There are rules and etiquette when it comes to two-legged and two-wheeled adventurers sharing the same outdoors spaces. Generally, mountain bikers should give way to hikers in the vast majority of situations, because, frankly, MTBs hurtling down tracks at high speeds are far more dangerous than gently ambling backpackers (even if they are armed with trekking poles).
Inconsiderate MTBers can be a bugbear on the trails. It’s the few reckless riders who sully the reputation of the majority of civil cyclists. But hikers aren’t always entirely blameless, as this video, shot by cameraman Saul De Los Santos, shows.
In it, a female hiker ignores race tape and walks straight into the path of a bike being ridden by Andy Gradziel, who does an expert job managing to avoid her. She just gives him a dirty look.
If the race tape weren’t enough, apparently the woman also ignored warnings being shouted at her.
“There were a bunch of people on the side of the trail yelling at her,” says Gradziel in the comments on the video. “There’s a hiking trail that crosses the MTB trail but they put up a bunch of red tape to warn people that there was a race going on. For some reason, she decided to cross the tape and not listen to the crowd of people yelling at her to stop.”
De Los Santos leaps to Gradziel’s defence in the comments too: “This was a closed course… [the] entire park was rented for a race. She walked over red tape with 10+ people yelling at her. It’s her fault… [Gradziel] did a great job avoiding putting this lady in the hospital.”
Another comments there were a number of disgruntled hikers in the vicinity that day. But while it might be annoying that your favorite trek has been interrupted by a race, ignoring warning to stay away is not just selfish it also very, very dangerous.
As always, mutual respect, guys. Mutual respect.
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