The early morning light and long evening light lately has been awesome for getting out on the trails around Golden, but as the numbers go up the potential for conflict predictably goes up as well.
Chimney Gulch (one of Golden’s most popular hiking, running, and mountain biking trails).
For years now, I think the mountain biking community has done a really good job of creating and enforcing a culture of responsible riding, at least in Jefferson County. The vast majority of riders I encounter when running are friendly and courteous, and pull over to let runners and hikers pass. The handful that barrel past, or don’t make room, or rip around blind corners (a few months ago I saw a couple of downhillers on Chimney Gulch take out a mountain biker going uphill), or are just otherwise rude still have a disproportionate impact on everyone else’s experience, which obviously fuels tension and controversy, so hats off to the community for continuing to do as much as they do to sustain that culture of respectful trail use.
I ride once in a while but mostly run, and in my experience the runners are usually friendly as well, but I’ve seen just as much rude behavior from runners toward mountain bikers as the other way around. Hopefully we runners can do just as a good job sustaining that same sort of respectful culture as the bikers do.
But even as a mostly-runner I disagree with Jeffco’s expectation that mountain bikers should always yield to everyone else. It makes sense to me that peds and bikers yield to horses, and on flats and uphills I for sure appreciate that bikers yield, but if I’m passing bikers heading uphill as I’m running downhill … I think it’s crazy to ask the bikers to yield. Uphill is tough whether you’re on foot or in the saddle, and the way I figure it the pedestrians and bikers traveling downhill should always yield to the pedestrians and bikers slogging their way uphill. That just seems like common sense.
If it were up to me I’d probably retain Jeffco’s approach with that one change. Call it the “Yield to the Sloggers” rule, or the “That Person is Working Way Harder Than You” principal, or maybe the “Be Kind to the Uphillers” mantra: if you’re heading downhill on a bike or on foot, make way for anyone heading the other way.