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So we recently got a new Jeep (JKUR) and took it out to an area in Western Utah (Simpson Springs) that I often explored when I was a teenager in the '90s but haven't been to in years, other than just driving past on the Pony Express Road. We went to Spring Canyon... a road that was originally cut by miners in the teens or 20's and goes up a small desert canyon, through the remnants of a small ghost town, over a saddle and down another canyon. It was a virtually abandoned and faint jeep trail the last time I'd been through it.
Anyway, the area has been totally taken over by ATVers in the past 10 years or so and was full of 'em when we drove up. The trail had been worn into a typical ATV narrow bowl-shaped track and the base of the canyons all through the area were trashed with campsites, cut up trees and garbage. There were new pointless ATV trails cut all over the hillsides by thrill seekers looking for the steepest slope to rocket up and/or blast around in circles.
We ran into several groups of people on ATVs as we took the trail, one was going too fast and almost hit us head on and most of them gave me crusty looks, though I'm sure I gave a couple of my own too . It's always been my custom to wave at people out in the desert when I passed them (it used to only be a couple times a trip in the "good old days" too!) but only maybe 1/2 the people waved back.
On one narrow section we stopped to let some ATVs pass; as a guy riding the group rode past us he yelled at me: "What the *#&K! are you doing on this trail?" like he owned the place before buzzing off in a cloud of dust. When we were stopped to check out the ghost town foundations I could smell beer on yet another group of ATVers as they rode by us on the narrow track.
It all made me realize that ATVs are the worst thing that has happened to Nature since the invention of the wheel. It's not necessarily the machine itself that is at fault, but ATVs make it too easy for too many ass-hats to get out into the backcountry and destroy it for their entertainment.
I understand my Jeep leaves tracks too but we only pull dead wood for our fires, clean up our campsites and always pack our trash out. Me and mine stay on the trail and don't make new trails in virgin country, are generally courteous, don't drink and off-road and generally try to minimize our impact while we have fun. Most other Jeepers I know follow similar guidelines... in fact we tend to become instant friends just because we all drive the same kind of vehicle and "Tread Lightly!" is a given within Jeep clubs.
ATVers seem to be the opposite. I'm sure there are good, responsible folks on ATVs too but I sure as hell can't see them through all the duchebags. I almost wish ATVs could be banned from public lands and/or confined only to specific ORV Park boundaries, as those guys are absolutely trashing the backcountry.
"It all made me realize that ATVs are the worst thing that has happened to Nature since the invention of the wheel. It's not necessarily the machine itself that is at fault, but ATVs make it too easy for too many ass-hats to get out into the backcountry and destroy it for their entertainment. "
Try stepping back for just a moment and consider how hikers, backpackers, bicyclists, and equine enthusiasts might regard your entry into the back country with your Jeep. As well, maybe the ATV operators that share a common view with your respect for the land and environment we share. Or maybe the motorcyclists, too.
I understand that you personally have nothing but total respect for the backcountry and behave in an absolutely perfect manner ... but I've many a horseback day in the backcountry similar to your experience and it was all Jeep folk that were causing the problems.
It's not the tool ... it's the mentality of the users.
PS: I've seen hikers that were some of the trashiest folk in the backcountry, too, and causing as much damage as they could given the tools at their disposal for the day.
I'm sure there are good, responsible folks on ATVs too but I sure as hell can't see them through all the duchebags.
I'm not an ATVer but I own a Jeep (a real one), and you were in the wrong place. YOU don't own the land either. I don't blame the ATVers for cussing you out, they were on a narrow track they were probably used to, and your big four-door family SUV was in the way.
What you should have done is your homework before you went out to have a joy ride in your new SUV.
BTW, you could have at least learned to spell douchebag.
I'm not an ATVer but I own a Jeep (a real one), and you were in the wrong place. YOU don't own the land either. I don't blame the ATVers for cussing you out, they were on a narrow track they were probably used to, and your big four-door family SUV was in the way.
What you should have done is your homework before you went out to have a joy ride in your new SUV.
BTW, you could have at least learned to spell douchebag.
Attack of the spelling nazis... again. Funny that my spellcheck says your version is wrong...
Anyway, I told you it was a mining road that devolved into a jeep trail when I first found it, then later discovered by ATVers. Besides, it's public land, so how am I in the wrong place? And how does an extra set of doors and 20" make my wrangler unlimited rubicon a "non-jeep"? You must drive a mail jeep to get that confused.
Attack of the spelling nazis... again. Funny that my spellcheck says your version is wrong...
Anyway, I told you it was a mining road that devolved into a jeep trail when I first found it, then later discovered by ATVers. Besides, it's public land, so how am I in the wrong place? And how does an extra set of doors and 20" make my wrangler unlimited rubicon a "non-jeep"? You must drive a mail jeep to get that confused.
Google and Urban Dictionary both say you are wrong. Like you said when you found the trail 10 years ago it may have been a old mining road. It sounds like over time it evolved into a ATV trail. So it does sound like you were in the wrong.
Attack of the spelling nazis... again. Funny that my spellcheck says your version is wrong...
Anyway, I told you it was a mining road that devolved into a jeep trail when I first found it, then later discovered by ATVers. Besides, it's public land, so how am I in the wrong place? And how does an extra set of doors and 20" make my wrangler unlimited rubicon a "non-jeep"? You must drive a mail jeep to get that confused.
We see this kind all the time. Their owners generally think paying extra dough for more doors and space makes them somehow better than others, but that bigger vehicle won't go near the places, the longer wheelbase alone has them bottoming out in deep holes and rocking out at the top of hills and climbs. It's a farce.
So we recently got a new Jeep (JKUR) and took it out to an area in Western Utah (Simpson Springs) that I often explored when I was a teenager in the '90s but haven't been to in years, other than just driving past on the Pony Express Road. We went to Spring Canyon... a road that was originally cut by miners in the teens or 20's and goes up a small desert canyon, through the remnants of a small ghost town, over a saddle and down another canyon. It was a virtually abandoned and faint jeep trail the last time I'd been through it.
Anyway, the area has been totally taken over by ATVers in the past 10 years or so and was full of 'em when we drove up. The trail had been worn into a typical ATV narrow bowl-shaped track and the base of the canyons all through the area were trashed with campsites, cut up trees and garbage. There were new pointless ATV trails cut all over the hillsides by thrill seekers looking for the steepest slope to rocket up and/or blast around in circles.
We ran into several groups of people on ATVs as we took the trail, one was going too fast and almost hit us head on and most of them gave me crusty looks, though I'm sure I gave a couple of my own too . It's always been my custom to wave at people out in the desert when I passed them (it used to only be a couple times a trip in the "good old days" too!) but only maybe 1/2 the people waved back.
On one narrow section we stopped to let some ATVs pass; as a guy riding the group rode past us he yelled at me: "What the *#&K! are you doing on this trail?" like he owned the place before buzzing off in a cloud of dust. When we were stopped to check out the ghost town foundations I could smell beer on yet another group of ATVers as they rode by us on the narrow track.
It all made me realize that ATVs are the worst thing that has happened to Nature since the invention of the wheel. It's not necessarily the machine itself that is at fault, but ATVs make it too easy for too many ass-hats to get out into the backcountry and destroy it for their entertainment.
I understand my Jeep leaves tracks too but we only pull dead wood for our fires, clean up our campsites and always pack our trash out. Me and mine stay on the trail and don't make new trails in virgin country, are generally courteous, don't drink and off-road and generally try to minimize our impact while we have fun. Most other Jeepers I know follow similar guidelines... in fact we tend to become instant friends just because we all drive the same kind of vehicle and "Tread Lightly!" is a given within Jeep clubs.
ATVers seem to be the opposite. I'm sure there are good, responsible folks on ATVs too but I sure as hell can't see them through all the duchebags. I almost wish ATVs could be banned from public lands and/or confined only to specific ORV Park boundaries, as those guys are absolutely trashing the backcountry.
END RANT
One time I was on Usal Beach, a bunch of dumb kids where running around in the lifted 4X4s drinking and doing donuts in the mud. We just went a ways down the road and pulled off the road into the woods a bit in a clearing to camp so they wouldn't kill us. When we came back, they'd flipped one of their 4X4s over, left beer cans all over. Plenty of Jeep "duchebags" out there too.
ATV's are a damn plague these days. In Alaska, the ATV's would start out on a trail, wallow it out to an untraversable mess, go around to the side and wallow that out, lather rinse repeat until entire meadows are destroyed, while chasing all the wildlife to the 4 winds.
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. It's always been my custom to wave at people out in the desert when I passed them (it used to only be a couple times a trip in the "good old days" too!) but only maybe 1/2 the people waved back.
