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What the heck Grandma!?!?

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What the heck Grandma!?!?

Old 10-03-05, 10:08 AM
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What the heck Grandma!?!?

This was kinda funny, a bit disturbing and pissed me off a bit.
The Sat am planned ride was cancelled as my buddy called in sick, so to maximize the day, I choose to get an 8 mile ride in on a local trail, which can be notoriously crowded on nice weekend days.
I get there at about 9:30 am, and there must have been 25 bikes in various stages of setup and unload, so I got mine off the jeep and got on the trail quick, hoping to make the climb ahead of the crowd.
Plan worked, as I made the 3 mile summit alone, and met only two bikes and no runners/hiker at all.
I knew the decent would be crowded as the rest of masses would now be on the trail.
So, here comes the incident, I was on my way down, when I saw a family, (kids, parents & grandparents) on the way up, I saw them way before they saw me, I brougth my speed down to a crawl and then they saw me and scattered into the woods as if was barreling down on them at top speed, it was complete over reaction. As I crawled past, they were coming back onto the trail, I was like "sorry, thanks" etc.
And then Grandma starts charging toward me, I am now hugging the downhill side of the trail so not to hit her, and she is wagging her finger in my face, screaming, "this used to be a nice hike, before all you bikers started riding and ruining it!"
I was a bit stunned and offered no response and just rode away, but the more I thought about, the more I got a bit pissed, after all, it was her that almost forced me off the trail on the downhill side.
I encounter hostile hikers/runners only on the trails that are close to Denver, which see heavy use on nice weekend, and biker are already at the bottom of the food chain on the trails, behind the hiker/runner and the horse.
So, I just guess that this turned out to be a rant, no more, no less.
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Old 10-03-05, 10:38 AM
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sucks man.. but you just got to live with it.. its worse in singapore..

Last edited by bobflyer; 10-03-05 at 10:50 AM.
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Old 10-03-05, 10:41 AM
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I would have said it was a nice place to bike until all the hikers started being *******s.
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Old 10-03-05, 10:41 AM
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I would have said it was a nice place to bike until all the hikers started being *******s.
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Old 10-03-05, 10:57 AM
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Around me the rule is the hikers/walkers have the right of way. The bike rider should dismount and walk the bike when encountering a hiker/walker. Those are just the trail rules. Most of the time this does not happen and I am sure it irks some hikers. Most just wave me through though.

Sounds like granny had some misplaced anger though as from your description you were operating safely. But who knows, she might have just been buzzed by someone and was still rattled. Or maybe she is just a bitter old hag.

If you were in the right I would have given her a piece of my mind. Although, it is tough to come up with good responses when you are startled on the trail like that. They usually come after a couple of minutes of thought.
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Old 10-03-05, 11:52 AM
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I've had that happen once, except I went from about 25km/h to basically trackstanding, going AROUND the hiker grandma, I actually left 3 feet of space between us and she starts shouting at me. I just looked at her, then kept my opinions to myself and continued down the trail...
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Old 10-03-05, 12:36 PM
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She sounds like a member of HOHA, the Hateful Old Hikers' Association. We seems to have a lot of those in Florida.
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Old 10-03-05, 02:37 PM
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Well it is good that you didn't curse her out, that surely wouldn't have helped the situation, then the next biker would just get it worse. She's probably a lost cause, but maybe next time wait until she steps to her side a bit before moving over- if she is thinking she might be getting hit (whether you would actually hit her or not) she won't have so much time to engage you in wordplay/badgering/haranging you. I know you may never see that specific hiker again, so when I say she I just mean any ol' hiker.
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Old 10-03-05, 04:32 PM
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bobflyer - what's it like in singapore?
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Old 10-03-05, 06:29 PM
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Why the heck would a grandma be climbing a 3 mile hike up thingy.
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Old 10-03-05, 07:43 PM
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i have never had this problem. sometimes i stop on the dh parts so i could get a nice run and they tell me to go so i bumb down it and i get a "WOW!" but i always brake and unclip to show them they can go, usually they let me go. however i do get rocks thrown at me.
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