I was reading the letters to the editor and while I agree with the author of "Struck a Nerve" partly, I can also see the point of view of the man he's peeved at.
Here's why:
As a mountain local and a Colorado Native (very rare indeed) I can see the original author's point. It gets tiresome having to deal with tourists and out of staters. For the most part, they are rude. They expect everybody in these dinky towns (mine is Kremmling) to drop what they are doing and cater to them, then turn around and bash and badmouth the community as being poor, uneducated, backwoods and on and on. Where I ride parking is at a premium and it never fails, you always end up with some clown taking up several spots with their big rig. While it is true that some people are awesome and cool to ride with there are just as many that are what the OP described as city dwelling, arrogant pigheaded DVD trained wannabes. And their actions are the ones that stick around like a bad smell. It's what the Leftist skiers see, it's what State Parks sees. Why? Because everybody calls to complain about the asshat but nobody ever calls to say something about the swell feller ho gave me some gas on the trail.
As an AVID outdoorsman I see it at every angle. Hunting, fishing, dirtbiking, snowmobiling, hell, even driving normally. The public lands are closing, getting smaller and smaller but yet the sport grows and grows. People flow in like a flooded river but the banks can't support the extra volume. We need to find common ground. Will it be easy? HECK NO! I don't even have one small iota of an idea for making sledding more friendly all of the way round.
For the third year in a row I got skunked during archery elk. Was it a fault of mine? No. There are so many people that don't know what they are doing it screws it up for everybody. It's hard to adjust to the masses. And the only thing that I can come up with is an education. EDUCATE the people. How, I don't know. But somebody has to come up with something or we are ALL going to end up losing. Losing the right to enjoy our public lands however we see fit.
So, in closing all I can say is maybe think twice before you decide. If you don't know the area, don't go bombing into the backcountry. If you are new to riding, don't go alone and certainly don't go far. I found a guy last year that had no clue where he was, was stuck six ways from Sunday and there wasn't a snowball's chance in Hell that he was going to dig out alone. He was 100 yards from becoming a statistic. Had I not seen his helmet he'd most likely be dead.
Good luck to all and have a great upcoming season.
Here's why:
As a mountain local and a Colorado Native (very rare indeed) I can see the original author's point. It gets tiresome having to deal with tourists and out of staters. For the most part, they are rude. They expect everybody in these dinky towns (mine is Kremmling) to drop what they are doing and cater to them, then turn around and bash and badmouth the community as being poor, uneducated, backwoods and on and on. Where I ride parking is at a premium and it never fails, you always end up with some clown taking up several spots with their big rig. While it is true that some people are awesome and cool to ride with there are just as many that are what the OP described as city dwelling, arrogant pigheaded DVD trained wannabes. And their actions are the ones that stick around like a bad smell. It's what the Leftist skiers see, it's what State Parks sees. Why? Because everybody calls to complain about the asshat but nobody ever calls to say something about the swell feller ho gave me some gas on the trail.
As an AVID outdoorsman I see it at every angle. Hunting, fishing, dirtbiking, snowmobiling, hell, even driving normally. The public lands are closing, getting smaller and smaller but yet the sport grows and grows. People flow in like a flooded river but the banks can't support the extra volume. We need to find common ground. Will it be easy? HECK NO! I don't even have one small iota of an idea for making sledding more friendly all of the way round.
For the third year in a row I got skunked during archery elk. Was it a fault of mine? No. There are so many people that don't know what they are doing it screws it up for everybody. It's hard to adjust to the masses. And the only thing that I can come up with is an education. EDUCATE the people. How, I don't know. But somebody has to come up with something or we are ALL going to end up losing. Losing the right to enjoy our public lands however we see fit.
So, in closing all I can say is maybe think twice before you decide. If you don't know the area, don't go bombing into the backcountry. If you are new to riding, don't go alone and certainly don't go far. I found a guy last year that had no clue where he was, was stuck six ways from Sunday and there wasn't a snowball's chance in Hell that he was going to dig out alone. He was 100 yards from becoming a statistic. Had I not seen his helmet he'd most likely be dead.
Good luck to all and have a great upcoming season.
