On weekday afternoons, the Chehalis Western Trail can get quite crowded, especially when the weather is nice. And since there are quite a few residential neighborhoods up against the trails, there's plenty of pedestrians.

It's tricky, because some of the most popular walking spots are the same flat straight stretches where I can easily get going to 15 mph, and happily so. But of course I want to be both polite & safe.

People walking in the right lane, one or two abreast, steadily & evenly -- that's easy. A brief ring of the bell and then pass on the left. Depending on the speed, I may even say "good afternoon!" as I zip past.

People with dogs are a little trickier; how the dog seems to be walking influences how I alert, or whether I alert. Sometimes, ringing the bell or calling out freaks dogs out more than just getting by as fast as possible. And I am entirely not a dog person. Some people stop when I call/ring and hold their dogs close until I'm well past.

Little kids (with adults) require the same sort of caution, although a verbal warning is almost always for the best. Same with larger, more meandering groups of people.

Yesterday was entertaining, though. Just south of 37th, I encountered a huge group of kids from Komachin Middle School, either track or soccer as far as I could tell. The signal of the bell didn't mean anything to them, as it does to regular walkers, and of course there's that special obliviousness of middle-school kids.

At one point, I actually had to shout, "hey, 179: get out of the way! Now!" Because there just wasn't anywhere else for me to pass. His friends grabbed him, and I sped on by.

Usually I try to be a little more friendly than that, but hey, safety first.