Aspen Times today,
http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20090830/ASPENWEEKLY/908289973/1077&ParentProfile=1058
As a youngster in Crested Butte in the late 1970s and early '80s, Paul Andersen had a foot on the pedal in the early days of mountain biking.
The sport was new and the U.S. Forest Service hadn't yet clarified its rules on the presence of the machines in specially protected Wilderness areas. Andersen, now a Basalt resident and Aspen Times columnist, recalls riding his bike in some of the most gorgeous mountain passes and valleys in the Aspen area, places like West Maroon Pass in the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness.
But the Forest Service tightened up its Wilderness rules in the 1980s, banning mountain bikes just as the sport was exploding in popularity.
“There was sort of a mood of upset among my mountain biking brethren,” Andersen said.
He initially shared those sentiments. But as Andersen spent more time out of the saddle and on his feet, he said he saw the “wisdom” of the ban on mountain bikes. They have a greater impact on trails and ecosystems than foot traffic, according to Andersen.
“The lighter the use of wild lands, the better,” he said.
Andersen was willing to “sacrifice” some of the trails he was able to ride prior to the mid-1980s. And now he is willing to sacrifice additional routes on federal lands in return for the Wilderness designation.
But his willingness to convert isn't shared by a lot of mountain bikers. They see the efforts to lock them out of more lands as a stab in the back by conservation groups. Mountain bikers are outdoor lovers who, by-and-large, want beautiful landscapes protected from threats of development, mining, and oil and gas production.
The common ground that cyclists and wilderness advocates share is immense, said Mike Pritchard, a member of the board of directors of the Roaring Fork Mountain Bike Association, an advocacy group formed two years ago.
“We're both looking to protect the land,” he said. “There's a minor conflict of no two wheels in the Wilderness.”
http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20090830/ASPENWEEKLY/908289973/1077&ParentProfile=1058
As a youngster in Crested Butte in the late 1970s and early '80s, Paul Andersen had a foot on the pedal in the early days of mountain biking.
The sport was new and the U.S. Forest Service hadn't yet clarified its rules on the presence of the machines in specially protected Wilderness areas. Andersen, now a Basalt resident and Aspen Times columnist, recalls riding his bike in some of the most gorgeous mountain passes and valleys in the Aspen area, places like West Maroon Pass in the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness.
But the Forest Service tightened up its Wilderness rules in the 1980s, banning mountain bikes just as the sport was exploding in popularity.
“There was sort of a mood of upset among my mountain biking brethren,” Andersen said.
He initially shared those sentiments. But as Andersen spent more time out of the saddle and on his feet, he said he saw the “wisdom” of the ban on mountain bikes. They have a greater impact on trails and ecosystems than foot traffic, according to Andersen.
“The lighter the use of wild lands, the better,” he said.
Andersen was willing to “sacrifice” some of the trails he was able to ride prior to the mid-1980s. And now he is willing to sacrifice additional routes on federal lands in return for the Wilderness designation.
But his willingness to convert isn't shared by a lot of mountain bikers. They see the efforts to lock them out of more lands as a stab in the back by conservation groups. Mountain bikers are outdoor lovers who, by-and-large, want beautiful landscapes protected from threats of development, mining, and oil and gas production.
The common ground that cyclists and wilderness advocates share is immense, said Mike Pritchard, a member of the board of directors of the Roaring Fork Mountain Bike Association, an advocacy group formed two years ago.
“We're both looking to protect the land,” he said. “There's a minor conflict of no two wheels in the Wilderness.”
