LT conditions?

[Vibrato]

Rumor has it that they had all but given up riding the trails out there numerous years back because no one maintained them. Ranger Mike indicated that he wasn't all that bothered by it at the time because it much less of a hassle.

When FORC started maintaining them, the equestrians started coming back, and so the usual conflict between our user groups began again. (We scare the horses, they tear up the trails, etc.) I ALMOST get the impression that Ranger Mike would just as soon let the trails go to seed so he wouldn't have to mess with either the equestrians or the MTB'ers.

Yeah, We know the Parks that only allow MTBers (or that ENFORCE the seperation rules! Oh, hi Scocopa, didn't see you standing there...) don't have these problems because we maintain, assist, educate, inform, and basically police ourselves and our fellow riders who may not be up to speed with all of these issues like we're supposed to in order to create a better relationship with the land managers.

Based on Scocopa and Loud thunder, it seems the circle is this-

Step 1. Equestrians use the trails until their unrideable and stop showing up

Step 2. Mountain Bikers offer to spend thousands of hours and thousands of dollars to rehab the trails to sustainability

Step 3. Equestrians get upset that they have to share the trails or that they aren't allowed to ride on the trails built or rehabbed with MTB time and money.

Step 4. Equestrians ignore the rules and create conflict by doing so.

Step 5. Rangers adopt a "can't we all just get along" attitude and ignore the problem.

Step 6. MTBers get tired of repairing trails or riding crap trails.

Step 7. Equestrians use trails until they're unrideable and stop showing up

Step 8. Go to step 2, repeat ad nauseum...

Unless a ranger follows Sugar Bottoms example and gets rid of the user group that won't maintain their own trails. In that case popularity ioncrease, conflict goes away and everyone is either happy or somewhere else.

[iLuvTechnical]

That's what I thought.