Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126253
FREE WHEELING Question: When is a Wilderness not a wilderness? Answer: When it's a popular recreation area. Few bikers really know what this "wilderness" thing is all about - except that it's something to be -fea red when your favorite riding area is about to be snatched away into the National Wi lderness System. So join me on a day's h ike u p California's 22 Mt. San Gorgonio and maybe the pieces will fa ll into place. (W hat am I doing walking up a mo untain when I could have been riding my mororcycle? Don 't ask.) Now Mt. San Corgonio, if you 're not already aware. is smack in the middle of the San Gorgonio Wilderness. administered by the San Bernardino National Forest. To go there. you're supposed to have a Wilderness Permit, an innocuous little slip of paper issued by the Forest Service through the Regional Forester's office. (Applications are also available at backpacking/hiking/ outfitting shops.) The permits are fairly easy to come by . unless the Forest Service limits entry to prevent overcrowding. All too often. however. people just park and lock their vehicles at a nearby campground and start walking. permit or no permit. This causes the Forest Service a great deal of upset. but strict enforcement is not always practical. So there I was. wit h my permit tucked safely into my Bultaco fannypack alongside first aid kit. canned peaches. raisins . jerky and nuts . a cantee n slung over my shoulder. an Australian bush hat on my head . my Iowa s stornpin' boots (with the super-traction soles) on my feet . and standard-issue grubbies in between . trudging up the stccp trail from the bottom. Did I say steep? If I were to attempt it on a trials bike. I'd have to stop after every third or fourth switchback to rest ; punctuating my progress with lots of uncouth wheelspin on the powdery surface. By contrast. a Bernie Schreiber or a Marland Whaley could have treated it like a freeway without breaking traction. Keep that in mind . as I did . while making several similar mental notes on the way up . On foot. it was just steady. huffypuffy work . I must have met two dozen people coming back the other way on this first leg of trail . which climbs some 2.000 feet before levelling out. I was passed once by two limber. healthy looking chicks going up ; and passed them in turn when they stopped at a viewpoint to gab . T hey eyed my Montesa swea tshirt with obvious distaste. At the first small p latea u. the tra il levels out a nd t he ta ll tr ees begi n in earnest. In this ea rly morning hou r I no tice there 's a b r ig ht ly-colored bedroll a nd/or a q uietly sleeping figure under every tenth tree . just about. This first level spot up from the bottom is a popu lar sackout area . Moving on . the population thins out; but ra rely do five minutes go by Is this the "Wilderness-compatible Motorcycle?" Under present wilderness law. "horsepower" has to come from the real thing. that Ldon't ge t a glimpse of a brightcolored tube tent. spy a wisp of campfire smoke. or hear quiet talk or laughter at a distance. There are many beaten side trails leading to favored camping spots with spectacular views. It 's like this in one way or another most of the way up . Being a biker. I got bored and left the main trail in a "short cut" that turned out to be nearly straight up. In doing so . I finally gained solitude and almost got myself in a peck of trouble. I ended up thoroughly winded by the altitude on a 9500·foot crest with the main crest in plain sight across a gorge I was too tired to cross . The way back down led along a dry watercourse that was a lternately choked with brush and/or storm-felled trees. with sporty. treacherous footing in between. I was damn glad to rejoin the dedicated trail at a nother high plateau which was also a popular flop a rea for backpackers. Bits of fu nny foam on a quiet poo l in the nearby stream ind ica ted some of the neighbors had sloppy toi let habits . I refilled my canteen well upstream and moved on. returning to my van at the bottom just after nightfall . I'd been up t here about 14 hours. getting myself alternately lost and found again ; at times all too close to my fellow humanity; at other times frighteningly far away should I make a critical slip. I'd gathered a lot of food for thought on the way . Many of the trails and some of the terrain in the San Gorgonio Wilderness could be ridden . and ridden with insignificant impact. by a very special breed of rider on a very special breed of motorcycl e. But' motorcycles don't belong there . Other. simi lar places exist where riding is allowed. This place . by usage . tradition. and Federal law. belongs to I he hikers . It is a special presl'rve for a special kind of recreation. and no other. But is it a wilderness? Webster's New World Dictionary is really savage with the definition of the wo rd . ( " w ilde r n ess, n.. an uncu ltiva ted . un inhabited region ; a waste .") The defi nition sells short the preservat ion idea l that lics behind the Nationa l Wi lderness System. The ideal. in itself. is valid . A very necessary bala nce. a handle on sanity for "civilized " man . lies in pockets of wildness : places so wild . so unaccessible. that they are sti ll largely untouched by man . Such places are truly valuable wilderness; and they exist. even in California. However. to retain their value. they must remain untouched. That means unvisited. True wilderness should be entered only for purely scientific purposes by an inc reasingly elite group of intensely-trained specialists - and by no one else. This is not what Congress has created in the name of "wilderness." Outdoor people . and especially bikers. are ca ught in a cruel trap of misconstrued word -meanings given the force of law . W ha t is happening today (typified by H.R. 3454. the " End a ngered American Wilderness Act ofl 977" ) is not the preservation of untouched la nd ; it is the playing of a cynical zero-sum allocation "game" to distrib ute land amo ng competi ng recreat ional uscrs . according to rules whic h are not fu lly understood by all the players. Highly-placed U.S . Forest Service planners tell us . for instance. that th e existence of designated motorcycle trails in an area does not automatically disqualify it for wilderness . Yet its designation for wilderness or for wilderness study automatically disqualifies those trails for motorized use . After designation . the area may be entered in many ways; but not with a motor. That leaves a lot of room . Entry on horseback is legal. Entry by horsedrawn wagon is leg al. If thc wagon had a chrome moly frame . magnesium wheels. and, fully -independent airbag suspension. it would still be lega l - so long as there's no motor on it. A hiker's mobi lity . staying power and comfort may be enhanced , by the possession of $100 boots. a backpack with a titanium frame . and space-age insulated clothing materials. Inside his backpack may be a number of increasingly miniaturized. increasingly sophisticated devices to give him light. warm food, fire . drink . comfort . And it's a ll Icgal. The pro hib it ion in "Wilderness" is not against the entry of 20t h Century (technology. on ly.agai.nst t h een t r y of moto rs. Ar e you listen ing John Muir & Co .? More a nd more in public debate. you're going to hear the phrase "creation of reckless Congress" used to describe a governmf'nt agency or a government program that is out of control. The present web of wilderness legislation is such a creation. What we have does not give us what we need . The nation at large needs wilderness - true wilderness that is meant to preserve a given stale of nature for generations. That means establishing a category of lands that are closed to everyone - hikers. bikers. horsemen . all . The land that is not pnstlne wilderness still needs to be allocated in such a way that people get to touch a bit of wildness without destroying it. This means creating a class of lands whose purpose is for primitive-level recreation. To make this work among user-groups. new definitions and new word-meanings are needed. In gelling a handle on " how primitive is primitive." the U.S. Forest Service has estab lished a six-level set of "Recreation Experience Levels" ranked from " Prim itive" do wn to " L eve l Five." in a ste p - by-s tep sequence of increasing m an -mad e intrusion. decreasing h a rdship . T he important th ing to not e is the com mo n t h r e a d that unites the le vel s "primitive" down through "two." It 's a motiva tiona l thread tha t's spelled out in scientific detail by A.E. Keir-Nash's landmark survey of Los Padres trailriders. These levels of recreati on satisfy basic needs. require high-order outdoor survival skills . involve intense physical effort. The only difference between Level Two and the others is the presence of a motor in t he equation. Suppose a motorcycle rider arrives at a remote spot after hours of riding. covered with sweat . totally drained. carrying on his person only the ba rest backpacking essentials. The "rightness" or " wro ngness" of his presence there. compared to t he . presence of a hiker or horseman. is one of relative degree. not of absolutes. This is the stuff of which political co mpromises are made. provided tha t the competing user groups can arrive at some rnuta lly agreed-upon standard of compatibility. If such a standard could be h ammered out by user reps fa ce-to face. it wou ld be a simple m a tt er of hanging numbers on a concept and calling t he result a " W ild ern esscompatible Motorcycle." It would be a matter of deciding specific levels for noise. for low-end tractibility, for maximum weight and types of tires; a matter of setting sta nd a rds of rider skill and social responsibility. then devising methods of certifying same. This type of compromise is stymied as long as people are sucked into wordtraps created by Congress. Present wilderness legislation arbitrarily addresses the needs of one recreational group at the expense of another whose needs arc similar. It does so in the name of preservation and in the name' of science. when in actual practice neither science nor preservation are served. This is an intolerable situation. What is needed is not another wilderness bill . What is needed is a redefinition of wilderness. and a regrouping of recreational priorities. And only Congress cando this. If you agree with this line of reasoning and its co nclusions. do m e a personal favor . Photocopy t his col um n and send it to your Congressman or Senator along wit h a lett er sta ting your own co ncern . I don't kn ow how much it will help; but as I watch the cruel game being p layed agai ns t motorcyclists by a cynical handful of preservationists. I doubt if it will h urt. lane Campbell