[Geysers] Mountain Bikes on Nat'l Park trails

[Udo Freund]

The Billings Gaz-bag  ... err, Gazette ...  has an article in today's 
edition about rules changing for mountain bikes on trails.  URL: 
http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2008/12/20/news/wyoming/20-bikes.txt
Comments anyone?

I offer a few of my own.  1) Bikes in bear country are a bad mix and 
resultant liability will be an issue.  Hikers and trail bikers are 
almost as bad a mix.  Perhaps signed written waivers should be 
required.  2) Keeping bikes on trails is similar to keeping vehicles on 
designated roads.  There will always be a few idiots who will go 
anywhere they want.  Of course they wouldn't care about any damage they 
cause nor would they want to accept responsibility (liability again) for 
that.  3) Bikes do carve ruts in trails so who will be financially and 
physically responsible for trail upkeep?  As I understand things, there 
are limited resources for hiking trails, which probably require less 
maintenance.

Udo