Re: EHSC mishap

[guest@endurance.net]

Jim Mitchell navion2@pacbell.net
   I came across the mishap just as it cleared, so I will have no comment
on that event.  But it will give me a forum to discuss trail manners at
rides with lots of riders and narrow, single track trail.  If you are
riding and somebody catches you from behind you should pull over at the
first opportunity and let them pass. If you do this at every chance there
should never be longer lines than 5 horses.  At EHSC there were lines of
20 horses being held up by a slower trotting front horse. At narrow stream
crossings in the first 20 miles you should avoid stopping unless there has
been no other water. At EHSC there was a trough at 6 miles so I feel
riders should not stop again and block a trail until at least 12 miles,
and at 12 miles there was a lake with lots of room.  There were also
streams later in the ride and you could move down or upstream and not
block the trail.  If you are caught from behind by another rider, they
must be going faster than you, let them pass. Then everybody can ride in
relative solitude, dust free, and more safely than the scenerio that
caused the accident, lots of horses too close together.
   I asked twice in the first 12 miles for people to let us pass, maybe
one party thought I was rude, although I try to ask very nicely and say
thank you mutltple times after they let me pass. But I will not eat dust
and ride "dude ranch style" because somebody else doesn't understand this
basic idea. It is impossible to all start in the correct spot so that no
passing is necessary, but some concern towards avoiding packs can make the
correct speed order get worked out pretty quickly and we can all have a
safe and rewarding ride.
   I try to always be aware of somebody catching me from behind and I pull
over immediately and let them pass. Then the continue to move away from
me. At this ride a nice group (the fallen rider included) let us pass near
the waterfall, they jokingly said "now we will eat your dust"  and I said
"no we will be gone"  and we were, the never saw or caught us again.
   Sometimes I play leap frog with other riders, one may go faster uphill,
the other downhill, and in that case we trade leads for awhile, but it
isn't hard to do.
  At Tevis in 99 I was stared at for yelling up to the lead rider of a
group of 20 to pull over. It was harder to be nice when yelling from 150
feet back (20 horses at 7.5 feet each)  I could tell some thought I was
very rude, but I can't believe all other 18 riders thought it was being
nice to continue to eat dust and ride dangerously. When the lead rider
moved we quickly broke up into packs of 3 to 5 then even smaller. Until we
caught the next slower rider.
   At the start of a narrow ride this can be a difficult time, as everyone
is together. If I start in a pack I tend to ride faster than I want to.
Then if people stick with me I pull over at 1 or 2 miles and let them pass
and slow down to my desired pace, then they pull away, and I have a nice
gap to ride in. After that if anyone catches me I immediately pull over.
This works quite well in handling mass starts on narrow trails.

Jim Mitchell  5000+ miles AERC #13117