Jim, Chris here. Leah, being the horse person in the family, has taught me
some valuable things to know when around horses. Especially on a trail
encounter. As soon as you meet up with a horse group, dismount and start
talking. This let's the horse know you are a person and not a threat.
Continue to speak as they pass, engage the riders in friendly chit chat.
Tell the rider their horse is good looking! Comment on the weather, the
trail, whatever!

For that matter, I usually engage fellow riders and hikers I encounter on
trails. You know me, the gift of gab comes easily! And we do try and alert
folks we come up on from behind, either by handlebar bell, a whistle, or a
spoken word, and always try and approach caustiously. Now when they have
loose dogs, that's a different story!

Trail etiquette is a valuable tool in ensuring access and good faith. It
works both ways. Back in the Bay Area in the early days of mountain biking,
there were signs posted at trail heads, triangle shaped, each corner was a
symbol, a hiker, a biker, and a horse. Arrows went around, designating who
yielded to whom. Hikers and bikers yielded to horses, bikers yielded to
hikers. Maybe at some point there will be a need for said signage around
some of our more popular trail heads shared by multi use groups.

Chris
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim Seyfert" <jseyfert@...>
To: <pendoreillepedalers@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, March 02, 2006 8:21 PM
Subject: [POP] Trail etiquette workgroup forming...request for your input!


> POPers,
>
> Earlier today I had a great conversation with Debbie Gullo with the North
> Idaho Backcountry Horsemen. She called to apologize for not getting back
to
> me sooner about getting a letter of support to us for our Mineral Point
> trail extension grant proposal with the Forest Service, and we turned the
> conversation around to another topic of mutual concern: multi-use trail
> etiquette.
>
> Now I know there has been lots of talk in the club and between many of us
> individually about "those hikers' or "those horsemen" etc. that have bad
> trail etiquette. Well, guess what? They have the same conversations and
> often we (those bikers!) are getting the heat. To paraphrase Rodney King,
> 'Can't we all just get along?' :)
>
> To that end, Debbie and I agreed to start a conversation to start working
on
> a multi-use trail etiquette guide. I've already invited Jan Griffitts of
> the Monday Hikers to participate and she agreed, so we have all three
trail
> use sectors covered.
>
> Now we need input from users, so here's my requests. Please reply to the
> whole group so we can have a little dialog about this important issue.
>
> 1) Does anyone else in the club have any heat about this issue? In other
> words, who would like to work with me and these representatives from the
> hikers and horsemen to evolve an etiquette guide for trail use? If this
> issue speaks to you, let me know!
>
> 2) What are your issues or concerns about using the trails as a biker wrt
> encountering other users? What makes sense to you when coming upon other
> trail users be they other bikers, hikers or horsemen. What are your
> personal etiquette guides that you use? Do you announce yourself when
coming
> upon other trail users? When do you yield? When do you not? Do you
> indicate what your going to do, like, "passing on your right", etc. Care
to
> share any interesting stories about trail encounters of the third kind?
All
> this will help us in forming a guide.
>
> 3) Do any of you have sources of pre-determined trail use etiquette that
may
> already exist? I plan to research the web on this issue, but many of you
> may already have stuff to share. If you do, please be in touch!
>
> The goal for our workgroup is to develop simple to understand trail use
> guidelines when encountering others on the trails. We then may seek to
get
> these published in various papers, letters to the editor and circulated
> among student and other outdoor clubs/groups. The ultimate goal will be
to
> enhance our mutual trail experiences and reduce problematic encounters
while
> out enjoying nature in the personal way we each choose.
>
>
> Getting psyched to ride...
>
>
> -- Jim
>
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> Yahoo! Groups Links
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