It’s a Trap - SD Mtn. Biking Association’s Deal with the Devil
Wilderness in the technical and legal sense is are areas hardly touched by the REI catalogs, or the rock-stacking selfie-stick bear-feeding Instagrammers who wouldn't survive one hour being away from cellular service. A good number of the newbies to the outdoors, lured because it's a fad hardly have the concept of "leave no trace" and "leave it better than you found it." Since no motorized or mechanized travel is allowed in wilderness areas, this crowd can't exactly drive their Tacoma packed with rooftop tent, Christmas lights, female genitalia-shaped standalone hammock chair things, and their Yeti cooler. They have to get on their own two feet, hike past the trailhead sign, and do a bit of trucking it in and perhaps even use some map and compass skills because, gasp, cell phones have no reception and the trails aren't paved. Oh yeah, and no McMansions-on-wheels, aka RVs either.
I don't understand exactly what the San Diego Mountain Biking Association is envisioning with their so-called plan for an extensive trail system but according to the recent Los Angeles Times article . This network is supposed to run between the coastal communities of North San Diego County and the mountains alpine backcountry near Julian, and part of the road block to completing such a system is the ban on mountain bikes in Wilderness areas. Interesting things is, there isn't a lot of Wilderness Areas between these areas. When I say "not a lot" I mean none. Where bicycling is prohibited in the area however is along the Pacific Crest Trail. The literal roadblock to any sort of a trail system between the coast and the mountains has do with the extensive sprawl of the urban areas, Indian reservations, private property, and military property. The OB Rag, a local junior high newsletter thing that publishes words strung together into sentences also gets it completely wrong and goes stupidly partisan against Republicans.
Rep. McClinick is quoted with standing up for the rights of mountain bikers saying, "People who enjoy mountain biking have just as much right to use the public trails as those who enjoy hiking or horseback riding.” The problem with his statement is that nobody is denying the rights of people who enjoy mountain biking to recreate in a wilderness area, they're simply being told they cannot use their mountain bike to recreate in those wilderness areas.
These people are more than welcome to use their two legs to hike (or ski), or use those two legs to straddle a horse to access these wilderness areas. If they're interested in accessing the alpine backcountry paradise of Mountain Empire, there is a perfectly functional road system that can be used to bridge those gaps between the cul-de-sac and the trailhead. Obeying the rules of the road for drivers of vehicles is an easy skill to learn and mountain bicyclists can ride on the roads too.
Wilderness areas are intended for low impact, non-motorized travel. Bicycles are not compatible in the same way bicycles and pedestrians are not compatible on most limited access urban freeways which are designed for high speed motor traffic. This does not even address the chronic issue many mountain bicyclists have with scaring horses (yes roadies do this too!) or the issue of e-bikes.
