(the Watchmen thread made me feel a bit like I'd like to keep myself separated from the MTB groups out here…)
Yes, it is great that we have people who care. But, I hope that they don't care too much. I think many of us like going out to the trails (hiking, biking, riding, whatever we do out there) to enjoy the freedom. And most of us are smart and do consider others out there.
It is good to have some signage for the trail, and maybe some recommendations that some of the trails are primarily for bikers, and some are for uphill only. But, for me, that is already pushing the limit: Do I need someone to set limit to my freedom to enjoy my time out there? Who has authority to do that [HTML_REMOVED] why? Yes, those recommendations make perfect sense to me, but we should be very careful how we express those recommendations. And if some people are not following the recommendations, it might indicate that the recommendations are maybe not set by right people.
I'm taking this up as I got a bit pissed of few months ago when I was hiking up Bobsled with my shovel (I was hiking up to fix some drainage). I saw bikers coming down, stepped aside of the trail. Then one of the guys stopped and started lecturing me how this trail is for bikers only and hikers are not permitted blaa blaa blaa. Sure.
The other time I was riding down Immonator, and then decided to ride down the new climbing trail (I guess it has a name, I just don't remember it). I saw two guys riding up, and naturally I stopped [HTML_REMOVED] took myself to the side of the trail to let them go first (I'm old [HTML_REMOVED] slow). Well, the other rider stopped and started to lecture me how I'm not allowed to ride down this trail blaa blaa blaa. Sure I understand that trail is meant for climbing, and it would not be good for the trail if everyone would start racing down it (I've done bit of trailbuilding myself). But seriously, that guy pissed me off [HTML_REMOVED] ruined day. He definitely saw that I was not ripping off the corners, and I was giving them the right of way.
Seriously. We mountain bikers don't own the mountain, and we cannot set rules how to use the mountain. We can have our nice polite recommendations four ourselves, but we should be smart enough to understand that if we start setting the rules, we are going to get lot of opponents.