I usually try to steer clear of bringing up anything on this blog that is even remotely political…life is too short and I’d rather spend time sharing pictures and stories than talking about anything serious. However, since the snow is starting to melt (although it hasn’t stopped snowing!) and it will soon be time to hit the trails, I can’t resist…

I’m a California native…born and raised here and lived most of my life here. I’ve also lived in Seattle and Missoula, Montana. I’ve travelled most of the western US in search of adventures outside. Although I know all states and user groups have localized trail access/user issues, I’m going to focus on part of northern CA since I live here and pay taxes here.

Tom and I have dogs, ride mountain bikes, ride dirtbikes, backpack, hike, fly-fish and kayak (ok, I’m a danger to myself in a kayak so that is limited to Tom), occasionally we drive a backcountry 4×4 road. About the only “user group” we can’t claim to be a part of is the equestrian crowd. Although we have the space for horses and I lived on a horse ranch for 3+ years, we decided we weren’t prepared for responsibility of having horses, especially given how much time we spent with other activities and our geographical challenges with Tom’s job.

About 7 years ago, we escaped the SF Bay Area…yes, I said escaped. Although the Bay Area has a huge variety of types of trails to explore, due to the massive population density, the trails are wrought with constant use issues. Many trails are segregated such that only certain activites are allowed on certain trails…there are often other rules too, such as whether trails can be used after dark. I could spend hours telling stories of confrontations with people from user groups I consider myself a part, with rangers, etc. The experience of getting outside to enjoy being outside was often tainted by encounters with other people, bitter at having to share the trails with a user they don’t like probably due to generalization based on a previous negative encounter, or just because I was lucky enough to catch them on a crabby day.

So we moved to the Sierra foothills, where the less dense population seems to result in less encounters/issues and generally happier people out on the trails. The rules seem to be somewhat less although there are still trail designations that only allow certain activities in certain places. Ironically, when I lived in the Bay Area, I would say I swung farther to the environmentalist side of the scale, however, now that we live where we do, that perspective has been tempered. For example, it’s easy to be against logging or forest management when you live in a city and aren’t faced with annual wildfire danger. That being said, we chose to live where we do and accept the risk that comes with it but we’ve gained a previously absent perspective that managing the forest brings.

During the time we’ve lived in the Sierras, we’ve seen an road/trail inventory take place in our local national forest. Not surprisingly, while the forest service entertained multiple options to manage the log of roads and trails, a battle was waged between the OHV (off highway vehicle) groups and the conservation type groups. Although some may claim I have bias as a dirtbiker (we don’t officially belong to either type of group), it always seems the environmental argument was to shut down and close access where ever possible to preserve wilderness whereas the OHV groups simply wanted what exists to be left open…no one was arguing for new trail access. The action taken fell somewhere in the middle but more towards the environmental side of the scale. Trail systems previously open year round now have a “wet season closure” from Jan 1 to April 15…and the head of the NF can choose to keep trails closed until things dry out. I’m all for keeping the trails from being destroyed but if it’s relatively dry winter, still no trail access. The sad thing is that the decision is more likely a result of the economic times reducing the NF staff to a level where the NF can’t monitor, much less maintain anything in the forest anymore.

The irony of it all was that the NF roads and trails had to be considering multi-use…technically they always have been multi-use but who the hell would go hiking in an OHV area when you can hike in a wilderness area and have the quiet and experience you’d expect rather than hearing a bunch of quads or dirtbikers?   So why were the enviros arguing to close an area that was historically logged (which is why the roads and trail exists in the first place)?

After spending years camping out and enjoying the mountain biking and outdoors in the vicinity of a little town called Downieville, we decided to buy a cabin nearby.  We also joined two trail groups, the Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship and the Forest Trails Alliance.  Both groups support maintenance of existing trails and creation of new trails to support multi-use activities.  In some cases, trails are more limited, such as to non-motorized use but this is often a condition of also crossing private land or other requirement prerequisite to building/maintenance of said trail.  Both groups rely heavily on volunteer donations of time and money to meet the requisites for resurrecting old, creating new or maintaining existing trails.  These groups are compromised of individuals from all over the state, from a variety of background and interests, but all are concerned with maintaining our ability to access trails.

After all these years, I find it ironic that the most uninformed, close-minded people with regard to trail access continue to be people who are supposedly for conservation.  The irony comes in many forms…from people pushing trail closures on trails they live hundreds of miles away from to the only people who maintain the trails are the very user groups the conservation groups want barred from having access.  I was recently talking to a hunter (which I neither do nor completely understand) who told me he doesn’t care if he actually comes out with an animal, that for him, the best part is the day spent wandering the woods and enjoying being outside.  Ironic considering many people have the image of a redneck driving a truck with a beer in one hand and a rifle in the other, ready to shoot something if it runs by (which is entirely illegal by the way).

I’m not from the “can’t we all just get along” school of thought.  History clearly shows us that will never happen.  However, I’m not a pessimist either…I’m a realist.  I choose to employ logic and rationale.  The logic goes something like this…our country is a mess, our economy even worse.  The forest service, BLM and other government agencies no longer have the resources to manage the forests.  This is why private groups form trail stewardships, why forest land is leased to logging companies, why people with a common recreational interest band together to take care of the outdoor areas they love…someone has to.  The vast majority of people recreating in the forest and on the trails are responsible, considerate users.  They appreciate being outside, that’s why they are there.  So when other individuals band together to bar access from something to which all users have historically had access to…it’s immediately inflammatory.  These are the types of individuals that rather than try to work together with other user groups, they send their lawyers after the forest service.  They don’t want anyone to use the land.  Does anyone who joins these groups fully understand the ramifications of the results of their actions and lawsuits.  For example, when an area is closed to any mechanized use (this designation was created so mtn bikes could be excluded)…this also means no one can legally bring in chainsaws to clean the trail of downed trees each winter.  That equipment, such as a motorized wheelbarrow, cannot be utilized to address erosion problems or move rocks from a rock slide…tasks not easily managed with hand tools.  They are the details overlooked when instead images are pushed of a few irresponsible motorized users riding when it’s too muddy.

Again, the irony strikes me…I love being outside…it’s what I’ve spent most of my life doing.  I’m also an animal lover…which is probably why I could never hunt.  I live in the woods…in two places…both of which are in extreme fire zones in the summer.  I’m a scientist by education, having taken years of biology/zoology courses from wanting to initially be a veterinarian.  And someone out there thinks they have a valid reason to keep me out of the forest and off of the trails, that I’m destroying the environment or don’t otherwise understand the impact I’m having on it…we’ll see about that.