Maybe I'm just getting old
 

Today coming back on my bike ride, I'm on a separate pedestrian, bicycle path. Even during the week it can get busy. Luckily I wasn't going very fast when I see a girl laying in the middle of the path, on her back, doing leg lifts. This isn't exactly the ideal place to be doing something like this, considering bicyclist come down the path at a pretty good speed. I slow down and yell out "Bicycle!", apparently she doesn't hear me so I yell it again. This time she puts down her legs, looks up at me and says "Oh sorry", but doesn't move. I ended up going around her and then 60 seconds later another cyclist is going the opposite direction and I yelled at him "Watch out for the lady laying in the road". Hope he heard me. Am I just getting old and can't tolerate stupid acts like this, or was the girl just brainless?

Maybe she was chased out of the street, for doing the same thing. LOL, just kidding.

This is me shaking my head in disbelief (at her).

Many of the people we encounter in life are not from around here...:p

We were riding last Saturday on a MUP. When we rounded a corner, there were 4 teenagers (2 male/2 female) walking side-by-side and taking up most of the path. The 2 males looked back at us and they proceeded to widen out a bit to take up the whole path. My dear wife slowed quickly. I, being 230 lbs. and on my '86 steel-framed MTB peddled harder and went off into the gravel on the side of the path. One of the males left the path to try and block me. I managed to keep control as my bar end contacted his elbow, hard. Hopefully they will learn to share the road next time.

Speaking for myself, I'm just visiting this planet and have made arrangements to take this young girl back to my home galaxy for further evaluation.

I'd say "brainless" about minimally covers it.
Maybe brain dead is more like it.

This is not stupid, this is agressive. I have seen this once or twice on my trails, sometimes by middle aged men. This is the one form of trail encounter that I fear the most.

I remember years ago on the KATY trail seeing a family of four having a picnic on a blanket right on the trail. I'm used to some of the dumb things that adolescent kids do but I expect the parents to have more sense.

I have to agree that they were being deliberatley aggresive. If the one guy had taken you down you may well have had a fight on your hands. And being teenagers they would not have had any punishment to worry about and might even have knifed you. Hell, you're lucky they didn't turn on your wife. And with the way things are these days the two girls may have been more vicious than the boys.


I once had a group of three kids on the side of the trail. Just as I came up on them one turned and walked across the path so I yelled out as I hit the brakes. I came to a stop almost touching him. I said "That was close!" and he mumbled an apology and I started back out. One of the others went ape with the "gangsta" talk telling me I'd better ride away 'cause he would "do me" or something like that. I stopped and yelled back that I only yelled out to save his buddy from an accident. He just kept on gangsta talking so I shook my head and left.

Had this happen a few years ago and my riding mate of the time- gave them a choice- "What side do you want the tyre marks" No movement so he caught two of them in one go with the bar ends. Lots of swearing from them and you don't do that to Mike.They did not notice how big he was till he got off the bike. Never seen them on the MUP since.

And I am afraid I do not give any idiots any clearance on the MUP. You have to be considerate to other users- and that includes them being considerate to me. I am on a bike and will be able to go faster than them after they have been hit.

I try to stay off the MUTs whenever possible. I swear, they are more dangerous than riding on the road. Numerous times I've encountered groups of joggers/walkers blocking the entire path and not willing to make room. Rarely ever do I ride on a MUT when I don't encounter a jogger/walker wearing headphones and totally oblivious the other people or cyclists.

I try to keep the perspective that, on a MUT, I'm the car and they are the bike. I don't want cars presuming to run over me because I didn't get out of the way fast enough, so I try to just slow down and avoid them just like I'd want a car to avoid me.

And I mostly avoid MUTs. Especially on crowded days.

Please:
I bike on MUT almost exclusively for twenty years. The MU T's are very important to me. I listen to Road bikers and their stories of car encounters.
My objective is fitness and health and nothing else.
I do agree that on occasion there is stupid things going on on a MUT. I did report some of these events. However, there have been no fatal injuries or very dangerous situations as compared to the stories I get from Road Bikers.
I will be going CC in April on the Road with a group. I know that this will be much more dangerous as a full year biking on my MUT in Wisconsin. Very often there is no one for miles. Yes, there may be a misfit ones in a great while. I accept that as such is life.

I wake up each morning with the belief that opportunity waits for me. Inevitably, during the course of a typical day, someone does something that seems to impede my ability to take advantage of the opportunities. My initial reaction to this is usually annoyance. Until I remember that the universe does not revolve around me, and there are more than just a few others trying to take advantage of the opportunities that they see available. On my good days, I just take a deep breath and move on. On less than good days, I get annoyed to the point where I can no longer see things clearly and miss many more of the good things life has to offer because I'm annoyed. I don't know what the deal was with this woman, but I would choose to think "Apology accepted."

I always try to "think ahead" and see how my actions will affect others. I agree that I shouldn't let little annoyances affect my day and most days I try to brush it off. There will always be some people who will go out of their way to make someone else's day worse, hoping it will make them feel better. Sad.