Pet peeves outdoors

[Abraham]

mr.72,

"3. casual walkers who don't yield trail to faster-moving trail users"

By "faster-moving trail users" are you referring to bicycles?

If so, be advised, in state parks and most other parks, hikers/pedestrians have the right-of-way and those on bicycles have to yield to them.

Pedestrians aren't obligated to move out of the way. Bicycles are also required to travel at speeds not much faster than those afoot in these same parks.

If the pedestrians aren't yielding fast enough for you, you just may have to get off the bike and walk it until the pedestrians thin out.

I say this as a fellow cyclist.

I put in about two hundred miles plus a week on my bike(s), so I'm a relatively serious cyclist and got to know the particulars about bikes in parks as a State Park Volunteer for eight years.

[aardwolf]

I think he meant slowpokes who block the path of people walking briskly. I know that annoys me outdoors. Indoors too.

[Abraham]

aardwolf,

One of my outdoor pet peeves are those cyclists on the trail who are going warp speed and assume hikers must quickly scoot out of their way.

They have their presumptions backward. On the trail cyclists must yield to pedestrians at all times. Period. Them's the rules.

To fully enjoy park trails a lack of urgency is what people expect and is supported by park rules. They shouldn't be expected to have their head on a swivel in order not to get run down by someone on a bicycle. Slow moving nature lovers can be expected stopped with binoculars to eyes or someone explaining to little ones about the particulars flora and fauna.

Hikers and bikers can both enjoy the trail, but the trails aren't there as fast exercise lanes. Quite the opposite.

[KBCraig]

It sure would be a shame if a hiker, quietly taking in the sights and sounds of nature, were suddenly startled and had to dive out of the way of a speeding bicycle, and his hiking staff accidentally flew through the bike's front spokes.

It would be a darn shame if the walking staff was damaged.

[Venus Pax]

Let me slip back in here with a couple more...the characters waddling around with their britches falling off their hind end like it was some kind of symbolic badge of pride or some social statement or whatever...the folks out in public taking a poorly concealed leak beside their car on the highway or beside a bush at the boat ramp...

I've seen a bit of this curtailed by talking to the young gentlemen in my classroom about the origins of this fashion statement. It just so happens that this began in prison. Men that wear their pants low are letting other prisoners know that they are not as strong and are in need of protection; therefore, they are advertising their ahem services.
This usually gets the pants up, at least for awhile.

[Sodbuster]

This one's on dogs too, but a different take on them. I hate to see folks tote their dogs on the freeway in the bed of the truck. Everytime I see a poor pooch carcass on the road, I just think about the poor brokenhearted tots at home whenever the news is broken to them "well I had to slam on my brakes and swerve and the next thing I knew Fido passed me on the shoulder and there weren't enough of his leftovers to scrape up and bring home".

[KBCraig]

This one's on dogs too, but a different take on them. I hate to see folks tote their dogs on the freeway in the bed of the truck. Everytime I see a poor pooch carcass on the road, I just think about the poor brokenhearted tots at home whenever the news is broken to them "well I had to slam on my brakes and swerve and the next thing I knew Fido passed me on the shoulder and there weren't enough of his leftovers to scrape up and bring home".

I'm convinced that an Arkansas State Trooper once gave me a warning instead of a ticket (I was speeding), when he saw and asked about the system I had rigged up in the back of the truck to make sure my dog could stand up, lay down, and get just the tip of her nose past either side of the cab, but no more than that.

(I had stretched a cable tightly between the front stake pockets, and put two stops on it to limit side-to-side movement.)

[KD5NRH]

This one's on dogs too, but a different take on them. I hate to see folks tote their dogs on the freeway in the bed of the truck.

Particularly bad when they have the dog firmly anchored with about an 8ft leash to guarantee no chance of survival.

[KD5NRH]

Slow moving nature lovers can be expected stopped

If you're stopped, you're not hiking. Move over.

[subsonic]

Slow moving nature lovers can be expected stopped with binoculars to eyes or someone explaining to little ones about the particulars flora and fauna.

The polite thing to do is make way for people trying to get by. Note that this self centered and inconsiderate behavior is not limited to parks. I see it on sidewalks downtown, in office hallways, etc.

[Sodbuster]

I hadn't thought much about the trail riders vs pedestrians at odds, but I've long wished road bikers had better places to ride then out on the winding, hilly 2 lane farm roads out in my neck of the woods. I've lived on just such a road for 21 years now and I can see where it has quite the scenery and challenging topographic appeal for riders cooped up in the city most of the time, but 4 riders have been killed during that time, leaving spouses and offspring to carry on forward in life. I also feel for the poor drivers; one was a school bus driver, one an elderly Lady, and I honestly don't recall what the other two's identities were. I don't know who or what to be peeved at over the entire situation; I just wish folks didn't die recreating like that, and other folks didn't live with the deceased's demise on their conscience for the rest of their life.

[Weg]

People who don't pick up their spent brass when target shooting on public land, also their t.v.s, pot and pans, cars, and water heaters they use as targets.

[Weg]

And beer cans.

[Liberty]

People who don't pick up their spent brass when target shooting on public land, also their t.v.s, pot and pans, cars, and water heaters they use as targets.

Public land that we can shoot on? Where?

[Abraham]

KD5NRH and subsonic,

I agree with both of you.

When on the trail, by all means give others room to pass safely and I do.