I agree that the overwhelming majority of trail users are generally courteous. However this is why the few that aren’t are so depressing. While on the Malverns this morning (a ride curtailed because there were too many people up there), I stopped to allow a dog-walker past. Following my greeting of “good morning” as he walked past me, he turned and said “are you able to ride on this path?”. Replying, “yes, of course, it is a bridleway”, he responded with, “well, it shouldnt be”, and stormed off.
While not exactly a massive confrontation, it just left me depressed.
Frankly, my being a cyclist, and him a dog-walker is completely irrelevant. What happened to people displaying courtesy to strangers? Was the fact that I was on a bike, and therefore easily labelled as possibly “not his sort of person” a justification for such behaviour? Who knows. 🙁