Go to any mountain biking online forum, or ask your friends, and you’re bound to find words/debates about people listening to music on the trail. It seems that most people are not okay with a rider, or other trail user, playing their favorite songs through a portable speaker loud enough for everyone to hear. When it comes to people listening to their “jam” with ear buds or headphones, most people seem to be okay with that, as long as the volume isn’t to a decibel level that prevents the tuned out/in person from hearing other trail users requesting to pass by when approaching from behind on the trail.
I get it and I don’t. One of my favorite memories of being “out there” on an “adventure” was hiking the Mosquitia coast of Honduras for a few hours, getting from one village to the next. I had my cassette Walkman blasting Santana in my ears as the Caribe lapped waves on what felt like a “wild” coastline, everything I needed to live strapped on my back. The music, no doubt, enhanced the experience, enough so that I still lie in my hammock in San Diego and reflect on the experience to this day.
While reflecting, I think of how many times I looked over my shoulder to see if anyone was following us. What if someone came up behind me? I would not have heard them. At the time, the late 1990s, the region was a major drug running route from South America-through Central America-and up the west coast of North America. Every few minutes, I turned my head and looked back. Fortunately, I never saw anyone, other than my friend. (My motivation for turning my head, admittedly, was different than what is coming next.)
You obviously see where this is going.
If you’re going to have music blasting in your ears, resulting in your inability to hear me/us coming up behind you, then you have a responsibility to look over your shoulder every few minutes to see if other trail users are approaching. If we are approaching, move aside and let us pass. It’s not only the courteous thing to do; it’s the right thing to do.
The trail is not only ours to use. “Trail user myopia” on public land is not excusable. There is a common good that exists, if we practice it. When we don’t, selfishness and greed thrives.
Fully Rigid is a monthly column by James Murren about Mountain Biking Issues within the Mountain Biking Community.