[pct-l] bicycle class at Cascade Lockes

[Danny Wormington]

     At Cascade Lockes there is an annual PCT type event to celebrate 
the hikers of the PCT.  There are booths with hiking hardware and food 
and beer, and classes on various things  concerning the trail. I dropped 
in on one of these classes, a class on trail etiquette. In the class 
they said there were three main users of the trail. They drew a pyramid 
and put equestrians at the top and hikers and bikers on each side at the 
bottom.  Equestrians were at the top, they said, because both bikers and 
hikers had to give way to these animals.  Bikers, they said, were 
responsible to give way, in turn, to hikers.  There was one exception 
that I found interesting.  If a mountain biker is going down the trail 
too fast to stop then equestrians and hikers have to give way to the biker.
      I have mulled this over since that class.  I guess that it makes 
sense to give a biker the right-of-way if he comes over a blind ramp and 
is five feet in the air about to land on top of you, but it seems 
strange to make it a rule.  Bicyclers have the right-of-way only if they 
are behaving incredibly stupid.  It also seems strange to have a class 
at a pct event that  factors in bicyclists as an integral part of the trail.
     So here is what I learned.  1) bicycles are part of the trail 
2)bicycles must behave responsibly on the trail  3)we must expect them 
to behave irresponsibly  4)bicycles who behave irresponsibly have the 
right-of-way

     Danny