I am posting this as an FYI to people who ride/walk the towpath regularly especially as in this circumstance towards the Palmer end/Beth Twsp. My parents ride the towpath regularly and find it very nice excpet for last night. They were riding west from the Palmer end and as they came through at the boat launch were warned by some people there to watch out for a large group of kids up ahead? As they continued riding they saw up ahead approx 15 or so teenagers at the rope swing, blocking the trail. As they started to approach my Dad began to call ahead..riders coming, excuse us...as they got closer, slowing down now even more and calling out noone was moving. They finally had to come to a stop basically and proceeded to have some of the kids, (one especially very loud) begin to curse them both and tell them it's their rope swing and they don't have to move? My Dad said they simply want to ride their bikes and have been calling to them for quite a distance with no response. They called him a f'ing ahole and many other choice f'ing words. There were a few kids who my Mom said were telling the others to shut up and move and let my parents go. But some of them just kept cursing them and yelling. He decided to put his head down and just go. My Mom waited a moment to say to the kids, "hey guys, we just want to ride our bikes, all you had to do was move aside and let us get through, no big deal". One of the boys at that point grabbed her arm and told her she was a f'ing bitch and should shut her f''ing mouth! My Dad luckily did not see this as I am sure he would not have just put his head down and ride on. This could have been an extremely bad situation. My mom took off and they both were left very shocked and in much disbelief. They rode on and turned around eventually, hesitant to ride back through, but hoped they would be gone. The kids were gone but as they got back to the boat ramp many of the kids were on their bikes now and proceeded to again curse my Dad and Mom and call out to them, "there's the f'ing ahole on the red bike and f 'you and so on. They did call the police and were told next time to just call the police immediatley. This is all happening as well in front of families and kids who are at the boat launch...very sad. I find it a horrible shame that this would even occur. My parents (Dad especially since he's 67 and still working) use the towpath as a nice means of destressing with a good ride to clear their head, no cars to worry about, just go out for a nice ride. I am glad that nothing elevated to a much worse outcome.....I can't say I would have been able to keep my mouth shut if a kid grabbed my arm and said what he did. Anyway, I felt I should bring attention to this and hopefully it was a freak situation that will not again occur any time soon, or ever for that matter!
