Idiot Off Trail

Most definitely understood good sir!!!

I'm glad that you took my question with civility in mind as it was just an honest to God type question.

 

Basically, anytime you have a marked/named established trail, it is bad to stray from it unless the law of that particular land say "have a ball!," like some parts of Ocotillo Wells OHV. A lot of trails in places like the one where this incident occurred were established long before there was an authority to do so and were considered routes of travel. Those existing trails were marked and function as such today.

When folks go off trail and destroy the landscape, they get shut down by the tree hugger types who hate off roaders for no other reason than not having any real purpose to their lives. They petition the state and the state says, "Yeah, you're right. Fuck off roaders. They're all degenerates anyway." and that's that and that's how douchebags in Tacomas/Jeeps/choose your brand get the underserved image they have. Gates go up and people lose access. You need not look any further than...well..pretty much everywhere in California to see that happening.

 

Yeah, LOL, some of those washes in AB are hard to "follow" sometimes!!! Sometimes, it is NOT all that obvious if you are even ON the trail???!!! HELL, even if you are ON a trail and all of a sudden it just kinda "blends" into the landscape, LMAO!!!

But yeah, 99.99% of ALL the trails I've ever been on are pretty obvious and I've never gone "off trail", unless, again, it was purely by accident... just like what happens in the washes and/or even some of the "established trails" out in the desert. It just all "blends together sometimes"... at least it did for me? Almost like "snow blindness" I guess you could say? The washes are the WORST when it comes to TRYING to stay "ON trail"!!!

Btw, I plan on picking up my rig in about 2wks... I'll let you know!!!

 

Thanks for the friendly warning! (honestly)

 

That's known as a cold water habitat, among the best aquatic habitats you can come across (no pun intended). Spring fed means headwaters, among the most sensitive. Damage is underfoot and goes all the way downstream. Just ask yourself when you see the water turn cloudy where that sediment is going and what does it do when it settles out? Smothers the aquatic life (eggs, etc.). Not much point in going further with this if there's no understanding of how the natural world works. That's why I think a lot of the damage we do is not intentional, but due to ignorance about how the natural world works. Do us all a favor and when the third graders have a chance to get on the school bus and visit a stream with the local park or state EPA staff, send them along.

 

Everyone is focusing on this the wrong way.

High elevation topsoil is extremely fragile and sensitive. It's difficult to sustain vegetation in such harsh conditions, let alone begin the process again. Those two tracks that were cut off the main trail will be there for a while - the damage to the drainage path (not creek) will be there even longer. If everyone cut their own trail we would have a ton of paths diverting from an established network, inevitably just ruining native terrain. In a highly sensitive area that has a difficult time restablishing itself, it starts to make sense as to why people get pissed off. Keep in mind, Colorado is a huge outdoors state. The offroad community isn't the only one that uses these areas.

The tree huggers you speak of have a right to be concerned - their tactics may not be ideal, but they do have valid reason and I'm sure have purpose to their lives. Incidences like this make the off road community as a whole look bad because it gets blown out of context with misinformed individuals, as already shown in this thread. Stay on trail. If something is impassible, turn around and try again another day.

 

Point taken.
Something to ponder...

 

"Tree Hugger" is not an indictment on anyone. It's just a general term.

 

Completely understandable and in no way did I mean to call you out. I just wanted to redirect attention back to the issue at hand for others, as it seems this specific incident is causing a shit storm through social media.

 

I'm glad this is getting a lot of attention... hopefully someone who may have done something like this in the future will see this and how it blew-up and realize not to ever do that.

 

Guess no one learned from the TOW rock tagging. Different but the same.

 

Tread lightly is not active in Hawaii, but I'm still a supporter and pay my annual membership just to support a great cause. If I ever get tired of working myself to death just to live in Hawaii, I'd like to move to the mainland, way out in the country. Some off road friendly state that doesn't have a crazy high cost of living.

 

Member also
https://www.treadlightly.org/

 

maybe the mods could work on a smiley For tread lightly

 

Yea, who can forget what TW members @TorconTRD and @rutacoma did:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/tw-member-vandalizing-totw.444358

 

uh oh it starts again

 

thank you for posting that @tomwil