nightmare for 
hikers. They also widen the trail so that it looks like a highway.

--Fireweed