LETTER: Bikes not good fit for pack trails
In regard to the Sunday, April 10, letter of Frank Vitale’s with the scenario envisioning a wreck on a wilderness pack trail between a packstring and a high speed mountain biker — this is not a concept confined to wilderness: It could happen on any pack trail.
My opinion is that extreme mountain bikers do not belong on most pack trails. I would like to present an actual happening.
On Sept. 4, 2011, leading my pony up a steeper part of a trail leading to the Ten Lakes Scenic Area, a silent apparition on wheels came without warning around a blind curve. My pony was wild-eyed and frantically lunging backwards trying to get away, severely wrenching my arm straight back as the mountain biker laid down his bike in a skid to avoid crashing into us.
He asked if I was OK, and I said yes — at the time I was shaken and with the adrenaline rush didn’t realize how badly my arm and shoulder were injured. Before we parted, I warned of an older couple hiking back down to the trailhead … the wrong spot in the trail at high speed could have had dire consequences for them.
Now suppose that one of the local dude ranches using these pack trails for high country rides had a group of green riders on that trail … how many would make it through a situation just described?
My pony is a seasoned (retired) lead pony for packstrings and trail rides for dudes; he’s always been calm, cool and collected in every situation imaginable. Two years ago on a narrow hi-line trail, straight up one side, straight down the other, a sudden appearance of twin two-year-old grizzlies did not elicit even a quarter the terrified response of my pony’s reaction to the incident involving a silent, fast-wheeling mountain biker from out of nowhere.
My physical therapist confessed that he does this type of mountain biking, but in areas where this circumstance is less likely to happen. He also stated if that biker had to lay down his bike to avoid a collision, “… he was going way too fast.”
I would also like to address trail conditions that I have observed as a result of increasing use of pack trails by mountain bikers. For one thing, hikers and horse riders have always been admonished not to short-cut switchbacks … the bikers are creating new wide-curved shortcuts.
Another thing is that there are trails that due to run-off, the type of soil, or terrain configuration have a tendency to become rutted. The bike tires greatly enhance this condition; some to the effect of creating a “V” notch down the trail. This “V” is hard enough for horses to walk on, and I can’t imagine a hiker with a 50-pound (or more) backpack maneuvering through and trying not to sprain an ankle.
One last possible scenario … Imagine that extreme biker downhilling around a curve into the hind end of a momma griz with three cubs of the year. (But what a thrill, eh?)
—Midge Tate, Eureka