It's My Trail! I Don't Want to Share

This past weekend, Justin and I went shooting with a couple of friends in the National Forest. We picked a legal shooting location; a safe place off of the trail where we could shoot into the side of a mountain. Nobody could walk in front of us and on the off-chance a bullet should ricochet, it wouldn't hit anyone because of the nature of the landscape. We always practice very safe gun handling techniques and have never had a problem with anyone until this weekend.

It was late in the afternoon and we heard footsteps in the distance, so we stopped shooting, turned on the gun's safety and laid it down with the barrel pointed safely away from anyone. We see this as a common courtesy. It's all part of sharing the forest.

Moments after we heard the footsteps, a middle-aged woman with medium-length stringy brown hair appeared with a couple of younger hikers. We greeted her and as soon as she saw the guns, she started bitching at us about shooting in the forest.

"Stop shooting in my forest! You're destroying the serenity of the forest! You're wrecking my hike! You're ruining my day! Blah! Blah! Blah!"

I got angry and spat out, "Excuse me, but what part of multi-use trail do you not understand? We pay taxes which means we have as much of a right to be here as you do."

Unfortunately, the woman was bitching too loud to hear me. She just kept walking and bitching. A second later, she turned her wrath on a young couple who was hiking with their puppy, who was on a leash. Apparently, this woman didn't just have a grudge against shooters, but she also had one against people with dogs. In her expert opinion, dogs poop on the trail, scare wildlife and cause trail erosion. Oh please!

I wanted to escort this witch to the giant trail head sign that explains the rules and regulations for this part of the National Forest. I wanted to clarify to her what a multi-use trail was and how if she doesn't like the rules, then she'd be better off finding another trail to hike. There are plenty of trails around that are single-use only, for example the hundreds of miles of trails in the nearby Rocky Mountain National Park.

I was so irritated after crossing paths with this woman. It reminded me of Bunchy Spandex Man and the jerk who griped at me for snowshoeing and walking the dog alongside his cross country ski trail. (Never mind that we never touched the pristine cross country ski tracks).

What is with the increasing number of people with entitlement problems?! It is so aggravating that I've spent weeks thinking up a solution. And finally, I think I have one.

Whenever anyone spouts off about owning the trail or the road or the lake or the river or the stream, I think we should turn to them and belt out in our off-key voices:

"This land is your land, this land is my land, this land was made for you and me."

This will either scare the grouch enough to prevent further visits to the area they believe they own or it will force them to reconsider what it means to share. Either way, it's a win-win situation.