Unofficial Trail Authority · PS-2 · Revised 7 November 2026 · https://trailauthority.org/notices/ps-2/ · Uncontrolled copy when printed. The Unofficial Trail Authority is an independent fictional organization. It is not a government agency or land-management authority.
PS-2 · In force
The Unmissed Afternoon
An afternoon with a bicycle, a trail you already have leave to ride, and at least one friend who would say yes, is a complete set of conditions. The Authority's finding is that this set is often allowed to expire unused, for reasons that do not improve the afternoon.
The position of the office, stated as plainly as the rest of the file, is this. A life is enlarged by chosen effort, outdoors, with people you like, at a speed that wakes you up. The landscape is not a task and not a problem to be managed. It is the place where the effort happens. The notable fact is that you and your friends were in it, doing a useless and excellent thing.
Risk enters this circular only as a risk that is chosen. Name the feature. Let the other person see it. A yes is participation. A no is also a finished result, and is not a smaller character. What the office does not accept is the unused yes: the person who wanted to come, was not asked, and heard about the ride afterward.
Do not postpone the ride for a hypothetical better day. The better day is an unfiled document. This afternoon is already on the calendar. Being too careful of a feature that you and your friends can see, and have agreed to ride, is recorded as a loss of fun, not as a virtue. Being careful of a person who has not agreed is ordinary decency, and is required.