When you think you have seen it all....

[Mr. T]

... something happens that proves that there is no limit to the worst you can experience on a trail.
Until yesterday I thought that the worst I ever experienced on a trail was when I had deal with a group of wild turkeys on the Cannon Falls Trail near the Twin Cities in the early Fall of 2004. Nasty birds when they are upset and ugly like hell too.
Now, I have a new personal "worst"... I was skating at Balboa Park in Encino, near LA. It is already a tough trail to negotiate (bad pavement, car crossings, poor trail etiquette, low IQ's), but yesterday it was different: an old lady decided that the trail was actually accessible to cars (at least her car, one of those old Cadillacs that look like spaceships from the 1970s). So she started to drive on the trail along Burbank Avenue... Of course, she chose to do so just when I was coming by. Thankfully, the trail was large enough in the very spot I encroached her car for me to get somehow out of her way and start yelling "go back"... Then a group of runners came up and they were startled too and yelled as well. We are used to the village idiot in that part of town (the same person, but he is a pest only in the evening hours so right now he is a non factor as it gets still dark early and we have to use the trail in the early afternoons) who drives his scooter on the trail, but a car that size on the trail was almost too much to believe. Thankfully nobody was hurt. But, there is a new hazard to add to the many that already plagued the Balboa Park "trail": old ladies on oversized old Cadillacs driving on the trail ... It could be a good joke, if a car on the trail when you are skating by, completely not expecting something like that, were not an outright scary situation if you happen to be that skater.
It is a tough life to be a skater......

[Jim White]

Except for occasional malicious people, my worst was one summer evening, about dusk, on a remote part of our trail when a dogsled team, and it's driver, were doing their thing, sort of, not with a sled, but with the 8 dog team pulling some kind of a wagon. Luckily, I heard them coming and was able to get far enough off the trail.

[Mr. T]

Balboa Park is becoming a wild place!...Today there was a skate-surfer! Yes... the guy was on those skates with two wheels , I forgot how they are called, and had a sail that he was using to propel himself forward. Not so dangerous as the car yesterday, but quite annoying when he had to go uphill or downhill and he had to hold his sail above his head..... At this pace soon the only way to skate safe will be to do it on WII...

[chowley]

Wii skating! I'll never use my slide board again!

[Mikeyb]

Was on the Schuykill River Trail last week, just west of Norristown, Pa. when a kid on a racing motorcycle passes me on the grass probably going in the 40's (mph). About a half mile up, in the distance, I see him making a u-bee, only this time he's on the trail black top and going reallllllllly fast, right at me. I had no where to go but stay to the right as far as possible and make no sudden moves. He likely passed me going over 60. I was so frightened I had to stop, get on the grass and take a breather. Others on the trail were busy calling the cops. If he hit me, I would simply have been ripped to shreds.

Mike B

[H82SK8]

mike b., that section of the trail has been in making headlines all summer, i'd hope the stepped up police presents has been helping. you should give sat and sun on MLK drive a try. we only have till the end of the month to enjoy it, that is until next april.