The do’s and don’ts of trail use in Central Oregon

Between mountain bikers, hikers, runners, walkers, horses and dogs, there are many modes of transportation being used on Central Oregon trails, which means run-ins are likely to happen.

“We generally get off the trail whenever we see a guy coming close to us. It’s just not worth it to mess around with it, especially with a jogger or a fast mountain biker,” Tom Colacino, a mountain biker at Phil’s Trail Complex, said Tuesday.

As far as rules go, bikers coming downhill should yield to bikers going uphill, and pedestrians always have the right of way.

“You’ve probably seen the triangle, mountain bikers, equestrians, runners.,” explained Teague Hatfield, owner of FootZone, “We all yield to equestrians because they (horses) are massive animals and we want to be safe and respectful of equestrians, and mountain bikers yield to runners.”

But not everyone agrees with that, including trail expert and Central Oregon Trail Alliance board member Woody Keen.

“If the trail is designed and built specifically for mountain bikers, then that yield hierarchy goes away — it doesn’t make sense,” Keen said.

Two issues that caught the attention of both runners and mountain bikers are people hiking with dogs and earbuds.

Our current KTVZ.COM Poll asks if you think it’d be a good idea to create bikes-only and walkers/runners-only trails in the area. Find it halfway down the right side of our home page.

Dogs on trails raise the potential for collisions with bikers, said Janet Nelson Shofstall of Hutch’s Bicylcles.

“Some dogs they’re just excited, they want to greet everybody. Well, the cyclist that wants to just roll on by, that can be a conflict of interest.”

And earbuds are considered generally unsafe when it comes to noticing other trail users.

“If you turn the volume up, you are really asking for trail user conflict because you have basically zoned out the ability to understand what else is going on,” Keen explained.

But the most important piece of advice from runners and bikers alike is to just be nice.

“The national forest is awfully big, and there is a lot of open space around,” Nelson Shofstall said. “I think there’s a lot of room, I think we can share, if we’re just polite to each other. We’re all out there for the same reason — it’s beautiful.”