Let this serve as notice that I'm starting an organization called H.A.S.P.: Hikers Are Special People.

This new organization was inspired by the efforts of a group called 'Safe Trails' that wants to ban mountain biking on certain trails in the Santa Barbara area. They might have somewhat of a point for this particular trail. However, they spoil their argument with anti-MTBer sentiments.

Of particular interest is their page that deals with Biker Psychology:

These "sensation seekers" [e.g., mountain bikers] as a group have substantially higher rates of engagement in a whole range of more risky activities than do individuals who are less inclined to seek thrills. These activities include drug usage, law breaking, risky driving, heavier alcohol usage and risky sex... This does not mean that all members of the group engage in these activities but that as a group there is generally a higher rate than other populations...

The low sensation seekers [e.g., hikers], in contrast, much more readily experience fear as a result of high levels of stimulation... This difference leads to the asymmetry which is commonly observed that hikers are much more upset by the presence of bikers than vice versa... Because of their temperament, hikers are also much more reluctant to press their concerns... Whatever the hikers are seeking on the trails, it's certainly not thrills and danger... They often are seeking the opposite in fact, an environment with solitude, free of the arousing stimuli of our everyday world. Because of their physiological difference, the hikers are typically startled by the sudden appearance of a mountain bike and take some time to recover a non-aroused state.

Grow a pair.