A Call for Help, and Trail Rage?

So, today included a couple of firsts for me. I headed out for a planned 25 miles on the Sammamish Trail, and at around 10 miles out, there were two guys riding and chatting on the trail that I would soon need to pass. One was on a mountain bike with extremely wide handlebars, plus a mirror, and he was riding on the left side of the trail. His buddy was riding in the middle of the trail on a road bike with two empty panniers. They were chatting about which saddle the road bike guy thought was the best, blah, blah blah, and so, to play it safe and not disturb them too much (although in my head I was thinking "Couldn't you guys ride on the right side of the trail instead of the left and middle?"), I announced my pass - "On your right!" Of course, this threw road bike guy for a loop - he swerved right, and I yelled, "No! I'm on your right!" He swerves back to the middle and starts swearing and yelling at me about how you "cannot pass on the right" and "what is wrong with you", etc. I calmy say, "Well, your friend was on the left, and you were occupying the middle" (I might have used the terms "hogging the middle", oops) "so I felt the safest thing to do was pass where it was clear." He yells at me some more as I am now already about 10 meters past them, and I turn back to say, "Please relax sir, we're all fine now." He said something under his breath, but we then had to slow for a stop sign where the trail joins a road for a short stretch and he catches up to me, still yelling about something. I sprinted a bit and said, "I hope you both have a really nice day!" in as friendly a voice as I could muster. He again muttered something like, "we will after you're far away." I got to a stop light, willing it to change quickly, which it did, and turned left up Juanita Dr hill. They did not go this way, thankfully, and I was surprised to have had this incident, since I have never encoutered such vehemence on the trail. I got to the top, turned around, and started down. About 1/4 mile down the hill I hear the dreaded sound of my front wheel going flat (I earned this by bragging on yesterday's ride about how I "never" get flats these days!). I pull off Juanita and start changing the tube. During the install of the new tube (my only spare) I hear the telltale sound of air escaping again - I must have pinched the tube between the tire and rim while installing it - no surprising since it was raining on me and I was hurried. That's it - no more tubes, and tearing off duct tape from my fenders to use as a patch failed miserably. Right about then I started thinking of my own misery as it starts rain/snowing on me while I sit on someone's driveway. I did the unthinkable - I called Bree to come and pick me up. I considered hailing one of the many riders flying down Juanita, but they are all going 30-40 mph, and it's raining and snowing (did I mention that already?). Bree and Emy rescued me about 20 minutes later. I was quite the novelty in the little neighborhood where I waited - I was offered food, shelter, a bathroom, tea, and just plain "help" but I politely refused since this all happened about 5 minutes before I knew Bree would pull up. When we were on the drive home and I finished telling the story, Emy said, "Daddy, why was the man angry?" Bree and I explained to her about how some people react to surprise and embarrassment with anger and frustration, blaming their embarrassment on the others involved. She said, "Like I do sometimes?" We tiptoed here a bit and said that many people do this sometimes, but there are people out there who just can't accept blame or easily blow off incidents like I had - they just don't know how to deal with a mix of fear and shame.

All I can say is that I have no problem with how I dealt with the situation on the trail. I can only hope those guys learned some sort of lesson and at least moved to the right side of the trail. If I have to take the fall for them paying a little more attention on a Sunday afternoon ride on a crowded trail, then so be it. I just wish the next thing to happen to me wasn't a double flat in the freezing rain. Please tell me I erased all my bad Karma today?

Looks like tomorrow's forecast will be more of the same - but I have two spare tubes now!