"Off-road" rage
Anybody out there experiencing "off-road" rage? According to an interesting article by Karl Vick in the Aug. 12, 2008 issue of the Washington Post violent incidents involving non-motorized users such as mountain bikers and hikers and ATV riders are increasing in the West. Vick reported one incident this way:
"There appears to be no shortage of issues now. Critics point out that ATV riders account for 10 percent of visitors to public land, at most. Yet their impact — whining engine noise, dust clouds visible for miles and nuisance driving, especially by young operators — profoundly affects the other 90 percent.
'You can't recreate with these machines around. It will ruin your day,' said Bob Clark, a Sierra Club regional official who was knocked to the ground by a dirt bike in the Great Burn Roadless Area in eastern Idaho two summers ago.
Clark declined to discuss the episode after the biker was penalized with only a misdemeanor $72 fine. But according to witness accounts, the dirt bike's front wheel was in line to come down on Clark's head when Clark deflected it, spilling the rider atop another hiker. Clark had been trying to get a photo of the biker, who was on a trail barred to motorized vehicles."
I'd be interested in learning if anyone has encountered such hostility from either ATV riders of the non-motorized crowd.
Tom
posted by Brett @ 12:18 PM |
1 Comments:
A two years ago we had our first ever skier-snowmobiler physical contact - A skier jumped on the back of a passing snowmobiler and tried to pull him off his sled. As luck would have it 2 forest rangers were near by and interviened the skier then attacked them. Finally the skier calmed down and was asked why he did what he did. He had parked his car on the snowmobile trail and let his dog out to run. Snowmobiler had to drive around him to get past, he thought they were too close and got angry. Go figure, he should have gone to a non-motorized area or trailhead but since he was one of the leaders of a local ski group he wanted to incite some conflict and ended up losing it him self.
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